Return to Transcripts main page
Erin Burnett Outfront
White East Wing Gone, Trump Ballroom Donors Revealed; Prosecutors Now Hesitant To Change Trump Enemy Adam Schiff; Democrats Launch Probe Into Trump Possibly Seeking $230M From DOJ. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 23, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:34]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The White House East Wing gone. New images tonight revealing the extent of Trump's demolition project as we learn who exactly is funding Trump's new ballroom. Donors with a lot of crypto connections. We'll explain.
And the breaking news, the DOJ's investigation into Senator Adam Schiff may be in jeopardy. Tonight, we are learning new details about why some prosecutors are putting the brakes on charging Trump's political enemies.
And Senator Jeff Merkley, fresh off his 23-hour floor speech, he's our guest. Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the White House East Wing is gone. Striking new images tonight show the entire East Wing of the White House demolished. And it's not just the East Wing, but the east colonnade also gone.
And just to give you a sense of what this looks like, the scale of it, these are actually satellite pictures, a satellite image from above. There's a before and now you can see the after. And it's gone, that wing is gone completely. The demolition is now all the way up to the walls of the executive residence itself.
This obviously is not what Trump promised when he first announced the project. You know, he said that it wouldn't touch the White House at all. And walking by it left our own Michael Smerconish just about speechless because he went to the White House today to see it for himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH": So, I'm at the White House because I want to take a look at how they're doing this construction and what's going on. So let me see -- oh, wow. Whoa. Wow oh, yeah. The entire East Wing is gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And while a lot is still unknown about what the final ballroom will look like, other than the fact that it's going to be enormous, we now know who is paying for it. Big companies who have a lot to gain from Trump.
I mean, if people don't think that he's going to be looking at this list, well, got another -- another bridge to sell you. There's also a number of high profile crypto investors and other close allies of Trump.
We'll just break down some of these names down. Amazon is on the list. Obviously, Amazon's forked out a reported $40 million to air Melania Trump documentary. Apple is also on the list. CEO Tim Cook there, remember memorably presented Trump with that 24-karat gold and glass statue.
And then there are a lot of crypto connections on the donor list. As Dan Alexander of "Forbes" reported in June. So already back in June, more than half of Trump's net worth was tied to his crypto ventures, 60 percent. And the largest U.S. crypto exchange, Coinbase, on the list of donors for the ballroom. Its CEO is someone who has been singled out by Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I also want to recognize some of the countless industry leaders here today, including Brian Armstrong of Coinbase. You've done a good job, Brian.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And there are a lot of other tech companies. Meta is on there. That's the parent company of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, the executive there was seated right next to Trump at his dinner with tech leaders. And he had this to say about the president last July.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ZUCKBERBERG, META CEO: Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag, is one of the most badass things I've ever seen in my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Other companies include Micron Technology, Microsoft. And then there's a company called Ripple. If you haven't heard of it, it is a big crypto company. A company, in fact, that has been under investigation by the SEC for years.
But suddenly, in March of this year, the SEC dropped its case. The CEO wrote at the time, "This is it. The moment we've been waiting for, the SEC will drop its appeal, a resounding victory for Ripple, for crypto, every way you look at it." Well, of course, that was during the Trump administration.
And then there's the individuals, you know, some of these names catch your attention. The Lutnick family, that, of course, is the family of the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick has backed Trump's crypto policies wholeheartedly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: We're using the blockchain. We're using bitcoin. We're going to use digital assets to pound forward. And Donald Trump is leading the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And the list continues. Kelly Loeffler among them, and her husband. Loeffler, you may remember, right, was running for Senate in Georgia, ends up running the Small Business Administration for Trump.
[19:05:05]
And before that, no shock. She was the CEO of a cryptocurrency at futures exchange. Trump Media was actually in talks to buy that company. Ultimately, they did not.
And last but certainly not least, the Winklevoss twins. They may be best known for accusing Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for Facebook to some, but since then they've become billionaires, and in fact, they have become two of the biggest names in all of crypto.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, these are two smart, handsome guys. They got the whole package.
They've got the whole -- they've got the look, they've got the genius. You've got plenty of cash.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And while the list of donors is long, it is unclear if Trump is going to need even more of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Have you raised the full 300 million needed to fund your ballroom, and how much specifically are you donating to this construction?
TRUMP: I think $350 million, all donor money and money that we put up.
REPORTER: And how much specifically are you donating to it personally?
TRUMP: How much am I donating? I won't be able to tell you until I finish, but I'll donate whatever is needed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Obviously, I'm not answering that question.
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT. She's live outside the White House where you are seeing this for yourself. Of course, just in every day as you work, Kristen.
The White House was on defense about the project during the day, just as Trump was there -- was there, right? Not wanting to talk about whether he's contributed anything.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Erin, I mean, it was pretty striking to see how many questions the press secretary got on the ballroom and just how defensive the White House has been on this project, particularly given this is a White House that often does not go on the defensive. They are often on the offensive.
One of the most stunning back-and-forths that happened today during that press briefing was when the chat, when one of reporter challenged basically the defense that we have heard from the White House on why they didn't have to seek approval to demolish the East Wing. Of course, as we've reported, their reasoning was that their interpretation of the law is that president Trump is essentially allowed to demolish anything on federal property and only needs to seek permission from the commission once the construction starts. In particular, the vertical construction.
Now, the reporter pressed Karoline Leavitt on this, saying, so does that mean President Trump could go around Washington and essentially destroy any building that he wanted to on federal property, like the Jefferson Memorial, for example?
And there was a lot of dancing around the around. The answer there was no direct no, it does not mean that it was more we didn't come up with this. This is the law type of reaction. No, we cant demolish anything that we set our eyes on or set our sights on. So that was one interesting part.
And then afterwards we got an updated statement from a White House official, again, going to show you that they're clearly aware of the optics here. And in this statement, it said all the historical components of the East Wing, such as elements from Rosalynn Carter's original office of the first lady, have been preserved and stored under the supervision of the White House executive residence and the National Park Service, with support from the White House Historical Association.
Again, this is all going to show you that they're trying here to put out this information because they understand there's a lot of outrage over this.
BURNETT: Yeah, certainly. And something that is deeply personal for all Americans, maybe in ways that people didn't realize until they actually saw the images, right, of how you might feel emotionally about it.
Kristen, thank you very much.
And I want to go now to Dan Alexander. He is the senior editor at Forbes. I mentioned him a moment ago with all of his work on crypto.
And David Fahrenthold, investigative reporter for "The New York Times".
All right. I'm so grateful to talk to both of you again and to have you on together. That is a special thing.
Okay, so, Dan, when you look through the list of donors that we have, you know, some of them individuals, some of them corporate families, including some of the richest people in the world, you know, the biggest companies, CEOs of some of the biggest companies. You have done so much reporting on these individuals, these and their relationships to Trump.
What stood out to you from the list?
DAN ALEXANDER, SENIOR EDITOR, FORBES: Well, the first thing was that if I were to have closed my eyes and said, okay, let me invent what this list is going to look like, it pretty much would have looked like this. So you've got several different groups. Youve got sort of the old pals, you know, Ike Perlmutter, Pepe Fanjul has a house next to Mar-a-Lago.
You've got the new business. All the crypto people that you mentioned. You know, Ripple was a tenant in one of Donald Trump's buildings. The Winklevosses are partnering with one of his companies on a PAC right now.
Then you've got the big tech companies, which are very susceptible to Washington regulation -- Apple, Amazon, all of those.
BURNETT: Right.
ALEXANDER: And some big contractors, Booz Allen, Palantir.
So, if you look through it, it's like, oh yeah, of course, if Donald Trump wants to come up with a couple of hundred million dollars, this is the group he goes to. These are the people that he asks. And sure enough, he's gotten the money.
[19:10:01]
BURNETT: In this case, pretty hard to imagine if they say no, what the repercussions could be.
I mean, David, when you look at this list of donors, of the people who are paying for what were looking at on our screen, what do you see?
DAVID FAHRENTHOLD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I was struck by the contrast from the first administration where there was so much effort by President Trump to make it seem like he was not asking people for money, that he was not squeezing the people, that his government had power over to give money to him or to his personal projects, and thinking how different things are now that he's just sort of openly saying, look, I'm squeezing these people that need something from me. I've gone to them before to fund this and that and this and, and I'm going to go back again and again.
And I think he figures that he has Apple, Meta, those folks came to his inauguration. Would they say "no" now? He's sort of got them on the hook, and he could keep squeezing them as long as he wants. To me, that's the difference between sort of shame that they showed in Trump one. And now the openness in Trump two.
BURNETT: Right, right. I mean, more of a flagrant pay to play feel to the whole the whole thing putting out the list.
Dan, there were some names, though, and I mean, we were talking about Ripple. You mentioned how they were a tenant of one of Trump's buildings, and you were mentioning some of the links between some of these individuals, crypto and Trump's personal investments or those of his family.
Some of the names on the list that you did not recognize, though. Who and why is that? I mean, that that almost seems a bit odd.
ALEXANDER: Yeah. That's right. So many of these names were expected, but there were a few that you think, huh? I wonder why that person wanted to make the donation. Or even I wonder who that person is.
So, there's so many names. Stefan Brody. Well, if you look him up, it looks like he was denied a pardon by the Biden administration. Okay, maybe this is somebody who's interested in seeking a pardon from the Trump administration.
There's a guy named Konstantin Sokolov who's an investor. He's got major telecom operations. He did some work with the government early in his career, but he now has major investments in new telecom companies, obviously very heavily regulated industry.
If you look at those people over the next couple of weeks, we're going to really figure out what it is that's motivating those people, because let's be clear, nobody thinks that giving money to this cause is the most charitable thing that they could do with their millions of dollars.
BURNETT: No, I mean, I guess it's kind of important that you say that. And I know you're saying it almost with a smile, but it is pretty just important to emphasize that, right? People who are doing this are doing it because Trump wants them to do it. There's a reason that they're doing it. It's not -- there's no lack of clarity on that.
I mean, David, we're just watching here the backhoes that were going earlier today. And I'll show you some images because I thought it was amazing. They got satellite picture up there. The before, and then the after, I mean it is gone. Massively gone. Its just wiping it to show it again and again. That is a major demolition and it is, David, frankly, shocking when
Americans frankly had no idea this was coming. Maybe you had heard there was a ballroom, but did you really think that he was going to go in with 50 backhoes and rip the whole thing down in a few days? I don't think anybody did.
Is there any concern that donations and having your name on this so blatantly could backfire?
FAHRENTHOLD: Well, I think that is an important point. People sort of -- when you see this idea that the White House is being torn down, you think about how many movies have we seen where the White House has exploded or destroyed. It's always sort of painted as the ultimate tragedy here. It's happening in real life.
BURNETT: Yeah.
FAHRENTHOLD: I think these -- most of these folks probably did not know their money would be used for that. In fact, Trump was saying until recently that he explicitly would not do this, that he wouldn't touch the East Wing. So, I don't think you can look at Apple and Meta and say, yeah, these people paid to tear down the White House.
And now, that their money was used for that, there may be a little bit of a blowback, but they may figure that whatever they have to gain from being Trump's friend is much more valuable than whatever blowback would come from this.
BURNETT: Right. And that's certainly the bet.
I mean, Dan, crypto obviously such a huge part of this. We found out today, same day as this, that Trump has pardoned the co-founder of Binance, which is a significant pardon. And Trump when asked, was asked about that pardon today, here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Let me just tell you that he was somebody that, as I was told, I don't know him. I don't believe I've ever met him. But I've been told by -- a lot of support. He had a lot of support. And they said that what he did is not even a crime. It wasn't a crime that he was persecuted by the Biden administration. And so, I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Dan, you're reporting in June that more than half of Trump's worth, more than 60 percent came from crypto, which is just stunning considering, right, his whole brand is I'm a real estate guy who knows about demolitions. You also have details that Trump does have connections to Binance.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, there are personal financial connections that he has here. You know, one of the biggest crypto ventures that Donald Trump has launched is called World Liberty Financial and World Liberty Financial has what's known as a stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency that tracks the U.S. dollar.
[19;15:04]
Now, these things aren't hard to create, but it's easy money. The way that it works is, you know, somebody hands you a pile of cash, you give them sort of a digital dollar, and then you don't have to pay them interest on it. But you can use that money to make interest of your own.
So earlier this year, MGX, which is a firm based out of the United Arab Emirates, made an investment in Binance, which is CZ, the person who Donald Trump just pardoned, which is his company in that investment. They chose to use Donald Trump's stablecoin. That investment was $2 billion.
Now do some simple math and you figure you can get 4 percent on that. Thats about $80 million that Donald Trump's crypto venture could make from the investment into CZ's company.
So, as we often see, if you look at the financials of Donald Trump, you can see connections with the presidential policies that he's making each day.
BURNETT: Yeah, the follow the money. And as David pointed out, a follow the money that there is no attempt -- there is no attempt to fundamentally block the trail anymore.
All right. Thank you both so much. It's great to see you.
And next, Melania Trump silent over the demolition of her staff's wing of the White House, right? That's the East Wing. Her former chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, is next.
Also breaking this hour, the New York attorney general, Letitia James, is asking tonight that her indictment be tossed out because of Trump's hand-picked attorney. It is the same case that James Comey is making about Lindsey Halligan.
And a massive scandal rocking the sports world. Current and former NBA players, a coach and the mafia accused of defrauding gamblers out of millions.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:05]
BURNETT: Breaking news Trump's team launching a major effort to defend the demolition after worldwide outrage. The White House website has just been updated to show a timeline with past White House construction projects, which also lists other things like the Bill Clinton scandal, members of the Muslim Brotherhood visiting Obama. It even includes a transgender day of visibility celebration. All of this apparently to defend a ballroom.
Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: I'm very good at building ballrooms. I build beautiful ballrooms.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In and out of office, President Donald Trump has long gushed over sprawling, splashy ballrooms.
TRUMP: This is a ballroom, brand new.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Claiming a certain expertise through his years in construction and the ballrooms he's added elsewhere, at the hotel he once owned in D.C., for example, and at his Florida home, Mar-a- Lago, where he completed a $40 million gold encrusted space just in time to marry his third wife there, Melania Trump now first lady.
He told a design magazine. I modeled the interior after Versailles, which is kind of the problem for some critics watching the demolition at this living shrine to democracy on Pennsylvania Avenue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The White House was always meant to be more modest. It's not a European palace.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Based on models, Trump's ballroom, at 90,000 square feet will be mammoth compared to the White House, four times bigger than the Mar-a-Lago ballroom. It will be directly attached to the White House complex despite previous claims to the contrary.
And although Trump insists he and his donors will pay for it all, his cost estimates have been wildly inconsistent.
TRUMP: It's about $200 million. It's going to be a couple of hundred million dollars at least. I think it will cost $250 million. It's about $300 million.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Trump's fixation with the White House ballroom goes back to at least President Barack Obama's terms. When Trump called a top Obama adviser to say he was bothered by large formal events spilling into temporary structures.
TRUMP: I called David Axelrod. I said, David, I see you have all the heads of state and all the biggest people from China, and you're in a crummy tent.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Trump offered to build a ballroom, then Axelrod says, Trump was turned down with reason.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He misunderstands why people were so eager to come. It's because of what America represented, not because of the gold that we had around us.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But now, Trump is in charge. The gold rush is coming, and his ballroom blitz is finally on.
TRUMP: This is the excavation of the White House grounds for what will be one of the best, most beautiful ballrooms in the world. (END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: Trump is so delighted by great big, ostentatious, gold caked rooms that it seems at times that he and his staff struggle to understand that there are lots of Americans, including some of their supporters, who find this tacky and unwanted and wasteful, especially when its being done to a house that the American people own, where every president is just a guest -- Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah, just a guest.
All right. Tom, thank you very much.
And I want to go now, as promised to Stephanie Grisham, because she worked in the East Wing. She was Melania Trump's chief of staff during Trump's first term. And she also served as White House press secretary and communications director.
So, Stephanie, all of these places, were showing an image of you and Melania there, the colonnade, all of these places that we that are gone now are places where you spent your waking hours and you hear Tom Foreman talking about how Trump has wanted a ballroom at the White House for a long time, and you actually can talk to this personally. You say this is something that came up when you worked for him.
STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Absolutely. Good to see you, by the way. It's been a while.
BURNETT: Yes. You, too.
GRISHAM: Absolutely. In our first term -- in our first term, he wanted a bigger space.
[19:25:01]
The state dining room and the East Room were, you know, in his opinion, big enough. And I tended to agree with him. We needed more space for some of our functions. In fact, I remember when we had the Australian state dinner outside in the Rose Garden, our social secretary at the time actually put the band on the roof of the White House because we were so cramped for space.
So, when I first heard of this idea, it made sense to me and I thought, you know, this is going to be great. I figured it would be somewhere on the grounds. I certainly didn't expect it to be demolished like a condemned house over three days or so.
BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, and perhaps that's part of it, right? There is a practicality in wanting more space to entertain. And I've heard people make real cases for that. But this is something that is going to be, you know, huge, huge is one of the former White House historians was saying that would make the White House itself look like a small annex.
And in that context, Stephanie, you spent years working out of the East Wing. As I said, you went there every day. Here's a photo of you working there at your desk. View from your office. Look down onto Baron soccer goal, Trump's son, who is living there at the time. And we've got that image of you walking on the colonnade with the first lady, Melania Trump, that is gone. As of today, that is gone. It's rubble.
What goes through your mind? I don't know if you heard Michael Smerconish and he was walking outside today just to get a sense he was somebody is somebody who sees a practicality in some more ballroom space. But when he saw it, the gasp, right? I mean, what's your emotional reaction?
GRISHAM: I mean, as somebody who was obviously so privileged to work in the people's house, I worked on both sides, the East Wing and the West Wing. It is jarring and it breaks my heart. It's something that can never be put back.
And I just again, I wish they would have gone about it in a better way. In fact, I noticed on the website that you pulled up they are showing or they're showing that Mrs. Trump did redid the tennis pavilion, and she did do that in my time there.
And the difference is she followed the rules. She went through the planning commission. She took every step needed to keep the historical elements preserved.
And so, I think that's the big difference here. And I can't help wonder, you know, what she thinks of how all of this is taking place because the visuals are just -- they're jarring. And I've even noticed that there's been an American flag, you know, in the background of all this rubble. And it's just -- it's just hard to see just as a citizen.
BURNETT: Well, it certainly is, especially in a context of so much war and conflict and horrible images that Americans have been seeing.
Melania Trump has been silent. And in your book you write that she was actually rarely in the East Wing in Trump's first term, that the Secret Service unofficially dubbed her Rapunzel because she mostly stayed in the residence. And you wrote, I could c count only a handful of times over the years that Mrs. Trump was actually in her office. Mrs. Trump was working from home long before the country was.
I mean, you're pointing out that she did not have a personal connection to the White House, to the East Wing, that other first ladies famously have, right? So, you know, what do you think she thinks of this. And as to and does she have a connection to it?
GRISHAM: You know, she's very aware of optics just like her husband is. And I guarantee he's been getting some phone calls in the last couple of days of how bad this looks. Again, she goes through things very methodically. And while she didn't come down to the office, everything she did, she took very great care in doing and took time to do it right. Like I said, she was a true rule follower, even with the Rose Garden.
And I remember she got so much heat for redoing the Rose Garden. But she really did do everything in the right way. So, I imagine she can't be happy. She was always very protective of her staff, of her space of the East Wing. So, I'm sure that the images are shocking to her. I wouldn't doubt if she too was surprised by seeing them if they just started doing it, and she had no idea.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Well, Stephanie, thank you very much. It is good to see you again.
And next, the breaking news, the DOJ's case against Senator Adam Schiff could be falling apart. Prosecutors. Why are they now hesitant to bring any kind of a case forward?
Plus, Democrats now investigating Trump's demand that the DOJ pay him $230 million. Senator Jeff Merkley just spent 23 hours on the Senate floor protesting what he calls Trump's authoritarian takeover. And he's OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:33:33]
BURNETT: Breaking news, prosecutors are hesitant to charge Democratic Senator Adam Schiff with mortgage fraud. Now, this is according to three sources with knowledge of the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. This news is breaking just hours after President Trump said this about his rival potentially being indicted in the case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm not going to comment on that. I will just say Adam Schiff is one of the lowest forms of scum I've ever dealt with in politics. He's a horrible human being, very dishonest person. I hope it's true, but I don't know anything about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: But here on OUTFRONT just a few weeks ago, Adam Schiff came on and asked him about the whole issue. He definitively said, there's no "there" there. He laid it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): This is about political payback and political attacks. He's threatening me with investigation because I led his first impeachment and served on the January 6th Committee. In terms of my own mortgage situation, I was completely transparent with my lenders. Thats what's required. In fact, I even talked to the mortgage company lawyer that approved the application that they're contesting. So there's no "there" there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Katelyn Polantz broke the story for CNN, and she is OUTFRONT.
Katelyn, from all of your sources, I mean, this is obviously significant. This is a probe. Trump is obviously personally wanted. He's one of the names that he had posted on that infamous, post to Pam Bondi. "Pam, right, go after these guys."
Is the probe into Schiff really in jeopardy?
[19:35:01]
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, as of right now, the sources are telling me that this investigation still exists. It's ongoing, but it's a very tense moment for the U.S. attorney in Maryland, where this investigation is taking place. Her name is Kelly Hayes. She's a longtime, very well-respected prosecutor who just notched a win in being able to charge John Bolton in federal court with that indictment.
But right now, we understand that prosecutors in that office, they have for a couple of weeks now been hesitant to proceed with any charges around Schiff that they're looking at this mortgage fraud issue and not seeing enough there right now. But what the sources are telling me is that they are in talks with leadership at Main Justice, at the Justice Department, including political appointees of Donald Trump in the deputy attorney general's office. And they're discussing what to do. What are the next steps here?
There's the possibility that they could be reviewing more records. But the bigger issue here, I mentioned Kelly Hayes being a longtime career prosecutor. There's a bigger issue where Donald Trump publicly has said he wants to see, Schiff charged. And there's another person at the Justice Department, Ed Martin, who's the pardon attorney is touting his ability to root out weaponization of the government against Donald Trump and Ed Martin. He wants to see a charge here.
So, there's tension building. And you mentioned that post from Donald Trump on social media. He mentioned three people, Adam Schiff, Jim Comey, Letitia James. Two of them have been charged in a different U.S. attorney's office.
Adam Schiff, still a big question mark -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Katelyn.
And Ryan Goodman is here.
Okay. Ryan, you know, it's interesting, as she was making the point, right? The attorney here is career prosecutor. But she said something important. That that this is who did the John Bolton. Right.
So, Trump wanted that career. Prosecutors felt there was a case and that they felt they could win it because that's the standard, right? And they went ahead and charged. Looks like in this in this situation of Schiff, they are not seeing that.
So, you know, how significant is this that career prosecutors who clearly were willing to bring a case against somebody Trump didn't like when they thought there was a case, don't seem to see one here.
RYAN GOODMAN, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL AT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: So I think it sounds like things are holding up inside of that U.S. attorney's office in terms of the rule of law, because it is such a sharp contrast. It is the very same prosecutor who indicted Bolton, and that is based on CNN's reporting.
But a lot of other reporting now as well. That was a painstaking, multi-year investigation in which they brought the evidence, and it mounted as an indictment, which is a very compelling indictment on the face of it, against Mr. Bolton.
BURNETT: Right.
GOODMAN: And here, it just looks like it's one of these attempted fishing expeditions. From the appearances at the behest of the president, who wants to take out Adam Schiff. He said, you know, in the D.M. to the attorney general that, according to "The Wall Street Journal", was supposed to be a private message to the attorney general.
And so that's -- what it looks like. And it looks like the U.S. attorney in that office, Kelly Hayes, is doing the right thing.
BURNETT: And Kelly Hayes is not Lindsey Halligan. Lindsey Halligan, obviously is who is, was the one when career prosecutors were not willing to bring the charges, went ahead and did so for FBI Director James Comey, as well as Letitia James.
She's arguing, same now as Comey. Comey saying you can't go with Lindsey Halligan because she wasn't actually formally in the job the way she should have been. Her name is the only one on the indictment. So, the whole thing is garbage. James is now making the same case.
Should Halligan really be worried?
GOODMAN: Absolutely. These are formidable lawyers for Mr. Comey and Ms. James, and they are making the same argument. It looks like. They'll at least the same general argument. We don't know exactly how James will put the motion together, but if Letitia James did not say that she was going to make the same argument that Halligan is invalidly appointed, that would be a problem. That would be a problem for, at least for Mr. Comey.
BURNETT: Right?
GOODMAN: But she's making the same argument, and I assume other defendants will, too. Like even if these two cases went away, other defendants are going to say Lindsey Halligan is not properly appointed. So, this will at some point make its way through the court.
BURNETT: All right. So, there's something else that happened today. Trump said he's allowed to continue these military strikes on these boats in the Caribbean without congressional approval, which, of course, Congress is supposed to, you know, declare acts of war. But in this case, he's been doing it.
Now, it's not just the Caribbean. It's also in the Pacific. So, you're talking about on the other side. And there was one thing he said more than once today that really stood out. And I want everyone to know, in the context of the fact that you were also an attorney at the department of defense, in charge of a lot of decisions that were made on drone strikes and things like that.
Here's what he said today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The cartels are the ISIS of the western hemisphere.
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The president said, this is the ISIS, this is the al Qaeda of the western hemisphere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, just because you say something is ISIS doesn't mean that it is ISIS. But maybe they're saying it to try to make some sort of a an easier legal hurdle. What's happening here?
[19:40:01]
GOODMAN: It seems that they're doing it either for rhetorical purposes or for legal purposes as well, which is if they can try to get this as close to being in the box of an armed conflict and a war in which the United States military can use lethal force just on the basis that somebody is a member of a group, that's what they want.
BURNETT: Yeah.
GOODMAN: So if it were like ISIS, if it were like al Qaeda, there'd be on good grounds, but they're not. So ISIS was a land army. Al Qaeda was an organized armed group. Even the Fifth Circuit, the most conservative circuit in the United States, has said the Tren de Aragua group coming out of Venezuela is no such thing.
And those other groups, ISIS and al Qaeda, engaged in armed attacks against the United States and U.S. forces with powerful weapons. Drugs are not that.
So, under the law, it just doesn't work. But that's what they're trying to do. And it was an important moment today because they obviously shifted the rhetoric in that direction.
BURNETT: All right. Ryan, thank you very much.
And next, Senator Jeff Merkley's marathon 23 hours speech railing against Trump just wrapping up. And he's our guest next.
Plus, new details about the shocking gambling scandal, which involves NBA players and the mafia. Some suggesting that this is about Trump using his FBI to get revenge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN A. SMITH, ESPN HOST: He's not playing. Everybody's going to brace themselves because he's coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:27]
BURNETT: Tonight, Democrats launching an investigation into President Trump's demand that the Justice Department pay him $230 million as compensation for investigating him. The top Democrats on the House Judiciary and oversight committees accuse him of engaging in what they call a, quote, outrageous and shocking attempt to shake down the American people. And they add, quote, "We urge you to renounce your plan publicly and assure the American people that their president is not pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars at their expense."
OUTFRONT now, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who just spent 23 hours on the senate floor delivering the third longest speech in modern congressional history, protesting what he calls Trump's authoritarian takeover.
And, Senator Merkley, I appreciate your time tonight. And I do want to talk about your speech. First, though, these breaking developments Democrats launching an investigation into Trump's demand that his own DOJ pay him about just over a quarter billion dollars, $230 million.
Do you think that this investigation has teeth, that it can go anywhere if Democrats can't even, I guess, for example, subpoena the White House?
SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Well, we may not be able to do that, but what we can do is bring in experts and historical perspectives and recognize that this is like a level of corruption you can't even imagine, like the president sues the government that he heads. It's his personal attorney now in the Justice Department who can make decisions regarding a settlement with the president and the possibility that that settlement would involve sending money back to the president.
Oh, my goodness, you have -- I mean, any -- you know any student across America would go, are you kidding me? What? A CEO through their own company and have the company pay them? No, this is just another level of grotesque corruption.
BURNETT: So that, of course, is part of what you talked about in your 23-hour-long speech on the Senate floor. Let me play some of it for our viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERKLEY: President Trump is shredding our Constitution.
Authoritarianism is here on our doorstep.
Trump's assault on our democracy. This is authoritarian abuse of government power.
Ringing the alarm bells for the authoritarian takeover. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, what, Senator, was your main goal? What did you hope to accomplish with that speech? And do you think you achieved it?
MERKLEY: Well, it really is about ringing the alarm bells, about the authoritarian takeover. People need to understand that the way democracies die in the modern era isn't with men with guns that storm the Capitol. It's with electeds who start eroding the separation of powers and the checks and balances. And we see this in every dimension with this administration.
And so, the goal was to say, here's the way it happens. And it's happening right now. You have the three elements of authoritarian takeover. You have the rubber stamp Congress. You have the Supreme Court handing more power to the executive, and you have an authoritarian, power-hungry executive.
And the combination is you replace government by and for the people with government by and for the powerful. You start seeing our freedoms eroded. And so, you know, for 250 years, we've prided ourselves on our freedoms and on our democracy, and we're losing it. And I'm ringing the alarm bells.
BURNETT: So, the White House responded to your speech. They used one of their official Twitter accounts. So, I just wanted to read for you. This was official. They said these lunatics will do anything but vote to reopen the government. Even still, nobody noticed, open parentheses, who the hell is Jeff Merkley? Question mark. Close parentheses. And nobody cared. Sad, exclamation point.
What's your response to that, Senator? That was their -- that was their official account.
MERKLEY: I do a town hall in every county every year, and this year, five times as many people came out. And in every town hall, someone said, what more can you do than what you're doing already? You are using some tools, but we're not that impressed. We're not impressed with the Democratic team stopping this slide into the territory and saying, what more can you do?
And I'm like, yeah, I'm thinking about everything I can do. And this effort to follow up on the 7 million people coming out and saying they're right. And of course, through the night, going through all the categories in which this authoritarian takeover is occurring and coming continuously back to say.
And this, this is here, it's happening now.
[19:50:01]
We hear you, America, and together. The grassroots and those of us who are elected, we have to save our republic.
BURNETT: So, President Trump has just pardoned the co-founder of the largest crypto exchange company, Binance. He had served about four months in prison, pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering on the exchange connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.
But now, that co-founder is pardoned. The context here that I thought was so relevant for you, Senator, because you've talked a lot about crypto and Trump.
Dan Alexander at "Forbes" reported all the way back in June, and that was before a lot of the surge that more than half of Trump's net worth, 60 percent of it about, is tied to his crypto ventures. No longer real estate, crypto.
You have warned about Trump's close connections to the crypto industry. You protested at that dinner where that Trump held with top owners of the Trump meme coin. I remember talking to you that night.
What do you think the significance of this pardon is?
MERKLEY: Well, even at the time, we were noting that this individual was seeking a pardon. And you have this connection to the crypto firms in which UAE, the United Arab Emirates was providing was buying some $2 billion worth of Trumpian stablecoins. This is a huge amount of money flowing into either the president's company, his family company, or his own pocket.
And we were just observing that there's several conflicts of interest. This is one of them. Somebody seeking a pardon. But also that UAE was trying to set up a one of the most advanced chips for a world A.I. center. And our security industry has said, no, this is too dangerous.
And -- but right after the all those coins were bought by this government, guess what? We shipped all of all of these high-end chips right over. And so, you can see how kind of the influence is -- the government is up for sale.
BURNETT: Senator Merkley, thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight.
MERKLEY: Thank you so much. Good to be with you.
BURNETT: And next, the mafia linked gambling scandal sending shockwaves across the sports world.
And our Harry Enten is here, as always, to tell us something that we do not know about the massive betting industry.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:57]
BURNETT: Tonight, new details this hour in the explosive gambling scandal that now spans four teams and four mafia crime families. Federal authorities uncovering a massive illegal sports betting ring leading to the arrest of 34 people, among them NBA world champion and Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups, also charged. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones.
Now, the FBI, also arresting alleged members of four crime families. Mafia families, the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese organizations. It's pretty incredible just to think about all this.
An ESPN host tonight blaming Trump for this, calling it Trump's revenge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: In his eyes, folks tried to throw him in jail. In his eyes, he's innocent. They tried to put me behind bars. I'm getting everybody.
He's not playing. Everybody's going to brace themselves because he's coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Harry Enten is here to tell us something we don't know.
So, Harry, I mean, I mean, it's pretty stunning. I mean, this is massive. 34 arrests, major individuals for known, you know, families, mafia members.
So how big is this business? The gambling business that they're playing in?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: I got to tell you. This story just has it all. And also, I don't know what the heck Stephen A. Smith was talking about, but maybe well find out some more later.
But, you know, were talking about the, you know, betting industry and it has taken off like a rocket in the United States compared to where we were, you know, back just in 2018. Look at this. Legal sports betting 2018. It was just $7 billion.
Look at where we came in in 2024, $149 billion. My goodness gracious.
BURNETT: What the heck happened for that delta?
ENTEN: What happened for that delta was of course, the Supreme Court coming in basically saying that, you know, states could legalize gambling outside of Nevada. And of course, the sports gambling, when you look at your phone, you look at something like this. It is so easy to gamble now. Anyone can basically do it.
BURNETT: All right. So, it's popular. I mean, $7 billion to $149 billion. I mean, okay, Supreme Court opens the gates, but that is some pent-up demand.
ENTEN: You got it.
BURNETT: Are Americans now okay with sports betting? There was a reason it was banned. Partially. It was, you know, morally frowned upon, I suppose back in the day.
ENTEN: Back in the day, perhaps back when my father was my age, which would have been back in, like, what, the early '60s. But now, what are we talking about? Morally acceptable gambling. Look
at this. We're talking about the clear majority of Americans say that gambling is morally acceptable behavior, 63 percent way ahead of pornography at 35 percent.
BURNETT: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
ENTEN: What? What?
BURNETT: Twenty-one percent of Americans think polygamy is morally acceptable behavior?
ENTEN: Look, Americans have a lot of interesting thoughts, Erin Burnett. And apparently one fifth of them think that polygamy is morally acceptable behavior. Thats even higher than cheating on a spouse, which comes in at 8 percent. So apparently being with more than one partner is better than cheating on one.
BURNETT: I'm sorry. This is not what you expected. It's --
ENTEN: It's always --
BURNETT: Okay. You just told me something I don't know. So you're done. But now I know you have something else that that I don't know about the mafia.
ENTEN: Yeah, I'll tell you something else that you don't know, Erin Burnett. Is that the mafia -- all of a sudden, we're talking about the mafia. I haven't been talking about the mafia for a long time.
Why is that? Because the number of members and affiliates in the mafia is way, way down from where it used to be. The latest numbers, only about 3,000 compared to the late 1980s, when it was 17,000.
BURNETT: Wow, that's a huge drop. But we'll see how many are left after this roundup that's going on.
ENTEN: We'll find out.
BURNETT: Bye, bye, Harry.
ENTEN: Bye.
BURNETT: Thank you so much.
And thanks to all of you.
Anderson starts now.
