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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Outrage Grows After Heavily-Redacted Epstein File Release; U.S. Pursues Another Oil Tanker Near Venezuela; Russian General Killed in Moscow Car Bombing. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired December 22, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

ELENI GIOKOS, ANCHOR, EARLY START: Welcome and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world, I'm Eleni Giokos, thanks so much for being with us. It is Monday, December 22nd and straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Trump administration is on the defensive over bipartisan criticism of its release of Jeffrey Epstein documents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every step along the way, they have behaved as if there is material there. They don't want to be public.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the United States is pursuing a vessel in international waters near Venezuela.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It pressures Venezuela. The question for me is how much does it pressure Maduro himself?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Welcome to the show. And we have a lot to get through. Well, several lawmakers are accusing President Trump's Justice Department of flouting the law by releasing only some of the Epstein files. Since Friday, the agency has released thousands more documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

And the U.S. Justice Department says a photo that includes images of President Trump has been restored to the Epstein files online database. It was one of more than a dozen photos that disappeared from the website on Saturday. Now, there's a bipartisan charge on Capitol Hill demanding the DOJ release all the files in their entirety, or else it will hold the U.S. Attorney General in contempt of Congress.

Top Republican Senator Rand Paul warned this could hurt Trump administration in the long run.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): I think that trust in government as at a low ebb, and that people need to trust the justices are saying whether you're rich or poor, and people tend to believe that some rich people got off scot-free in this -- in the Epstein case, in the Epstein files.

So, I think it all should be released. I think it's a big mistake. I mean, look, the administration has struggled for months and months with something they initially ginned up and then sort of tried to tamp down. So, any evidence or any kind of indication that there's not a full reveal on this, this will just plague them for months and months more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak has the latest for us.

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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The Trump administration is on the defensive over bipartisan criticism of its release of Jeffrey Epstein documents on Friday. Criticism coming both from Republicans and Democrats who say that the Justice Department didn't follow the letter of the law by releasing all of those documents within that 30-day deadline.

Questions about why so much information was redacted and questions from advocates and victims who wonder why so many of the documents that may have contained some of the revelations that they have been looking for were not included in this latest batch.

Now, when it comes to this question of whether the Justice Department removed documents that it had previously released, we are getting more information about why they did that. For example, there was an image that included a photograph of President Trump that appeared on the Justice Department's website on Friday.

On Saturday, it had disappeared. But the Justice Department said Sunday is that the Southern District of New York flagged an image of President Trump for potential further action to protect victims.

They say out of an abundance of caution, the Justice Department temporarily removed the image for further review and then quote, "after the review, it was determined there is no evidence that any Epstein victims are depicted in the photograph, and it has been reposted without any alteration or redaction."

And that does echo what we heard from the number two at the Justice Department. The deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, who is out speaking on Sunday, really trying to rebut some of this criticism, saying that the Justice Department has hundreds of lawyers poring through more than a million documents trying to ensure that victims' identities aren't exposed.

And he shed some more light about why some of these images appeared on the website and then seem to disappear. Listen to what he said.

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL, UNITED STATES: There were a number of photographs that were pulled down after being released on Friday. That's because a judge in New York has ordered us to listen to any victim or victim rights group, if they have any concerns about the material that we were putting up.

[05:05:00]

And so, when we hear concerns, whether it's photographs of women that we do not believe are victims or we didn't have information to show that they were victims, but we learned that there are concerns, of course, we're taking that photograph down and we're going to address it if we need to redact faces or other information, we will, and then we'll put it back up.

LIPTAK: Now, Blanche was also clear that removing that image of President Trump had nothing to do with the President himself. He said, quote, "we are not redacting information around President Trump". So, very much trying to tamp down on some of the criticism here.

Of course, criticism of how the Trump administration has handled all of this did not begin on Friday. It's been brewing for months and months, originating and in large part by Trump's own supporters who are animated by this issue of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

You have heard the administration admit that some of this has gone south. You heard the Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, say in an interview released last week that the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, had whiffed the initial release of these Epstein documents.

I think this release and the criticism around it only serves to underscore that President Trump will continue to be dogged by this matter, it doesn't seem to be dying down in the foreseeable future. Kevin Liptak, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: The United States is pursuing another oil tanker in international waters that it tried to intercept off the coast of Venezuela. Officials say that the U.S. Coast Guard tried to board the ship as it moved towards Venezuela to pick up oil, but the tanker refused to stop.

The ship is on a list of vessels sanctioned for ties to Iran. President Trump's crackdown on Venezuela's oil industry includes a blockade on all sanctioned tankers. On December 10th, the U.S. seized one tanker linked to Venezuelan oil, and another, this past Saturday.

Mr. Trump's escalation with Venezuela has sparked criticism from many, and earlier, CNN spoke to former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro. We asked if he thinks Donald Trump's expanding campaign against Venezuela could force Nicolas Maduro out of power.

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CHARLES SHAPIRO, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VENEZUELA: Well, it pressures Venezuela, 90 percent of Venezuela's exports are oil. So, it pressures Venezuela. The question for me is how much does it pressure Maduro himself? You see that around the world where you put pressure on dictators and it hurts the country, it hurts the money going into the treasury of the country.

But it doesn't necessarily impact the dictator. I mean, the economy is in ruins. People are unhappy. They had elections a year-and-a-half ago that Maduro lost the vote, but then stole the vote count.

So, people are unhappy, both Venezuelans, the 9 million Venezuelans outside Venezuela and the 30 million Venezuelans inside the country, but the real issue is Maduro and the key group of people around him and how much are they going to dig in?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has previously accused the U.S. of waging a campaign of, quote, "psychological terrorism" against his country. Less than a year into Donald Trump's second term, cracks are growing in the MAGA coalition, and they were on full display at a gathering of conservative influencers and young Republicans at the Turning Point USA Conference this weekend. Our Steve Contorno is there.

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STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER (on camera): Vice President J.D. Vance addressed the Turning Point Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, capping a weekend of tents and simmering conversations and debates all throughout the event. We saw several speakers publicly clashing with each other over key issues like whether the U.S. should support Israel in its war with Hamas and the influence of Israel on U.S. policy.

Now, Vance himself said he welcomed this debate within the party and discouraged the attendees from shying away from it.

JAMES DAVID VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know that some of you are impatient at the pace of progress, and my response to that is good. Be impatient. Use that desire for justice for your country as fuel to get involved in this movement in a bigger and better and more powerful way.

I know some of you are discouraged by the infighting over any number of issues. Don't be discouraged. Wouldn't you rather lead a movement of free thinkers who sometimes disagree than a bunch of drones who take their orders from George Soros?

CONTORNO: Earlier in the weekend, Vance was endorsed for President by Erica Kirk; the widow of Turning Point" USA's Founder Charlie Kirk.

[05:10:00]

Now, Vance did not directly address that support during his remarks here, but he did take some shots at some of the leading Democratic contenders that he may face if he does decide to run, including Democratic governor Gavin Newsom as well as former Vice President Kamala Harris. Now, if you take a look at this CNN poll, it shows that Vance is in

strong position to lead this party -- 22 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said that they would like to see Vance run in 2028 that far outpaces any other Republican figure, none of which eclipsed 5 percent. Steve Contorno, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Russia says a car bomb in Moscow has killed one of its generals. Fred Pleitgen is live in Moscow for us with more. Fred, good to see you. What more can you tell us?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Eleni. As you can imagine, the authorities here are investigating this under a very high pressure at the moment. What we have so far from the investigative committee here in Moscow, is they said that all of this happened around 7:00 a.m. when a car that was carrying Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov exploded on a road to the southwest of Moscow or in the southwest of Moscow.

They say that this was an explosive device that was attached to the bottom of the car, we can see on our screens there. The car in question was substantially damaged as well. Obviously, the Russians are saying that they've launched an investigation at the scene, and that they're also speaking to witnesses who may have seen something as well.

Currently, a criminal investigation has been launched. The Russians are saying that there are several directions that they are investigating. But of course, one of them is that possibly Ukrainian special services, as the Russians put it, were possibly behind all of this.

One thing that we heard just a couple of minutes ago is that the Russians are saying that Vladimir Putin was informed by his own special services immediately after all of this happened. So, the Russian President, who is obviously at a summit in St. Petersburg today, very much aware of the situation.

And this is not the first time that a senior Russian military member has been assassinated in Moscow. In fact, round about this time last year, there was a high profile assassination, also with a bomb that was placed inside a vehicle that killed a senior Russian General.

So, this certainly seems to be a tactic that has been -- the Russians not saying whether or not they certainly believe that the Ukrainians are behind it, but they do say that is one of the directions that they're going in, Eleni.

GIOKOS: All right, Fred, thank you so much. Fred Pleitgen live in Moscow. Now, the U.S. held separate talks with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators in Miami, Florida, over the weekend. Ukrainian officials called their talks productive and constructive, where negotiators concentrated on developing the 20-point peace plan by President Donald Trump. The U.S. and Ukrainian delegations also met with Europe's national

security advisors. A senior Russian negotiator said their talks with the U.S. were proceeding constructively, though Kremlin aide called Ukraine and Europe's changes to the previous U.S. proposal unconstructive.

We've got CNN's Clare Sebastian following all the developments for us from London. These are crucial talks, and I have to say the word constructive coming up from the U.S., Ukraine, as well as Russian side. What does it ultimately mean to get all sides to agree?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're nowhere close to that, Eleni, as far as we can tell. And --

GIOKOS: Yes --

SEBASTIAN: I think it was telling that we heard from Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov even ten days ago before he'd known anything about the changes that the U.S. and Ukraine had made to the peace document, saying that he wasn't going to like them.

And he is reiterating it again on Sunday, even before hearing the full report from the chief negotiator, Kirill Dmitriev, who we understand from the Kremlin this morning is still on his way back to Moscow and has not yet briefed the President.

So, I think that's a pretty clear indication that Russia is not in the mood for compromise at this point. But take a listen to Yuri Ushakov, and what he had to say on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YURI USHAKOV, KREMLIN AIDE: I think that the majority of offers will not work for us, because we will stick to the plan that we have decided on in Anchorage, and at the other meetings with the American representatives. Yes, what was offered, in my opinion, is quite unconstructive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, he was talking about Anchorage, which of course refers to the Alaska Summit between President Trump and Putin. I think glossing over the fact that, that did lead to quite a high level of frustration from the American side, that Russia didn't move on any ground at all, and eventually, of course, led to sanctions on Russia's biggest oil giant.

So, I think that sort of level of gloss there reflects perhaps a level of confidence in Moscow. You know, we heard from President Putin in his end-of-year briefing on Friday, saying things like Russia has all of the initiative in its hands when it comes to the war.

So, they are putting forward, if anything, a harder stance on their key demands than we've seen as these talks progress.

[05:15:00] In terms of the other track, the U.S.-Ukraine side, we're certainly

getting some positive noises. There was a joint statement put out by Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, and Umerov, who is the main negotiator, Rustem Umerov, on the Ukrainian side, calling it constructive and productive.

They said that they talked about timelines and sequencing of next steps, which is always a critical point in negotiations. But of course, we don't know what those next steps are at this point. No further talks, as far as we know --

GIOKOS: Yes --

SEBASTIAN: Have been scheduled.

GIOKOS: So, I mean, the big thing is about territorial concessions. And I think the Russians have made it very clear in terms of what they're looking for, Ukraine is also -- and so have the Europeans saying they don't want to see big concessions. Where are we on that?

SEBASTIAN: So, look, that's the part of the talks that is going to be the most difficult. Certainly, President Zelenskyy has talked about that in detail. The Russian side in an unprecedented fashion, I think, for peace talks in living memory is demanding territory that they haven't occupied militarily, which is this portion of the Donbas that includes these fortress cities, Ukraine's most formidable defenses in this war.

So, the Ukrainian side say that they can't give up territory. They'd have to change the constitution, and nor, of course, do they want to give up their best fortifications. So, at this point, we don't see any real change on that on either side. There was a U.S. proposal floated for some kind of free economic zone.

The Europeans seemed very nervous about that, as did the Ukrainians. There were a lot of questions about how that could be administered and policed. But this remains even though we're still on these two tracks of negotiations and nothing resembling actual peace talks, yet, that remains the most difficult part. Eleni?

GIOKOS: Yes, all right, Clare Sebastian, thank you so much. And still to come, new details about the deadly Bondi Beach mass shooting and how investigators believe the attack was planned. And also new details about the deadly Bondi beach mass shooting, and how investigators believe that was planned.

We also focus on Nigeria, 130 children are returning home after a terrible ordeal. Those stories and more when we come back.

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GIOKOS: The day after memorial for the 15 victims of the Bondi Beach massacre, Australian officials are looking at how to prevent a tragedy like that from happening again. Lawmakers in the state of new South Wales are attending an emergency session of parliament, and they're debating the laws and new laws to tighten gun control in the state, to limit protests and to ban the display of terrorist symbols and hate speech.

Thousands of mourners gathered under tight police security at Bondi Beach on Sunday evening to mark a week since two gunmen targeted a Jewish festival. New South Wales Premier says new laws are necessary to prevent such incidents.

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CHRIS MINNS, PREMIER, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA: Today, we're introducing new laws, tough new laws to protect the community, to crack down on hate and strengthen public safety. The legislation bans the public displays of terrorist symbols, outlaws, violence, incitement to violence in New South Wales and gives police stronger powers during public assemblies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: We're also learning more about how last week's attack was planned and carried out as the sole surviving gunman made a court appearance via video link. CNN's Mike Valerio has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Police say the accused attackers had three pipe bombs and one tennis ball bomb thrown into the crowd before the accused father and son started shooting. Key here, according to investigators, all those bombs, all those explosive devices were viable, but none of them detonated.

So, in addition to those four, we have the three pipe bombs, the tennis ball bomb. There was also another larger IED that was found in the trunk of the father and son's car, bringing the total to five explosives.

And then, there's the level of alleged preparation. Investigators looked at videos found on the cell phones of the father and son, and in October, police say both appeared to be practicing firing shotguns in the countryside of New South Wales, trying to move tactically.

And as we move closer to the attack on Friday, December 12th, there's a still from CCTV during the 9:00 p.m. hour in Sydney, that appears to show both of the accused going to the same footbridge where the attack started, and on the day of the attack, in the 2:00 a.m. hour, police say the father and the son are seen moving large, long items believed to be the weapons and explosives brought to the attack, and they're wrapped in blankets, putting them in their car.

Also, police shared a photo of an ISIS flag that they say the father and son made, and they added that in another October video, the father and son made, quote, "a number of statements regarding their motivation for the Bondi attack and condemned, quote, 'the acts of Zionists.'" Furthermore, worth noting, the surviving son was moved from his hospital bed today where he was receiving treatment, escorted by a police riot squad to a penitentiary facility. Mike Valerio, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to keep themselves warm during a cold, wet Winter. We'll take a look at the perilous choices that's coming up. Stay with us.

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GIOKOS: Winter can be harsh in Gaza, especially now with more than 1 million Palestinians in desperate need of shelter, and that's according to the United Nations. More than 400,000 homes were destroyed in Israel's war on the enclave, and families are being forced to choose between two bad options sheltering in bombed-out dangerous ruins or hunkering down in flimsy tents.

We've got CNN's Paula Hancocks joining us live from Abu Dhabi. And Paula, you've written a really insightful piece on cnn.com, where you say people have two really bad choices, and both are extremely dangerous and could turn deadly. Explain to me what Palestinians are dealing with in Gaza right now.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Eleni, I mean, the choice.