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Erin Burnett Outfront

Pentagon: Nearly 100 U.S. Soldiers Injured In Past 14 Days; Profiting From Presidency?; ICE Agent's Ex-Wife OutFront. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 20, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:19]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

The breaking news, the Pentagon just announcing that nearly 100 troops have been injured in the Iran war in just the past two weeks, as the U.S. announces three service members were killed by Iranian strikes. Trump threatening revenge tonight.

Plus, profiting from the presidency. $2.4 billion is the number of what Trump made last year, according to "Forbes'" newest calculations tonight. That is the same as what he made in all four years of his first term.

And we'll speak to the ex-wife of an agent connected to the deadly shooting in Maine, and you'll hear why she believes her ex should have never had a job that requires or allows any kind of weapon.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

BURNETT: And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett.

And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, 100 U.S. troops injured in just the last two weeks of the Iran War, 100 in the past two weeks. This news coming from the Pentagon tonight, and it's in addition to at least three American service members who have been killed in just recent days.

Well, tonight, Trump is threatening revenge, posting, quote, "Every time Iran kills an American soldier, they will pay for that killing many times over. This directive has been passed on to the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every leader in the military. Trump's threat comes as the U.S. right now is sending additional fighter jets to the Middle East, including F-16s and F-35s.

Now, the war began 143 days ago, which is part of the reason it's so stunning that 100 American troops have been injured in the past two weeks, a toll that continues.

The administration is quick. They love to put out these videos when strikes are happening, right? This is a CENTCOM video. They put them out really quickly.

That is not the case when it comes to releasing the details about the toll this war is taking on American service members.

Until the announcement just moments ago by the Pentagon that the 100 service members were injured in the past two weeks, the military's been painfully slow, sometimes waiting up two weeks to acknowledge military injuries. In fact, why are they even putting those numbers out now? Maybe in part because of all the reporting in "The New York Times" over the weekend about this issue.

The Pentagon source tells CNN, well, they're waiting on all this for security reasons. Well, okay. But the reality is, the administration has not been transparent about the toll of this war, full stop. Not about the THAADs that have been blown out, the radars blown out, the planes, the human beings and the human injuries.

The Pentagon has not held a press briefing in two and a half months. No questions taken and no answers given about the war or what strategy there may be moving forward. like this whole conversation about Kharg Island, which is Groundhog's Day, back in the front burner again. Iran warning of repercussions if the U.S. seizes the island, something that Trump has suggested again is on the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Maybe we'll take over Kharg Island. We may take over Kharg Island. It's not a thing they can do about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: But in that... Silence about strategy, about the damage done, about the lives forever impacted and lost in this war. We are learning more about one of the American service members killed in Jordan.

Tyler James Feehan was 25 years old. His parents shared these images of their son with OUTFRONT. He was their only child. They say he was loved and adored by everyone who crossed paths with him, and he was set to be married when he returned from this deployment. Our thoughts are with that family and his parents and their indescribable loss.

Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House.

And, Kristen, Trump now threatening revenge against Iran in that tweet, saying, For every American troop killed, many more Iranians will feel U.S. revenge.

What does that mean? Is that just bluster, or is there a plan and a strategy here, as you understand it?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly doesn't seem like bluster tonight, with Central Command announcing that they were doing their 10th consecutive night of strikes. One thing to keep in mind here is that President Trump is angry, and he is attending that dignified transfer tomorrow of those fallen soldiers. And at the same time, mediators had proposed today, floated an idea, of a 10-day ceasefire.

Now, we had heard from the White House and from U.S. officials who did acknowledge that this existed. They did not give any details of how far along this proposal was. But they also said this, and this is what they said about President Trump, really down the idea that he was going to accept this, saying right now, President Trump is focused on making Iran pay for their violations of the MOU and their continued acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz.

Then they went on to say, in addition, The president will make Iran pay for the recent deaths of U.S. soldiers.

[19:05:05]

Now, this proposal was floated before Central Command announced that it was launching its 10th night of consecutive strikes. So, it goes to show you where the president's head is at.

Now, whether or not that means an escalation beyond these strikes, that is what we are trying to find out. But the president is angry. We know that they have been looking for a diplomatic off-ramp. He is still trying, and U.S. officials are trying to get Iran back to the negotiating table, but it does appear that They're in a real punishment phase for Iran because of those troop deaths now.

BURNETT: All right. Kristen, thank you very much, reporting from the White House tonight.

I want to go OUTFRONT now to Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

And I appreciate your time tonight. So, obviously, you've been a vocal critic of so many things about Trump's war in Iran, the U.S. now increasing aircraft numbers in the Middle East, and significantly so, it seems. Trump's warning Iran will pay for killing U.S. soldiers, again, in his words, quote, "many times over".

Do you know what all this actually is going to add up to?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): I don't think anybody does, least of all Donald Trump. I mean, look, I don't want to belabor the point. This is why it was so stupid to start this war in the first place.

Trump honestly thought that he would drop bombs for three or four weeks, and the Iranian regime would collapse. And that was just completely idiotic. No one who would pay any attention to what's going on thought that was going to happen. So, when that didn't happen, he just keeps doubling down on a bad strategy.

Look, we need to end this war and get the best-negotiated piece we can get. And that's not going to be great at this point, because we've given Iran so much leverage by starting the war, showing them they can control the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, as far as what Trump's going to do, I don't know. He's talking about Kharg Island, talking about revenge. There's no strategy. There's no plan. There's no vision in there.

Look, I said this last week. I think the president has reached the point where he's just not fit for office. He doesn't know what he's doing, and he's dragging us into an endless conflict.

So, I hope the Republicans will speak up and push him in a different direction, because right now, he's just headed over a cliff.

BURNETT: Congressman, the cost of this war has been profound, and in so many ways. You know, we understand in just the first few days of the war, all of the THAAD missile defenses in the region were taken out, except for maybe one. And that's -- and there's a lot more where that came from. So, there's that.

And then there is the human cost, which I find just so stunning for the American public at this point in this war to understand that 100 American troops have been wounded in just the past two weeks. This is in just the past two weeks. And we were perhaps only finding out about it because reporters have been pushing and trying to get to the truth.

So, what -- do you know the full extent of American injuries? And do you know the full extent of equipment losses? When I mentioned that --

SMITH: We don't. We don't.

BURNETT: Yeah.

SMITH: Look, we don't because the Pentagon has not been transparent about that. You know, I get reports from people who they know a service member at a base in Jordan or Iraq or someone say, yeah, we heard there was an attack. There's 20 or 30 people wounded. Pentagon doesn't say anything about it.

We dig into it, as "The New York Times" has, and you then find out, look, this is, again, no transparency. As he said, no press conference, no conversation about this.

We have a dictator running this country. We have never had a situation where we've been at war and the president has treated it as his own war where he doesn't have to share information with the American people or with the Congress. I mean, this is a frightening situation.

And, yeah, they have not been telling us what's been happening in terms of lost equipment, in terms of the cost of the war, and certainly in terms of the service members who have been wounded.

BURNETT: Can I just say something that I guess is painfully obvious, but I feel like I have to say it, Congressman. You are the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. It would seem to me definitional that if anybody knew the extent of losses of things like the entire missile defense system for the United States bases and countries that we support in the region, and American troops being injured, that your source wouldn't be somebody calling who has a friend who serves on a base, but you're telling me it is.

SMITH: Yeah, and not -- and we're digging. My staff is constantly -- BURNETT: Yeah.

SMITH: -- in contact with as many people as we can at the Pentagon. You know, they are just not being transparent. We have to sort of pull it out of them or find it in one place or another.

So, look, I mean, the lack of transparency certainly is concerning, but the bigger concern, we're in a war that we have no idea how to get out of. And the costs are mounting, the service members' deaths are unbelievably tragic. They continue to be at risk.

The financial costs, but also just the international economic costs. Now we've got the Houthis saying they're going to shut down the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, which is only going to add to these problems.

[19:10:04]

We need to negotiate a settlement and end this conflict.

BURNETT: Congressman, I want to tell everyone a little bit more about the U.S. soldier I just mentioned a moment ago. He was killed last week in Jordan.

First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, he was 25 years old. And as I told you, he's his parents' only son. He was going to be coming home after this deployment to get married.

They say he was supposed to come, his parents do, that he was supposed to come back on the day he was killed. And he was two weeks away from finishing his second master's degree. He was getting ready to attend law school.

And his parents shared with us something that he wrote about that desire to go to law school, where he wrote, I have learned that the law is not just an academic exercise. It is a critical tool for operational success and the protection of soldiers. Just as I have strived to equip my formation with the resources to succeed, I want to become the advocate they can rely on to clear any legal obstacles in their path.

Obviously, an incredible young person. Do you believe his death was preventable?

SMITH: A hundred percent. I mean, the war shouldn't have been started in the first place. And once it was started, Trump not taking cease- fire offers, I mean, look, we knew that our bases were vulnerable to Iranian missiles and drones. We started this war with no clear plan to defend them. It is an indefensible position.

BURNETT: Congressman Smith, I appreciate your time, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us tonight.

SMITH: Thanks, Erin. I appreciate it.

BURNETT: And next, Forbes has that new reporting on the staggering amount of money that Trump made last year, last year, singular, $2.4 billion, as he was running the United States as president. Trump claims it's because of the stock market, but that doesn't add up.

Plus, an Epstein survivor who has never spoken out publicly is revealing new details about the abuse she suffered and the fact that no one, including someone she thought was a sheriff's officer, would do anything to stop Epstein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEAMLE: I thought to myself, Thank you. This is going to be the day that this all stops. Followed, the sheriff walked in Jeffrey. They giggled, they laughed together. They bited it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And a Fox host goes after Van Jones.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY, FOX NEWS HOST: Van Jones is a self-proclaimed communist. I mean, he's not a moderate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, Van Jones is here to respond next, along with Gretchen Carlson, and here they come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:17:18]

BURNETT: A Fox News host went after one of CNN's own tonight, and Van Jones was going viral in part because of a post that he made over the weekend. It struck a nerve with both the right and the left, right? We showed you Fox, but on the left, well -- there was a lot of response to this, too.

So let me read in part what Van wrote. He wrote, "I'm tired of being told that to be a progressive, I now must swear allegiance to crazy ideas. I'm a strong Democrat with a winning bipartisan track record. I'm rooted in progressive ideals and policies, criminal justice reform, Green New Deal, Medicare for all, free education, clean air and water. Those are ideas I fought for my entire life.

But some people in groups like the DSA are pushing an agenda far outside those ideals. Supporting Hamas is not progressive. No police, no prisons, no borders is not progressive. Celebrating the murder of Israeli civilians is not progressive. These ideas are, Van's all caps, regressive."

And Van Jones is now OUTFRONT along with Gretchen Carlson.

So, Van, your post struck a nerve, right? We saw it strike a nerve on Fox News. I saw it strike a nerve. among many on the left.

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

BURNETT: Okay, for whom some of those things you mentioned have become rallying -- passionate rallying calls, right?

JONES: Yeah.

BURNETT: But you knew it was going to -- Van, Van, Van doesn't walk into a moment like this being like, oh, I don't think this is going to have a splash.

GRETCHEN CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: Let me go like this.

JONES: Oh, why?

CARLSON: To you --

JONES: Why? Why do you say?

CARLSON: Because this was necessary.

JONES: Thank you.

CARLSON: This was very -- especially from your voice. Now, I'm going to let you respond first because this is about you, and then I can pick up.

JONES: Well, listen, I-- cannot tell you, this phone has been blowing up all day. Governors from both parties, senators from both parties, Democrats in the House calling, thanking me for saying what everybody's been saying behind the scenes, which is that this stuff is going too far.

I am a progressive Democrat. You want to talk about prison reform? I've done it as well as anybody, Republican, Democrats in the South with Trump. I've done prison reform. I never said, have no prisons. Where are you going to put the Klan? I've done police reform. I never said no police. Where are you going to put the pedophiles? Who's going to grab the pedophiles?

This stuff is going too far. And part of the thing that has to happen is, we saw what happened in the Republican Party when things started going in a nutty direction and nobody stood up. I am happy that the young people are fighting for affordability, Medicare for all, all the good things. I've been waiting my whole life to see a youth movement do what it's doing.

But it's being hijacked by people who are putting in nutty ideas, supporting terrorists. Nutty ideas saying we don't need cops in prison.

[19:20:01]

We can't deport anybody, even if they rape somebody.

Who said this? Chevalier. Where did Chevalier --

BURNETT: Chevalier is going to -- is the Democratic nominee -- sorry, DSA nominee for Congress now from the Bronx in New York. JONES: Yes. I just want to say that there was a shockwave through this party when Mamdani, who everybody's excited about, stabbed in the back, Espaillat, who was the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, beloved by everybody, who backed Mamdani.

Mamdani said, "I will back you." Then he turns around, stabs him in the back.

BURNETT: Backed Chevalier.

JONES: And backed Chevalier, who has no credentials except she's known for having celebrated October 7th murders of Israelis on October 8th and never apologized.

This sent a shockwave through the party. People said, hold on a second. Why, of all the people in New York City, would Mamdani pick this person to betray someone? And then no one says anything.

BURNETT: OK. So, Gretchen --

JONES: I'm not afraid to talk about it.

CARLSON: But that's why it's so important for him to say it.

BURNETT: Now, that seat, though, let's take the example that you gave, okay? That specific seat that we're talking about is a Democratic seat. So, you can put someone as far left as you want or moderate as you want, a Democrat's going to win.

So, I guess what I'm saying, Gretchen, is, does this affect the midterms when you're looking at seats that are not like that?

CARLSON: Yeah.

BURNETT: Seats that are purple where your nominee is not somebody who said the things that Van just said.

CARLSON: No, because look at the movement that's been created. It's what the media is talking about. And it's not just in New York. We're talking about Michigan now. We're talking about Colorado.

We're talking about a bunch of other states where this movement is going on. And I think it was so important that Van Jones said this, because, quite honestly, you were thought of as way over on the left.

JONES: I am!

CARLSON: I know!

JONES: I am!

CARLSON: I know!

JONES: I'm just not crazy.

CARLSON: Well, and so it's very important for him, in my mind, to point out that this is a very dangerous, slippery slope. And from an independent point of view, where the majority of Americans are sitting, they're scared to death of this movement. They're not going to vote for it.

And by the way, I've talked to a lot of Democrats over the last couple of weeks. They are begging people to get out in the primaries for the regular Democrat to vote.

JONES: Okay, but where do people like AOC, who is being talked about now, frequently in presidential circles, who is very progressive, maybe even more progressive than you are, and has been in all of these circles. Where does she land on this?

JONES: Well, look, I'll let her speak for herself. I haven't heard her coming out and supporting Hamas. Chevalier, Mamdani's pick, refused to denounce Hamas four times. It's a U.S. registered terrorist organization. I haven't heard AOC saying that if someone raped someone and murdered someone, they shouldn't be deported.

That's -- Mamdani has picked a candidate that that's her position.

I want this party to get behind the good things that are coming up from the young people. These young people are fighting. They have no opportunities. They've been lied to. They took college debt.

They need a change. They deserve a change.

BURNETT: You're talking about health care and affordability.

JONES: I'm talking about health care, affordability, all these different positive things that they're doing. But if we can't say right from wrong, if we can't say good from bad, if we can't separate progressive ideas from regressive ideas, we're going down the same pathway that has pulled the Republican Party into an unrecognizable shell of itself.

And I refuse to let that happen to them.

CARLSON: And the other problem is, and we've talked about this on the primary election nights over the last couple of months, like 5,000 people vote in these primaries. And yet they dictate the outcome and the movement that we're now experiencing.

And so, you have to -- you have to put that in perspective. But at the same time, you have to be very concerned about that. So -- if you like, independents can't vote in primaries. So in this case, it's up to Democrats right to go out and get in the polls.

BURNETT: An open primary would make a huge difference.

CARLSON: If they agree with --

BURNETT: In the red, in the red and the blue, right? And in both extremes.

Gretchen, because the World Cup has gotten so much attention. So, okay. Trump, who didn't watch? Anybody? I watched. I mean, everybody watched. Okay.

CARLSON: I was cleaning out my closet while I was watching.

JONES: It still counts. I think that still counts.

BURNETT: So, when it was over, Trump, the Spain soccer team, you know, they have their big moment. This is their moment. And they post a photo, and Trump's not in it. And I was sort of like, Wait a second. I was watching, and Trump was in it. I mean, you don't need much A.I. You don't need anything fancy to remove someone from a photo. You can just do it on your iPhone.

But he was in it, right? And the FIFA president had to run over and try to explain to them that you need to maybe get out. This is their moment. This is the FIFA president who's giving the Peace Prize.

You know, Gretchen, what's a moment like that mean? We can laugh about it, but the whole world saw that moment and everybody saw it for what it was, which was he needed to get out of the picture and he wouldn't do it.

CARLSON: Well, I don't think anyone's surprised by that. His name's over on every building that he's ever built until people started protesting that they wanted the name down.

[19:25:01]

But this is Trump. He wants to be front and center. I mean, look, he comes to these events knowing he's also probably going to hear a lot of loud boos.

BURNETT: Right.

CARLSON: Which he did.

BURNETT: Yeah, he did.

CARLSON: But this is about Donald Trump in a lot of respects. I do think it's interesting that they did take him out. And what occurred to me today was, can you think of any other president where they might have photoshopped them out?

BURNETT: Well, that's actually interesting.

JONES: Yeah.

BURNETT: But there was no shame in that. They just took him out.

JONES: Well, he's just not very popular, but he just needs to stay out of sports. Anytime he gets involved with sports, something terrible happens. It's like a curse. The only time that the Knicks lost when he showed up.

I just think, you know, he continues to find --

BURNETT: The Knicks. It was the Chiefs. JONES: Yeah, it's a curse.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: It's Argentina. It's a Trump curse. And so, I can understand why you would want to maybe take him out of the photo, because maybe something would happen. They'd, like, lose the trophy or something.

Trump should just stay -- listen, I wish he'd get out of politics. We've got two more years from that, but he should stay out of sports.

BURNETT: All right, thank you both very much.

And now, profiting off the presidency. So, President Trump made a staggering $2.4 billion last year, according to a new report by our next guest, who went through tons of documents. Trump's financial records and found that Trump made nearly as much money in 2025 as he made in all four years of his first term combined.

Dan Alexander is OUTFRONT now, senior editor at "Forbes".

So, Dan, just walk me through how you get to this number of $2.4 billion for a sitting president in one year.

DAN ALEXANDER, SENIOR EDITOR AT "FORBES": Well, the starting point is Donald Trump's own financial disclosure report, which he submitted a couple of weeks ago. Now, the problem with that document is that it's not made for somebody as rich as Donald Trump. So, the income ranges are listed in millions-of-dollar ranges. And then there's also a category that's just anything over $5 million.

Well, Donald Trump has a lot of things that make over $5 million.

BURNETT: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: And so, what we did is we went and looked at court records and bond filings and SEC filings. and layered those on top of the financial disclosure report to pinpoint exactly how much money he made in 2025, which was $2.4 billion.

And then we went back and looked, starting in 2016, and drawing it over that whole timeline and seeing just how dramatically the rise was last year.

BURNETT: I mean, it's a staggering number, all right? Now, Trump was recently asked about the money, how much money he's making, and he actually -- I mean, you can look at the annual earnings here, I'm just putting it up here, all of your work from 2017 on, Dan. But Trump gets asked, hey, last year, in the context of all of the reporting on potentially corrupt dealings, how did you make the money?

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know why I'm profiting because the stock market's going up. Everybody's profiting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Okay, Dan, so how much of that $2.4 billion last year was because the stock market went up?

ALEXANDER: Zero dollars. Donald Trump made a lot of stock trades, but that's not what we're counting here, nor is it what anybody was counting a couple of weeks ago. What we're looking at is what are the operating revenues of his business, and then what are the proceeds from asset sales that he has made, not stocks, but actual hard assets.

You add all of that up, and you get to $2.4 billion. It has nothing to do with the stock market.

BURNETT: Might be the most clear-cut answer I've gotten in a long time. Zero dollars.

Okay, so one other thing I got to ask you about, Dan. We're reporting that the venture capital company that Donald Trump Jr. joined shortly after his father was reelected has rapidly grown, rapidly grown, you know, for somebody who's not a portfolio manager with decades of experience, to about $3.5 billion. And the firms that it invests in have gotten significant increases in federal funding since President Trump took office.

Now, there's no specific evidence that Don Jr. was pushing specifically for the federal funding. We're just telling you that their federal funding is obviously extremely significant.

What do you make of his company's explosive growth?

ALEXANDER: Well, the first thing to understand is that when private equity firms grow really quickly, usually they do it because of great performance. They've had a small fund, they've made great returns for their investors, people dump more money in.

This is a new firm. It started in 2022. It's not been around long enough to really have much of a track record. That enormous growth appears to be due to one thing, the fact that Donald Trump Jr. is now involved with the firm, and so it's sort of a shortcut to growth.

And the important thing to understand here is that because their assets are now larger, they can charge up to 2 percent management fees on those assets. So even if they don't perform well from here, they're going to make more money just by having raised so much money.

BURNETT: Which is truly incredible, and also, as you point out, you get more inflows, financial inflows and private equity when you get returns.

[19:30:01]

And private equity returns tend to be five and 10 years, right? I mean, it takes a long time to build up that, and we're not anywhere close to that. Dan, thank you very much.

ALEXANDER: You got it, Erin. Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, I'm going to speak to the ex-wife of an ICE agent connected to the deadly shooting in Maine. Her ex-husband called her, she said, and told her exactly what he did. And she'll also tell you why she couldn't believe he'd been hired by ICE in the first place.

Plus, an Epstein survivor revealing for the first time the abuse she suffered and how she thought killing Epstein was the only way for her to break free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ran around New York City as a child trying to get an STD to kill a pedophile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:35:29]

BURNETT: Tonight, more than three dozen senators signing a new letter to the DHS secretary demanding information about vetting procedures for ICE agents. It comes after CNN reported that David Brouillette, an ICE officer connected to the fatal shooting in Maine last week, suffered a serious head injury in 2021 that he said left him with cognitive deficits.

Now, CNN hasn't independently confirmed which agent fatally shot 25- year-old Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero. But I spoke with Brouillette's ex-wife, Ashley, and she says he called her on the phone and told her that he was the agent behind the deadly shooting. Here is our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Ashley, just obviously a terrible moment for you and your family. I know you say David called you after the shooting. He told you he was the one who shot Duran Guerrero.

What exactly did he say?

ASHLEY BROUILLETTE, EX-WIFE OF ICE OFFICER AT SCENE OF FATAL SHOOTING: He had said that it was all about his -- he needed everyone that knew him to defend his character and say all good things about him and nothing negative because it came down to the type of person that he was. I told him that I would not lie for him.

Then I asked him if it was him, if he was the one that did it. He said yes, it was me. I was there. And that it was a justified shooting.

BURNETT: Did he explain to you why he fired?

BROUILLETTE: He had said that Mr. Guerrero had spit at him for the car and he did it out of self-defense.

BURNETT: So were you-- I know you've known David a long time, so people know you were married back in 2007, high school sweethearts. You have a daughter together who's now 18. I know, Ashley, and I'm sorry your marriage was troubled.

But can you tell me more about his behavior in the context of your surprise or not being surprised when you got that phone call?

BROUILLETTE: Yeah, I mean, I was shocked, but I wasn't shocked just for the simple fact of I experienced severe domestic violence in my marriage with David throughout the whole year and a half that we were married. I experienced physical, emotional, mental, even financial abuse from him. Yeah.

BURNETT: I'm so sorry. I know, just because I know you felt this was important for people to understand in the context of what we're talking about here. I know when you talk about that abuse, you said he even threw boiling water at you once while you were holding your child?

BROUILLETTE: Yes. We were arguing while I was getting dinner started and I had put that water on there. It had just started to boil and he picked up the pot by the handle and just spurred at me and our daughter, who was about five months old at that time.

BURNETT: It was more than just during your marriage. I know you said he left you a very troubling voicemail just last fall. Can you share anything about that, Ashley?

BROUILLETTE: Yeah. So, David has always had a habit out of calling me when he's been drinking throughout the years. And he would just get very nasty and mean with his words. He had threatened to kill me in a phone call.

That's why I had hung up on him and told him that I was going to pursue a restraining order with him. And then he had called back, and I didn't answer. And he left me a mean, nasty voicemail talking about how I need to have my throat slit. All the females in my family and my family brought (ph) by me to all die.

BURNETT: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. This is just horrific to hear.

I know he told you late last year that he had been hired by ICE. How did you even respond to that?

BROUILLETTE: I didn't take it seriously only because I'm used to him saying off the wall thing. So, my response probably wasn't as well as it should have been, but my response was, sure you are, buddy. I didn't believe it, and I didn't know that it was true until July 14th about it.

BURNETT: I mean, just to ask the very basic question, do you believe he's someone who should be an ICE agent, armed ICE agent?

BROUILLETTE: No, I don't believe that he's anyone that should be obtaining a job that requires any kind of weapon, just for the simple fact of, like, just, you know, how he's been in his marriages. Even, you know, his own mother, as a teen, he has always displayed violent behavior, very angry person.

[19:40:08]

And I've said for years that it's only a matter of time before he hurts anybody. I've even gone as far as saying, if anything's ever happened to me, he'd be the one to look at.

BURNETT: He -- we found a lawsuit that he filed a couple of years ago against Maine Community College System, and he said he had suffered cognitive issues after a serious head injury. He said a steel beam fell on his head during a firefighter training course. And the lawsuit said he continues to be significantly impaired in his activities in his daily living. talking about his memory being impaired and his cognitive functioning being impaired. That was in 2023.

What you're describing is an entire adult life of suffering as his hands. But did you notice any changes to him after this incident?

BROUILLETTE: I didn't notice that, as you know, he did become more and more erratic in his behavior. His memory wasn't all there. Like, he was always possible things that how he perceived how they happened. And then any time you point out that, no, that's not how it happened, he'd get very angry until you agreed that they happened the way he said.

BURNETT: Well, Ashley, I thank you for sharing all this information. I can't imagine how difficult it is to do that with the threats that you've received. It's an incredible amount of courage, and I thank you very much for speaking out.

BROUILLETTE: Thank you.

BURNETT: It's important. story for everyone to understand. Thank you.

David Brouillette has not responded to several requests from CNN for comment. CNN's not able to verify Ashley's claim, but he threw boiling water at her or the threatening voicemail she says Brouillette left for her last year, but the DHS has, in the face of all this, declined to identify the officer behind the shooting, only saying, quote, "The ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training."

Well, OUTFRONT next, quote, "I thought this was all a dream." An Epstein survivor coming forward with her full story for the first time. Why, she says, no one intervened despite the drinking, weight loss, and scratching herself until she would bleed, and the career that she credits with saving her life.

Plus, World Cup stars Lionel Messi embracing Spain's Lamine Yamal after the final game. An incredible moment given here is Messi holding baby Yamal 19 years ago. For real, for real. We talked to the photographer about that moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:50]

BURNETT: Tonight, a CNN exclusive report, an Epstein survivor speaking out publicly for the first time. Roza Gilles is a former model, and she's recounting in painstaking detail her years-long experience of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein. It was so unbearable that Roza says she, quote, "ran around New York City as a child trying to get an STD". She said she did that so that she could then infect and kill Epstein because she, quote, "didn't believe the government would do anything to stop him.

MJ Lee is OUTFRONT with this powerful interview and Roza's inspiring journey toward healing now. I will warn you, the story is graphic. Come on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROZA GILLES, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Pull ups. Come on, Daniel. Let's go.

What people know me for is a daughter, a sister, a wife, a coach. You would see me on the street, and you'd never think that twice.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before dominating the fitness world, Roza Gilles, a four-time national CrossFit champion from Uzbekistan, began her career as a teenage model.

GILLES: I was really tall and skinny, and I was like kind of awkward- looking girl.

LEE (voice-over): In 2008, Roza signed a modeling contract with MC Squared, the agency founded by French agent Jean-Luc Brunel. She moved to New York City in May 2009, and that summer, Roza was sent to West Palm Beach for photo shoots at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion.

Later that summer, as Roza was struggling to book modeling jobs, Epstein made her an offer.

GILLES: Work for me as a secretary. What I was told, all I do is pick up the phone and say, Florida Science Foundation, may I help you?

LEE (voice-over): Unbeknownst to Roza, Epstein had just pled guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor. He was serving jail time on a work release program. The first weekend at Epstein's office, Roza was asked by another woman to massage Epstein's feet.

GILLES: He gives me his foot. And I'm looking at his foot, and it has an ankle monitor on it. He has a plastic thing wrapped around his foot with a black box on it with a blinking light, right?

And I go, what is this? And he flips around and goes, "Take off your shirt." I froze. And the woman comes over and starts unbuttoning my blouse. She takes it off. Then she takes off my bra. And then she walks out. I sat in that room, staring at the bottle of a Fiji water while a man

was groping me and masturbating. And then when he was done, he stood up and he left. I couldn't scream. I didn't ask for help. And I thought this was all a dream. I never told any soul about this. I thought I'm going to die if I do.

LEE (voice-over): Roza says Epstein abused her in Florida every weekend after that. She is still haunted by an encounter she had one morning at Epstein's mansion with a man in uniform, someone she thought was a sheriff.

[19:50:01]

GILLES: I thought to myself, Thank you. This is going to be the day that this all stops. Followed the sheriff walked in Jeffrey. They giggled, they laughed together, they buddied it up.

I just stood in the kitchen, looking at this sheriff, thinking to myself, at some point, he's going to turn to me and be like, who are you? And he walked out.

LEE: Didn't say anything to you?

GILLES: Nothing. And then I figured it all out. He's currently serving his sentence while he's doing the same thing to everybody, and nobody's there to pause. He was wearing a ankle monitor. He didn't stop what he was doing while convicted. He was doing the same thing.

LEE (voice-over): The abuse then continued for years in New York City.

LEE: You have told me that you thought, this is not going to end until he dies.

GILLES: Correct. I ran around New York City as a child, trying to get an STD to kill a pedophile, because I didn't believe the government would ever stop him. That wasn't my job to stop him.

LEE (voice-over): Roza has also spent years wondering why no one at her modeling agency intervened, even as they saw her in distress.

GILLES: They saw me drink every night. I would just scratch myself until I bleed. And as I was spiraling down, as I was losing weight, my hair was falling out. I kept this secret. inside me for so long.

LEE (voice-over): After finally leaving Epstein's grip, Roza relocated to the Midwest. Another chance encounter with her now-husband, Pat, helped turn her life around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barbell two or three warm up sets.

LEE (voice-over): More than anywhere else, the beginning of Roza's healing has taken place here, the gym she now co-owns with her husband.

GILLES: My happy place, right? LEE (voice-over): She works primarily with kids and women, including fellow survivors. Until now, Roza has only spoken briefly about Epstein's abuse in public. She said she is finally coming forward with her story for one reason.

GILLES: I hope somebody hears my story and finds themselves in the same place. would reach out to me and say, help me.

LEE (voice-over): Roza's own recovery is a work in progress.

GILLES: As a survivor of something that horrendous, this is hands down the only reason I'm still standing here today. If I didn't find this space for me, I don't think I would have survived.

LEE (voice-over): MJ Lee, CNN, Madison, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: It's incredible reporting by MJ.

Well, long before soccer megastars Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal embraced on the soccer field in that very poignant moment after yesterday's World Cup final, they actually appeared in another photo together. That's them. That is them. Can you believe it?

And the photographer who took those pictures is going to tell us how it happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight, this image from the World Cup final captivating the world because it was just moments after Spain defeated Argentina in extra time. The 19-year-old Lamine Yamal embraced 39-year-old soccer legend Lionel Messi. But wait, what makes this moment so extraordinary? I mean, it is on every level. It's poignant and profound on its own.

But then take a look at this photo. This is a 20-year-old Messi cradling a baby for a charity calendar. This image was captured by photographer Joan Monfort 19 years ago.

Monfort says that Messi did not know that he was going to be photographed with a baby that day for the calendar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN MONFORT, PHOTOGRAPHER BEHIND 2007 MESSI-YAMAL VIRAL PHOTO: I remember Messi was operated with a baby. I remember his face when he walked into the locker room. He was surprised and a little nervous. He was in shock because he discovered that the guy is not a guy. It was a baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, the baby's parents, a working-class family who had simply entered a public raffle. So, their son was chosen randomly to be photographed with Messi for this calendar. Now, Messi, of course, was already a soccer megastar at that time. And the family had no way of knowing that their chubby, cute little baby would grow up to become maybe the next big star, Lamine Yamal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONFORT: It's something so, so, so big, so it's huge. I couldn't imagine never to one so big, so it's huge. I couldn't imagine never to one of my pitchers run around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So Monfort told OUTFRONT what it was like watching the two to meet again on the world's biggest stage. Pretty incredible story just to think about it and to imagine that moment.

Thanks so much for joining us.

"AC360" starts now.