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Shooting Suspect Took His Own Life; Australia Announce Buy-back Plan; Lawmakers Expects to See Epstein Files; E.U. Supports Ukraine, Russia's Assets Remain Intact; President Trump's E.O. Reclassifies Marijuana. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 19, 2025 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

The man suspected of fatally shooting two students at Brown University has taken his own life. Police have identified him as 48-year-old Claudio Valente, a Portuguese national and former student at Brown. Authorities in Boston say he also shot and killed an MIT professor on Monday.

Valente's body was found in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire on Thursday. Investigators tracked him down through information from a person he came into contact with in Providence, Rhode Island last weekend. Then they tracked his rental car to the storage unit in New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NERONHA, RHODE ISLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL: This guy was changing plates. One of the reasons it was so hard to find was he knew what he was doing. He was changing plates. And so, you know, that's why the collective work of following and finding this car was made more difficult because this guy was changing plates. So, we got a main plate and we got a Florida plate on the same car in New Hampshire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Rhode Island's governor says people in Providence can rest easier now that the suspect is dead. He's also thanking law enforcement for their dedication to solving the case. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. DAN MCKEE (D-RI): The unthinkable happened in our state. The unthinkable happened in Providence. The unthinkable happened at Brown University. And we're going to be forever changed. But our commitment from the state level is to continue to support Providence, Brown and the people that have stayed in Rhode Island in the recovery, that's going to take a great deal of time. But I do say this. The professionalism that I saw in the law

enforcement should make everyone that lives in our state and beyond our borders feel very safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. attorney in Massachusetts says Valente knew the MIT professor he killed on Monday, but investigators only made the connection within the past 48 hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAH FOLEY, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS: Previously, he attended the same academic program as the MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, in Portugal between 1995 and 2000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Let's get more now from CNN's Danny Freeman in Salem, New Hampshire.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After six days of frantic searching all across New England, two cases were closed here in Salem, New Hampshire. And that's because 48-year-old Claudio Valente was found dead in a storage unit behind me at this storage facility.

Law enforcement said that he was the man, the suspect, who committed that mass shooting at Brown University and the person who also killed an MIT professor earlier this week.

Now, earlier on Thursday, police convened on this spot here in Salem, New Hampshire. When we got here, I'll tell you, it was pretty chaotic. A ton of neighbors had come to just watch the entire thing. A bunch of media members were here as well. Police really swarmed the area were searching many of these storage units in the area, and it was all because police had gotten word that there was an abandoned car here that was connected to this suspect, and then also realized that this storage facility itself was also connected to the subject.

Well, when police found this abandoned car, which was a rental car, the attorney general of Rhode Island said that they could see evidence inside the car just from standing the outside of the car that right away connected their suspect to that Brown University mass shooting.

Well, it turned out Valente himself actually rented a storage unit here in this facility back in November. So just before 9 p.m. on Thursday evening, the FBI executed a search warrant for the storage unit that Valente the suspect here had rented out and when they were able to breach that storage unit, they ended up finding Valente with that self-inflicted gunshot wound plus two guns and a satchel, which had been seen on many of the surveillance videos that police had released early in the week in connection to the Brown University shooting.

Now, investigators, I'll tell you, have been out here all throughout the evening combing over not only the inside of that storage facility, but also the abandoned car. At one point, we saw a car getting towed away, seemingly by law enforcement, that was covered in a tarp, and we watched investigators taking methodical photos of the car on all sides.

[03:04:57]

I'll tell you, the process to go through everything evidence inside this storage facility clearly is going to take some time. Hopefully investigators are learning what the motive might have been by things that they might be finding and discovering inside of that storage unit. But we'll have to wait and see on that front.

Meanwhile, I was speaking to residents here in the area of Salem, New Hampshire, who were frankly stunned that this of all places is where this search ended. But there was also tremendous amount of relief that this nightmare for New England has finally come to an end.

Danny Freeman, CNN, Salem, New Hampshire.

BRUNHUBER: The Providence police chief says investigators are still trying to figure out what motivated the university shooting.

CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem explained earlier what sticks out to her. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: When you get these kinds of cases with a certain suspect, they have a certain MO, right? They're going to do something the same way, whether it's, you know, think far back like a Unabomber, you're going to do anonymous boxes to people who are on your hit list.

In this case, these were so different. We really never see that as sort of, you know, typical, unfortunately typical school shooting or university shooting. And then essentially, you know, sort of cold- blooded murder at his home.

It now appears at least by what is being said publicly that Valente had a, sort of, a grievance list. And that grievance list begins with either the university that he couldn't finish in many decades ago and possibly this interaction or maybe jealousy of someone he had been in school with in the same program about engineering. Also in Portugal, one, he can't finish college, the other becomes a presidentially certificated top scholar in his field.

It is possible that these grudges he's held onto for a long time or something triggers it more recently. But as John was saying, it appears that there's some casing or some activity as early as November of this year, meaning that he's been holding onto this for some period of time.

That would be how you put the pieces together for motive. Even if there's not a case, we don't know if there might be others who might have known about this or might be arrested or at least investigated. But that is the connectivity has almost is him. I mean, it's basically

it's right now it's a grievance list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And joining me now from Providence, Rhode Island is Zoe Weissman who's a student at Brown University and the director of the Parkland chapter of March for our lives.

Thank you so much for being here with us. I really appreciate it.

So, when you heard the suspected shooter was found dead, I mean Rhode Island's governor we played there said, folks can rest easier. Is that how you're feeling now?

ZOE WEISSMAN, STUDENT, BROWN UNIVERSITY: Thank you for having me. You know, I definitely think there's some immediate relief in the sense that this investigation was kind of looming over a lot of us mentally.

But I will say that even though the shooter in our specific shooting has been found and that threat is eliminated, I think it's safe to say on behalf of many students at Brown that the threat of gun violence continues to exist despite this one shooter happening to be eliminated.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, something unfortunately you know more than most. Just to frame this for our viewers, I mean, this is now the second time you've lived through something like this. You were, I think, 12 years old attending the school across the street when the Parkland shooting happened.

I mean, how does going through all of this again, does it change you? Does it confirm what you already knew?

WEISSMAN: Yes, so my experience in Parkland was a little unique in the sense that I got stuck outside at the middle school next door to Douglas and was within a thousand feet of the building where the shooting occurred. And because I was exposed to those gunshots, I developed PTSD. And unfortunately, I think that because I've been through treatment for that and I've had the resources and coping skills, I've been able to deal with this a little bit better than my peers, but it shouldn't have to be that way.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's interesting that you feel better equipped to deal with it than most. And as you know, many people will have to deal with the after effects of this, I mean, for the rest of their lives.

How do people, you know, if you have to give some folks who went through this, students at Brown, advice on how to deal with this, I mean, what would you say to them?

WEISSMAN: Yes, I think the two most important things are one, relying on your community. I think it can be reassuring to know that there's people around you who really understand what you've went through. I think that it can be pretty isolating sometimes to go through something like this, but I think the most important thing is that my peers and friends and classmates are able to find professional help to ensure that they're able to cope with this trauma in an effective way. Browns provided a lot of resources for us as well as community members

providing their services for free, and so I just encourage everyone to take advantage of that.

[03:10:02]

BRUNHUBER: I think part of your process certainly seems to have been being part of solution. I mean, you've been advocating for gun reform since Parkland. But the Trump administration now in this in the heels of this move very quickly last night to suspend the diversity visa lottery, program basically tying the shooting to immigration. I mean, what's your reaction to seeing that become the policy response here?

WEISSMAN: Yes, I think it's unfortunate that the Trump administration finds any excuse possible to twist a tragedy like this into something that will fit their own agenda. Obviously, the issue is not immigration, it's guns.

This is the only shooting I can think of off the top of my head where it was an immigrant that committed the crime, every other time it's been a U.S. citizen. And so, I think that this is really just an excuse for the Trump administration to do what they want without any regard for our safety.

BRUNHUBER: You know, after Parkland, I mean, you formed a group, you spoke at rallies, you pushed for legislation. You know, does surviving a second shooting now make you want to double down on that work? I imagine, I mean, part of you just must feel exhausted by this.

WEISSMAN: Yes, I think that for the past seven years, it has definitely been exhausting, but it's so worth it for me to be involved in things like this. Not only does it help me with my own personal healing journey, but I want to make sure that no one has to go through the experiences that I've been through.

It has fundamentally changed my life, whether I want to admit that or not. And I want to ensure that we can create a future where no other kids have to go through what I went through. So yes, in a way, I do think that this experience is going to make me double down on my commitment to gun violence prevention becoming a reality.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Any worries about going back to school?

WEISSMAN: You know, I think that I do kind of have a different standard of safety than most of my peers. I've kind of been used to having this consistent level of hypervigilance. So, I do still feel like I will be safe at Brown. But I do think that might be a new experience for a lot of my peers.

Obviously, you know, Brown's going to reflect and see what they could have done better in this situation and improve upon their security. But I also think it's important to recognize that there's only so much schools can do security-wise when there are more guns in circulation in this country than people.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. No students should have to go through this and no parents as well who have students at schools like this. I mean, you've talked about your PTSD, feeling numb, feeling like you're 12 years old again, having lived through this again. I mean, are you scared that this will have lasting lifelong effects, not just on yourself, but your fellow students?

WEISSMAN: Yes, it will. And that's an unfortunate reality that I think we're having to grapple with right now. My exposures at Parkland changed my life. This will change my life once more. And unfortunately, this is going to have to become a new normal that my friends and my peers will have to live with. And this is something that's terrible and sad to accept, but I think that should be the motivating factor to make sure that we can prevent this from happening to anyone else.

BRUNHUBER: What is the number one thing if you were to grab some lawmakers by the lapels and say this is the one thing we can do, what would you say that thing would be?

WEISSMAN: Yes. I think gun violence in this country is such a multifaceted issue because we do have such a unique political climate and a cultural climate regarding guns as well. But I think if I could have my say in Congress without having to worry about voting and how votes line up, I would say it would be to pass federal gun violence prevention legislation that specifically targets who is able to access guns and what type of guns people are able to access.

BRUNHUBER: You spoke about this being the new normal for students. I mean, it shouldn't be, it can't be. Wish you and the rest of the students, they're the best in your recovery and hoping that through your work and through the work of others, we can get to a solution.

Zoe Weissman, thanks so much for speaking with us. I appreciate it.

WEISSMAN: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have much more on our breaking news later this hour as the manhunt for the alleged Brown University shooter comes to an end.

Plus, Australia's government takes action less than one week after the deadly shooting at Bondi Beach. We'll look at the new measures to get guns off the street and crack down on hate speech straight ahead. That's coming up next.

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BRUNHUBER: Australia is taking action following a mass tragedy there. The country's prime minister has announced a national firearms buy- back plan following Sunday's Bondi Beach shooting, which left more than a dozen people dead. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: There are now more than four million firearms in Australia. More than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre, nearly 30 years ago. The government will introduce legislation to support the funding of this buy-back scheme and meet the costs on a 50-50 basis with states and territories. We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The prime minister has also announced new measures to combat anti-Semitism, including greater penalties for hate speech and leaders who promote violence. Meanwhile, as part of the investigation into the massacre, police are looking into alleged hate preachers.

Seven men were detained in a Sydney suburb. Police say they shared ideological thinking with the Bondi attackers. Authorities added that they received warnings a possible violent act was being planned but don't have -- but they haven't identified a connection to Sunday's shooting.

[03:19:57]

Now all this comes as tributes continue to pour in. Hundreds of surfers and swimmers held their paddle out in the waters of Bondi Beach. The tradition is often carried out when the community suffers a loss. Surfers who participated say it was a powerful show of unity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: It was magic just to see the community back together.

UNKNOWN: Yes.

UNKNOWN: What do you reckon, mate? Yes, it was amazing. Amazing. I think the crowd exceeded expectations, but that's what it's all about, right? It's pretty cool to see Bondi back open, everyone getting back together.

UNKNOWN: Coming back. We're coming back. What was being said out there?

UNKNOWN: I think it's tricky to hear when there's almost a thousand people out there, but I think everyone was sort of reflecting in their own way and just seeing the energy back in the community was beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And joining me now from Melbourne, Australia, is Debra Smith, a professor at Victoria University who focuses on violent political extremism.

Thank you so much for being here with us.

Federal police, as I mentioned earlier, say they're looking at hate preachers as part of this Bondi investigation. Can you walk us through what that actually looks like on the ground? Who's involved? What they're looking for exactly?

DEBRA SMITH, PROFESSOR, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY: So, we have a fairly small violent Islamist cohort in Australia, but they are quite well networked. So, for example, in Australia, if those convicted of terrorism offences, around 90 percent directly either related to or have friendship ties with somebody else who's already convicted. So, it's a very tight network.

And sitting inside these networks often these so-called hate preachers who often escape terrorism charges. They manage to keep their toes just behind the line of criminal activity, but are actually contributing quite influentially into some very predatory radicalization of particularly aimed at young men.

BRUNHUBER: What makes them so influential, I mean, you say they are a small group of people. How do they have such a huge influence on young men?

SMITH: Yes. I mean, we find a huge influence but they're not influencing thousands of men, they're influencing a small number of men, so we're looking at a very small part of Australia's Muslim community, which by and large, is both appalled at what has happened at Bondi and incredibly wonderful contributors to Australia's multicultural society.

So we're talking about a very, you know, small fringe of a fringe. And I'm talking like in terms of these preachers, you know, less than a handful who are managing to run prayer centers or street preaching processes that encourage and welcome young men in and encourage them to then go and spread the word of groups like ISIS.

So it's not that they have a lot of reach, but their impact is largely through very personal relationships that they develop with this small group of men.

BRUNHUBER: And we know that the younger attacker had connections to people pushing ISIS ideology and specifically targeting Jewish people. I mean, how much of a surge in extremist content has there been since October 7th?

SMITH: So certainly, there's been a huge surge of extremist content online since October 7th. And there has been calls from ISIS to attack Jewish targets, as what happened unfortunately here in Sydney and tragically here in Sydney. But also, we've seen these hate preachers take that very personal level in some of their sermons and in some of their preaching that they're doing.

And of course, The October 7th relationship is very opportunist and strategic for them because they really don't have a lot of interest in the Palestinian cause or the Palestinian people. What they have an interest in is sowing division and encouraging and mobilizing some people towards violence in the name of the Islamic state.

BRUNHUBER: Australia has pretty strong anti-vilification laws, but you mentioned how these preachers are able to sort of toe the line there so that they perhaps don't run the foul of the authorities. But if investigators do find evidence that hate preachers played a role here, I mean, what actually can be done? Are we talking criminal charges, deportations, something else?

[03:24:54]

SMITH: So, what we're seeing with what the prime minister has recently announced is some legislative changes that will actually make it easier to target these hate preachers with criminal sanctions.

So, what we're seeing is the announcement of a five-year prison term for people who are seeing to be preaching hate and specifically violence. And then we're also seeing another new law that will be introduced, which is around the ability to actually sanction places that support and provide a space for these hate preachers to work from.

So that's a significant tightening that I think we will see will be able to be used in a way that vilification laws have sometimes fallen a little bit short and it's a threshold that has to be proven in court as opposed to what people see. It needs to be proven to a criminal threshold. And I think what we're seeing is changing of the legislation to make that threshold clearer and to increase the sanctions and I guess the tools in the toolbox that law enforcement have to respond to these people.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, let's hope these measures can prevent anything like this from happening again. Really appreciate your expertise. Debra Smith, thank you so much.

SMITH: Thanks, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Russia is praising what it calls voices of reason in Europe, saying they've prevented the E.U. from using frozen Russian financial assets to support Ukraine. Several hours ago, E.U. officials announced a deal to provide more than $100 billion to Kyiv over the next two years.

Clare Sebastian reports.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: European leaders had promised that they would not leave this summit until they had a clear plan as to how to fund Ukraine through the next two years. And they kept that promise. In the early hours of Friday morning, after a marathon day of talks, they came to a deal. But it wasn't what some had hoped or even expected.

The big focus coming into this was, whether or not they would be able to use the cash balances from Russia's frozen assets here in Europe to fund alone for Ukraine. They haven't managed to reach a deal on that. Instead, they're going to borrow on the capital markets, and that will be guaranteed by unspent funds in the E.U. budget.

Either way, Ukraine will not have to pay this back until the war ends and Russia pays reparations. So European leaders here were keen to paint this as a win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO COSTA, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COUNCIL: The message we are sending to Russia today is crystal clear. First, you have not achieved your objectives in Ukraine. Second, Europe stands with Ukraine today, tomorrow, and as long as necessary.

BART DE WEVER, BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER: Had we left Brussels divided today, Europe would have walked away from geopolitical relevance. It would have been a total disaster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, Europe has passed this test of its strength and unity. But this whole process did amplify divisions within the bloc and it suddenly came down to the wire for Ukraine which by the spring would be facing a cash crunch so large that its president, who was here today, President Zelenskyy, warned that it might even have to cut back on its critical drone production.

That crisis for now seems to be averted. And Ukraine goes into the next phase of peace talks with the U.S. in a stronger position.

Clare Sebastian, CNN in Brussels.

BRUNHUBER: When we come back, an update on our breaking news. Police have found the Brown University's shooting suspect dead at a storage facility. We'll have the latest just ahead.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Let's check today's top stories.

Australia's prime minister has announced a national firearms buy-back plan following Sunday's mass shooting. The government is trying to get more guns off the street after 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

The European Union has reached a deal on what's called desperately needed financing for Ukraine. Kyiv will receive more than $100 billion over the next two years, but the money won't come from Russian assets frozen in Europe. Moscow welcomed that part of the deal.

Police say the man suspected in the Brown University and MIT shootings is dead. His body was found in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire late Thursday. Police identified him as 48-year-old Portuguese national Claudio Valente, a former student at Brown. Officials say he had no known criminal record in the U.S.

Authorities say the six-day manhunt came to an end after Valente took his own life. Newly released photos show him at a car rental business in Boston earlier this month. Rhode Island's attorney general says he changed the license plate on his rental car which made it more challenging to find him.

[03:35:01]

Investigators eventually track him down through information from a person he came into contact within Providence last weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NERONHA: That person came forward to two Providence police officers over on the East Side and said he had information that he was that person and he had information that could help this case. And I remember last night watching his interview and he blew this case right open. He blew it open. And that person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Valente is accused of killing two students and wounding nine others at Brown University. The Providence mayor says all six of the victims in the hospital are now in stable condition. The president of Brown says she hopes the community will come together and heal. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA PAXSON, PRESIDENT, BROWN UNIVERSITY: Nothing can really fully bring closure to the lives that have been shattered over the past week, but this may allow our community to move forward and begin a path of repair and recovery and healing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: We got more now from CNN's Brian Todd in Providence, Rhode Island.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After a dramatic manhunt that lasted approximately five days, we now know that the suspect in the Brown University shooting identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48 years old, is dead. Officials saying that he took his own life at a storage house, a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on Thursday evening.

We asked officials if he had taken his own life as police were closing in on him, if they were close to him at the time he took his own life. They did not have that information, but the suspect is now deceased. The manhunt is over.

Law enforcement officials have told CNN that they also believe that this same suspect who they who officials say did fire gunshots and killed two people inside that auditorium at Brown University and wounded nine others, that he is the same person that killed the MIT professor Nuno Loureiro on Monday night in the Boston area.

Officials also telling us as that they don't really have any kind of a motive for either shooting. But they do say that both the suspect, Valente, and the professor, Loureiro, both attended the same university in Portugal at about the same time in the 1990s.

Another key development in this case was the coming forward of a person who had come into proximity with the shooting suspect just a couple of hours before the shooting on Saturday and saying that he confronted the suspect. This was a person whose image was put out a couple of days ago. They said they wanted to talk to this person. I was told that they then did bring him in and interview him. He was never a suspect, but they did want to talk to him because they believe he came into close proximity to him.

Well, we learned just now that this person did come into close proximity with him. He did confront him in a bathroom in the same building where the shooting occurred about two hours before the shooting. He had words with him. He even chased him. According to the police chief Oscar Perez, he chased him for a period and then the suspect turned around and said, why are you harassing me? And then the two men kind of parted.

But it was that person who had confronted him when they put out an image of him and said they needed to talk to him on Wednesday. That person immediately came forward and according to the attorney general of Rhode Island, Peter Neronha, he, quote, "blew the case open." He led them to the car, to the name, to photographs, to clothing, even to the satchel that this suspect was carrying. And this person was just absolutely critical in them breaking this case.

Brian Todd, CNN. Providence, Rhode Island.

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. is pausing its diversity visa lottery program. Officials say the Brown University shooting suspect used the program to enter the country legally.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted this on social media. She says the suspected shooter entered the U.S. via the visa lottery system in 2017 and was granted a green card and she says quote, "this heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country."

The State Department says the program grants up to 55,000 immigrant visas each year from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S.

I spoke earlier with Brown University student Will Thomas. He's also on the executive council of Team ENOUGH with the Brady gun control initiative. And I asked him what the past few days have been like. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL THOMAS, STUDENT, BROWN UNIVERSITY: This past week, I think, has been a really difficult one to process, for myself and for the greater Brown community. I mean, from sheltering in place on Saturday, like first in a grocery store, to then barricaded inside my friend's off- campus house, like that was a super stressful and scary experience. [03:39:56]

And then on Sunday, we woke up to the text that we could go back to campus, but the shooter was still at large, so there was a lot of confusion there. And so, I think the news to coming out Thursday was definitely a relief in terms of like our immediate safety and the safety of our community.

But I can't help but keep Ella and Mukhammad and their families and close friends in my thoughts. That's all I've been able to do for this past week. And so yes, well, it's kind of an instant relief. Like we can't forget that there's still a community that's grieving and there's still so much that we have to do.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. And I do want to get to some of those solutions, but certainly a community grieving, as you say. Now the president and Homeland Security Secretary Noem are now pointing to the fact that the shooter came to the U.S. as an immigrant saying he never should have been let in.

I mean, you've been working on gun violence prevention for years, ever since a shooting scare at your Virginia high school. What's your reaction when you see the conversation kind of be shifted like this to immigration?

THOMAS: Yes, this is kind of what happens when you have a country that has a really troubling gun culture. We refuse to take accountability for the fact that our continued inaction around gun violence prevention legislation is what allows these events to continue taking place.

I mean, yes, the president put out this deflecting statement, but he also put out a statement saying things like this happen. And the tragedy that happened in my school this past weekend doesn't have to happen, right? There are effective policies and solutions that through my work at Brady and the Team ENOUGH, like we know that if these policies were implemented at federal, state, and local levels, lives could be saved. And yet we have a gun industry and a gun lobby that continues to prioritize their profits over lives of young people like mine.

And so, I think the comments that you referenced are just further distraction from the fact that we are a country with nearly twice as many guns as people, and that needs to change.

BRUNHUBER: What specifically needs to change, do you think, what do you actually concretely sort of, priority item, what would you want to see done by lawmakers, universities from all of us?

THOMAS: Yes, I think some big ones for me and then for Brady and Team ENOUGH as a whole are ERPOS, Extreme Risk Protection Orders. These are policies that can really help intervene in a situation where a person might be in crisis and the threat to themselves or those around them with their firearms.

I think also emphasizing safe storage. A lot of times firearms that are used in school shootings are taken from places where they haven't been stored properly and therefore can be accessed by people who shouldn't be able to access them. But kind of overall, I think there needs to be a shift, like I mentioned, in the culture we have surrounding guns in our country.

BRUNHUBER: Yes.

THOMAS: And that starts with gun owners as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: It's deadline day for the public release of the Epstein files. We'll look at why frustration is mounting within the U.S. Justice Department.

Plus, President Trump has signed an executive order to reclassify marijuana. We'll look why the wide move is significant for drug research. That is ahead. Stay with us.

[03:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Now to Washington, where the Justice Department is under pressure to meet today's deadline for releasing its investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein to the public. But it's not clear how much information will be shared versus redacted.

Now this comes as lawmakers release more photos from the late sex offender's estate. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee publicly shared another 60-plus images earlier without context on Thursday, including pictures of an unidentified female body covered with quotes from the novel Lolita, as well as photos of Bill Gates, Woody Allen, philosopher Noam Chomsky and conservative firebrand Steve Bannon.

We also see images of foreign female passports and a screenshot showing part of a text exchange where someone writes about sending girls to an unidentified place. Countless other secrets remained unwrapped as Justice Department officials raced to redact thousands of pages and they're getting frustrated.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has our exclusive report.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The law requires transparency around the Epstein files by Friday today. But sources who are speaking to Evan Perez and I extensively about the work that's going on inside the Justice Department to make those files ready for public release, it's quite clear that the task is a difficult one, a complex one, one where there could be mistakes and also one where we should expect a lot of redactions to the files.

Now, my understanding from sources is that these redactions, they're guided by some internal memo that the Justice Department has provided National Security Division lawyers who are working basically since Thanksgiving to redact the thousands of pages in the Epstein files. Those guidelines, they list a lot of exemptions, meaning things that

should be redacted from the Epstein memos, things that would be blacked out by the lawyers. And it's not just to protect victims and personal privacy around victims. That was something that we've known since the law was passed by Congress for transparency that that would be protected in these files.

[03:49:58]

But there are other things that the Justice Department may want to protect. So, lawyers are they are working on this. Some of them are working on more than a thousand pages to get them out or prepared before the deadline. The guidance that they're receiving has led to some frustration in the Justice Department.

Sources have told me that it's because the guidelines are somewhat unclear. They're very complicated and that there are so many exemptions, ways to do the redactions here that it's not exactly the same thing as doing redactions for, say, FOIA or classified information or even in past projects that the National Security Division has had to work on to make massive documents releases. This is its own thing to release these Epstein files.

There's also the possibility of mistakes because there are many redundancies across the documents. So, emails that might be repeated over and over again or things like that. This is a situation where some things that should be redacted may not be and some things that shouldn't be redacted might get covered up in the release.

One lawyer who is waiting on the outside to see how this goes, specializes in document redactions, told me that there's an expectation that the Justice Department could screw it up or could withhold things that they shouldn't withhold. So, the mistakes could include the disclosure of sensitive information.

We're just going to have to wait and see, though, exactly how well this rollout goes. There are thousands of pages expected to be released, but exactly what may be new and noteworthy, that we will have to wait and see for when we read the release of the Epstein files.

Back to you.

BRUNHUBER: A jury has found a Wisconsin judge guilty of obstruction for helping an undocumented immigrant evade federal authorities. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was accused of leaving Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door after she learned immigration authorities were waiting for him outside her courtroom.

Dugan was also charged with concealing an individual to prevent arrest. The jury acquitted her on that count. She faces up to five years in prison for the obstruction conviction. No date has been set for sentencing.

President Trump has signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana from a schedule one drug to a schedule three. Now the order doesn't federally legalize marijuana, but it puts it on the same category as something like Tylenol rather than heroin or ecstasy. It's a first step to increase research into marijuana.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We have people Begging for me to do this, people that are in great pain. This reclassification order will make it far easier to conduct marijuana related medical research allowing us to study benefits potential dangers and future Treatments, it's going to have a tremendously positive impact, I believe.

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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains the significance of this move.

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SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Let me try and explain what this is likely to mean in the days and months going forward. First of all, for a long time, cannabis has been a schedule one substance. And take a look at the language there in terms of what that means specifically, especially that top line basically saying it has no currently accepted medical use.

That obviously is a significant statement and sort of preordains this idea that cannabis is not a medicine. It also puts it in the same category as things as heroin and LSD and ecstasy in terms of potential harms. So benefits as a schedule one, essentially none, and harms significant.

Now as a schedule three substance, take a look at the language. There is no language about the fact that it doesn't have any accepted medical use. It does talk about potential dependence. But categorizes it lower in terms of overall scheduling with things like ketamine, for example, and testosterone and steroids. It's not making cannabis legal, a very important point. It is rescheduling it into something that is more permissive.

The benefits of this potentially, and this is something we've been reporting on for years, is this idea that it may free up the ability to do research, more research, which is understandably needed. If something is already preordained as having no medicinal benefit, you might understand why it would difficult to do research on something like that. If it's schedule three, some of that research may be more allowable, more permissive.

You also heard that at the Innovation Center at CMS, which is Center for Medicaid Services, they're actually going to start doing research at the federal level in people over the age of 65. So, seniors being able to get CBD specifically for conditions such as pain, and sleep and studying those substances against what is already out there.

So, you know, a significant move in the world of cannabis, something that people have been talking about for decades. I'm not exaggerating. And now it's signed basically rescheduling cannabis from schedule one to schedule three.

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BRUNHUBER: TikTok has signed a deal to sell most of its assets to a new U.S. entity with an American investor group. Although the agreement isn't yet finalized, the U.S. TikTok app with 170 million users would be controlled by a new joint venture. It includes tech company Oracle, the private equity firm Silver Lake, and Emirati- backed investment firm MGX. TikTok parent Beijing-based ByteDance would have a 20 percent share. The app's future in the U.S. has been uncertain since the law last year required ByteDance to spin off its U.S. assets or be banned. American lawmakers feared the Chinese government could access ByteDance data.

Well, that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Erica Hill picks up our coverage from New York after a quick break.

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