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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

ICE Officer Points Gun at Woman Who Yelled at Him; Death Toll Rises at Least 265 as Rescue Efforts Continue; Bob Iger and Josh Kushner Buy L.A. Lakers for $12.5 Billion; Judge Calls Recess After Mother Who Killed 3 Children Sobs; Luigi Mangione Engages in Federal Plea Deal Talks; L.A. Grand Jury Indicts Nick Reiner for Killing His Parents; Zelenskyy Pleads for More U.S. Patriot Interceptors. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired August 13, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: -- a judge called it premature because the federal case had not been resolved. So they'll likely argue again this time. But state prosecutors will likely push back again and argue that these charges are totally different and try to get a state trial to happen, even in spite of any federal plea. It will be up to a judge to decide what happens, and guess what, there is a hearing on Friday in the federal plea. So stay tuned. We'll bring you the latest.

And a quick programming note. I'll be covering the Lindsay Clancy murder trial again tomorrow on CNN All Access. Our coverage begins at 8:45 a.m. Eastern. I'll see you there.

Thank you all so much for watching. "THE STORY IS ALEX MICHAELSON" is next.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles.

Coming up, THE STORY IS electric shock gloves. Under pressure from the administration to make thousands of arrests per day, ICE agents could now be getting new equipment.

THE STORY IS a record sale. The Lakers changing ownership. What's really behind the $12.5 billion deal? And could President Trump's DOJ be the real reason why?

And THE STORY IS a miracle rescue. After a whisper saved a baby and father from rubble the search is on for the mother in a collapsed building in Colombia. CNN's David Culver is there.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Los Angeles, THE STORY IS with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: Our top story is the Trump administration's plan to equip federal immigration agents with gloves that deliver electrical shocks. A notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security says that ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to purchase the devices. It's unclear how many will actually be bought, how much each one would cost, and when officers would start using them. But they are expected to be delivered by the end of March next year.

The manufacturer says that the gloves are intended to de-escalate encounters between agents and individuals. A video shared by the company in 2023 shows how the gloves work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So if I was back here and I was working with Wyatt, and he started to struggle with me, I would say, Wyatt, oh. (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Now, if you take a look at Wyatt, he's got no burn signatures. Nothing happened to his skin. He's perfectly fine. But that fight ended in less than three seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: He looks perfectly fine, doesn't he? This comes as DHS has been under pressure to put more body cams on agents after several officer involved shootings where agents were not wearing body cams. DHS and ICE are already under scrutiny over what critics say are aggressive and dangerous tactics, and the Trump administration is pressuring the agencies to make around 2,000 arrests per day.

Meanwhile, we're learning more about a tense confrontation between ICE agents and a woman in northern Virginia. On Monday she shouted insults at the officers and the situation escalated when one agent pointed a gun in her face. New dashcam footage from her car appears to conflict with the government's account of what happened.

Katie Russo with our affiliate WUSA reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, you recorded us. You almost ran us over.

KATIE RUSSO, WUSA REPORTER: But Carolina Molina says that is not true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Stop playing.

RUSSO: She denies trying to run anyone over, but also has proof. Her dash cam. Molina says she's a licensed counselor who works with immigration lawyers.

CAROLINA MOLINA, LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIST: And conducting psychological immigration evaluations.

RUSSO: It's why she was in Bailey's Crossroads Monday afternoon. When she saw ICE agents she decided to let them know what she thinks of them.

MOLINA: You're a ho. You're a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) up.

RUSSO: She had shared similar thoughts with other agents a few blocks away.

MOLINA: You're (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

RUSSO: And decided it wasn't a good idea to go to the lawyer's office.

MOLINA: Sometimes they have clientele sitting in the lobby waiting to speak with the immigration lawyer.

RUSSO: But as she started to drive away, agents blocked her in.

MOLINA: Are you really?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you following us?

MOLINA: No, I'm not.

RUSSO: And pointed a gun in her face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will arrest you. Keep it up.

MOLINA: I'm a legal citizen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep it up. I don't care.

MOLINA: Oh, my goodness.

(CROSSTALK)

MOLINA: At first it was like, oh, you're following us. And then after that it was like, oh, she tried to run you over. She tried to run us over.

RUSSO: She told them she had a dash cam. And after some back and forth, they got back in their cars and left.

MOLINA: I was looking down a barrel and he could have shot me and he could have gotten away with it.

RUSSO: Do you regret yelling those things? Do you wish you maybe hadn't done that, maybe you wouldn't have ended in this situation or?

MOLINA: No, I don't regret it. I feel like I am -- I know my laws. I'm an American citizen. I have the right. I have my First Amendment rights. I can say what I can, what I want, and I don't feel like I should have a gun pointed to my head because you didn't like being called a ho.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:05:08]

MICHAELSON: Let's bring in our panel. MeidasTouch legal analyst Dina Doll and host of the "Death of Journalism" podcast John Ziegler.

John, you visibly reacted as she was speaking. Your reaction to that?

JOHN ZIEGLER, HOST, "DEATH OF JOURNALISM" PODCAST: I would like to know which part of this episode turned out poorly for this woman. She provoked it. She's fine. Thankfully no one got hurt. She's now been interviewed on major media networks across the country. She is an immigration activist. She's made ICE look bad in a lot of media coverage. How did this turn out poorly for her?

She could not have possibly asked for a better situation than what transpired, and she provoked this. You don't want to have a situation like this. Guess what? Don't provoke it. It's pretty simple.

MICHAELSON: Your reaction.

DINA DOLL, MEIDASTOUCH LEGAL ANALYST: I mean, this provocation -- words are not provocation. Any criminal defense lawyer in the world can say you cannot have violent self-defense just because somebody said a word you did not like. Nobody wants --

(CROSSTALK)

ZIEGLER: Where's the violence?

DOLL: Pointing a gun to somebody could be considered assault. No. In a court of law that could be considered assault. The fact --

MICHAELSON: When law enforcement does it like that?

DOLL: Well, no, but I'm saying, like he's trying to say that words provoked it. You wouldn't even have that standard. That's not a standard of some sort of self-defense for use of a weapon. Pointing at somebody. The fact of the matter is, this was not a win. Nobody should have a weapon drawn at them and pointed at them. Especially somebody who's using that gun. The power of the federal government that we all gave that person is definitely being abused by pointing a weapon.

MICHAELSON: What do you make, Dina, of this news that ICE is now buying up gloves to shock people into submission?

DOLL: If this was a good idea police departments around the country would do it. The fact of the matter is well-run police departments know how to de-escalate a situation. They know how to be involved in the communities and understand communities to have a trust. The fact that DHS and ICE is doing this is they're trying to overcompensate for the fact that they have not trained their officers at all.

As you can see, by the fact that they're so provoked by words they're drawing weapons at somebody. So you're actually just giving them more ability to harm people.

MICHAELSON: But don't police use tasers all the time? I mean, how is it different from that?

DOLL: I mean, I don't know if they use it all the time. It is one of the tools at their disposal, but some sort of a use of this in order to deescalate it when we know there are ways to de-escalate situations. So police departments, again, have used that all the time. And that video that showed us how this person was not harmed, you have no idea underlying heart conditions that are involved. This can be very dangerous.

And we've seen again and again over 4,000 illegal arrests. Courts have determined 10,000 court cases have been thrown out by ICE. They are not doing their job well. They are capturing citizens. They are doing things illegally. And then on top of it, you're giving them another tool to harm somebody.

MICHAELSON: John.

ZIEGLER: Immigration enforcement is inherently messy, and the left has figured out that if they make it more difficult than it already is, like Dina just suggested, by not even allowing these gloves, which look pretty darn good in that promotional video, that they can make ICE look bad. This is a political battle. And because immigration enforcement is so messy, it's inherently going to be a political problem for Republicans.

That's what the left wants. They want -- this woman, the activist, wanted to provoke an incident to make ICE look bad, not because she felt like she was in any real danger, but because she's against the issue of enforcement of illegal immigration. That's the heart of the matter here.

DOLL: The left actually had a bipartisan immigration deal with Republicans, so it is not inherently messy. This could have been done well. But Trump wanted to run on it, and instead his thing of somehow we need to capture illegals has morphed into we need to deport everybody who has the wrong color of skin and accent because they are doing it with people who are here legally, not just people who are here undocumented.

MICHAELSON: Who's been deported that's here legally?

DOLL: Who have pending asylum cases are --- is sitting in detention centers right now.

MICHAELSON: Right. But they haven't been deported.

DOLL: Well, they're awaiting deportation. I mean, the fact -- why should they be sitting in a prison when they are here legally? So they're not capturing just people who have no documentation.

ZIEGLER: Look, I think that this is a classic example of where we have lost sight of the goal. The goal is to have real immigration enforcement. People that are here legally. Great. If you're here illegally and you're taking advantage of the system, you should be at least under the threat of potentially being deported. Without that threat, we don't have a real country because we don't have actual borders, especially when we're living in effectively a welfare state.

[00:10:02]

We can't pretend this is still 1919. The whole system has changed, and this is rational immigration reform that liberals want to make as difficult as possible.

MICHAELSON: Don't you think that sometimes ICE has gone way too far?

ZIEGLER: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. MICHAELSON: I mean, the mask, not putting stuff, rounding people up.

There have been -- a lot of people have been targeted because of the color of their skin.

ZIEGLER: And the left understands the power of those pictures. This is difficult work. It's inherently messy. And the left is thrilled that it's so difficult to do.

DOLL: Well, they're not thrilled. People are suffering. This is not a win. There are people sitting in these prisons without humane conditions. The fact of the matter is, federal courts have said ICE has detained 10,000 people illegally. The ICE looks bad because ICE is doing bad. We are doing nothing but speaking about what they are doing.

MICHAELSON: Want to get one other headline in speaking of all these talking points, the person from the White House podium who's been delivering a lot of these talking points this term is Karoline Leavitt, who announced that she is leaving. She just had a baby and -- a second baby. She's got two kids, I think, under two. And she posted this on X, quote, "Being a mother and working -- new baby while working in one of the most demanding jobs in the world has been one of the most rewarding, challenging seasons of life. The truth is, since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom that my two young children deserve, while devoting the constant time, energy and attention required to be White House press secretary."

I know you probably disagree with what she says almost every day, but in terms of being effective at that job, is she one of the most effective White House press secretaries we've ever seen?

DOLL: Yes, absolutely. He's not going to find a better person because the fact is, she came in when Trump was kind of off of a win of 2024. His approval ratings are in a disaster right now. He's not going to get somebody of her talent. The fact is she does lie every day for him. But she does it in a convincing way. And the next person is just -- he's not going to be able to retain that kind of talent again.

ZIEGLER: I think her legacy is that she did an amazing job because her job was to please one person and one person only, and his name was Donald Trump, and she understood that every single day. And she succeeded every single day. As far as her leaving, I totally respect as a mom wanting to spend as much time with her children as possible, but I'm a little bit confused. She's married. He's basically retirement age. Why can't he help with the kids? Maybe she thinks that he's going to be in a nursing home soon or something. I'm not sure.

MICHAELSON: OK. Well, that's not --

DOLL: I mean --

MICHAELSON: She has an older husband, but the point is, a lot of people say that as an excuse, but it seems like, I mean, when you've got two kids like that, there's a lot of work.

(CROSSTALK)

ZIEGLER: I fully support it.

MICHAELSON: There's just a lot of work to do.

DOLL: Maybe --

ZIEGLER: It was a joke. It's a joke.

DOLL: Maybe she didn't like being a decoy on the Air Force One. I mean, the fact of the matter is we have no idea why she decided to leave.

MICHAELSON: OK. Dina, John, we know that you guys are not leaving. You're going to be back with us in the next hour to talk about, among other things, the wealth tax that may be coming to California. That will be interesting to discuss when we see you the next hour. But we want to get some other news now.

Less than 24 hours ago, our big news was the Wisconsin primary. We had special coverage for three hours. We didn't know who won even when we signed off. Well, the person who won was David Crowley, who secured the Democratic nomination for the Wisconsin governor's race. He's already calling for unity among his party. It's being hailed as a win for the establishment Democrats.

Crowley had dropped out of this race last month and then when he saw an opening, jumped back in after another prominent candidate left. He ended up defeating -- speaking of left -- Democratic socialist Francesca Hong, as some critics question whether she could beat a Republican opponent to become the next governor. Her defeat comes as a blow to the progressive movement, just one week after a notable win by Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

Crowley telling CNN's Kaitlan Collins tonight he wants to bring together all Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CROWLEY, DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR WISCONSIN GOVERNOR: I think when it comes down to being progressive, it's about the actions that you take. How do you pass policies and implement laws that actually has a positive impact on the communities that you represent? And I think that a lot of people have tried to focus on, you know, progressives versus the establishment, or insiders versus outsiders.

All I know is that not enough people have had a seat at the table. And I was told that if you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu. And when I think about our political spectrum, there are a lot of people who don't feel they have a political home. And that's why I wanted to get into this race, to bring as many people under the Democratic tent as much as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Republican Congressman Max Miller, who has been accused of abuse, is now facing a new federal lawsuit. He's being sued by his own ex-wife, Emily Moreno, over the release of a sensitive photo of their 2-year-old daughter.

[00:15:00]

Miller and his attorney are accused of recklessly publishing the image and documents shared online. The attorney insists it was an accident, says the photo was quickly taken down. Moreno is seeking $150,000 in damages for each time the photo was downloaded. She had previously accused the Ohio congressman of domestic abuse, which Miller denies. He has rejected demands that he drop out of his race for reelection.

The Intercept and the Freedom of Press Foundation are suing President Trump and his social media team. They claim that he is violating the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution by charging for instant access to his Truth Social posts. The president frequently uses the platform to announce policy decisions and executive orders. An attorney for the plaintiff says the president's official statements are not the private data of a company, but are owned by the United States under the Presidential Records Act. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

We're learning more now about President Trump's secret presidential plane switch last month in Turkey after a potential Iranian threat against him. Dina just mentioned this, specifically, according to a source, the threat to Air Force One by a shoulder fired missile. Now, the "Washington Post" is reporting new details about that intel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN LAMOTHE, NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: "The Washington Post" will be reporting very shortly that the threat, the threat stream that raised all these concerns and prompted these extraordinary actions, came from information shared from Israel. The CIA had low confidence in that information. But given the threat, given the seriousness of the issue, given the long running concerns about Iran's interest in going after the president, they had put all of this in motion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: According to a source, when the president secretly moved off of Air Force One via a catering container and onto a military aircraft, he was joined by several close personal aides that included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his executive assistant, Valerie Natalie Harp. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Stephen Miller were among those aboard Air Force One, as well as the traveling White House Press Corps.

Colombia's president says the death toll from Monday's earthquake has risen to at least 265. International teams are lending their assistance much like they do when two deadly quakes hit Venezuela back in June. But one political scientist says Colombia's government transition is making aid deliveries challenging. Remember, the new president took office last Friday. The earthquake hitting two days later. Thousands were injured in Monday's 7.4 magnitude quake, and hundreds

more remain missing three days later.

CNN's David Culver is in Cali, Colombia, with more on the rescue efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: We're headed now to a southern part of Cali, where we're told there are active rescues underway, including just a few hours ago, where someone was pulled out alive.

You can hear people still right now? OK, he said, you can still hear people. So let's go see.

Just handed us masks. They said, please put these on because they're worried about asbestos and anything else is in the air that we're also seeing some of this dust.

We've been told what we're looking at here was an apartment building that was about four stories high. You can see the rooftop pool, the blue tiles over there. Now about a story and a half up in the air. So it has totally pancaked down, collapsing into the basement of this apartment complex, looking into the collapsed rubble.

(Voice-over): Looking into the collapsed rubble, Harold Valencia recognizes something.

You can see your dad's mattress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. Which is the one that he's showing right now.

CULVER: Have you heard anything? Is there any movement or anything?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. For two days and we don't hear anything.

CULVER (voice-over): Harold flew in Tuesday from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and he isn't the only one here doubling as a first responder.

And how old are the two people still missing, roughly?

JAVIER TABARES, VOLUNTEER: Late teens?

CULVER: Teenagers.

TABARES: Yes.

CULVER: And a brother and sister.

TABARES: Yes.

CULVER: How do you even process this moment? Like --

TABARES: There's no way to process it. Like you don't process it. You're just here, dealing. Like if you're at home, maybe you may have to find some way to cope with it. Like there's no time to process this type of stuff. Like you have to be here helping. Otherwise there's nothing else to do.

CULVER (voice-over): Here in Cali, Colombia's third largest city with a population roughly the size of Houston, Texas, even folks working at hotels or taxi drivers even, are splitting their day between their actual work and helping with rescues, motivated by scenes like this. A man handing off a baby boy from within the rubble, dust covered and struggling to breathe. But he's alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

[00:20:00]

CULVER: You saw the baby's little head. He's not a first responder. He works in a bank and he was just around the corner and rushed down the street where the collapse and rescue is still underway for several others. And he says he goes there and he hears --

(Speaking in foreign language)

CULVER: What did the voice say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

CULVER: The voice says, I'm here. I'm here with a baby. Brian and several others immediately go in. Over the course of three to five minutes, they're able to pull the baby out.

(Speaking in foreign language)

CULVER: How's the baby right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

CULVER: Stable condition right now as well as the dad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

CULVER: The only thing is that the mom is still missing.

(Voice-over): More than 130 miles north, we watched on for hours as this closeknit community dragged huge slabs of concrete from this collapsed apartment in Pereira.

All of these folks are volunteers.

(Voice-over): Late in the evening, their hands reached a 32-year-old woman clinging to life. Her stepmother held vigil there for more than 24 hours. She tells us her daughter suffered heart failure and shattered nearly every bone imaginable, but says she's hopeful she'll make it. From that same wreckage someone's beloved pet also pulled out alive. Back here in Cali, this moment reality briefly surfaces for Harold.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to get my dad one way or the other. That's it.

CULVER: You could tell in that moment, Harold started to allow almost the reality of what he was looking at, the potential aftermath to soak in, and he had to push it away, almost compartmentalize a bit so that he could then focus that and get back to work. And looking at him from afar, when we first were pointed to his direction, we assumed he was part of first responders or a work crew.

I mean, he was directing traffic and having essentially some of the workers follow some of his orders so as to remove some of the large slabs of concrete. Then it turns out that he, like so many we've met here, have just flown in and are not part of the experienced team so much as are just here looking for loved ones. He and many others have said, if you want to do it, you have to do it yourself sometimes. And they're doing just that.

David Culver, CNN, Cali, Colombia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to David, we're thinking of all those folks.

For the L.A. Lakers, it is the end of a very brief era. After just one year, the team gets some very famous new owners. The backstory of why is quite something. "The Athletic's" Lakers beat writer here live next. Plus, the Massachusetts mother who killed her children breaks down in tears in court. Our legal expert here live to talk about what all that means for the trial of Lindsay Clancy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:27:22]

MICHAELSON: Welcome back. A live look outside our Warner Brothers Discovery studios here in Burbank, right outside our window, where it's just almost 9:30 at night, as Democratic lawmakers are now stepping up their opposition to Paramount's buyout of this company.

Congressman Jamie Raskin, Democrat, has sent a letter to Paramount CEO David Ellison accusing him of colluding with President Trump and urging him to answer lawmakers' questions about the deal. Paramount did not respond to a request for comment.

Warner Brothers Discovery is the parent company of this network, CNN. Critics of the merger have raised concerns about CNN's journalistic independence under Paramount's leadership and the close ties between President Trump and the Ellison family.

To sports now, the L.A. Lakers, one of the most valuable sports teams, have been sold for a record-breaking figure. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner, who is the brother of President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are paying $12.5 billion for the 17-time NBA champions. Most of us had no idea the Lakers were even for sale. Their latest majority owner, Mark Walter, had the team for barely a year. The NBA Board of Governors still has to sign off on the Iger-Kushner deal. Joining me now is Dan Wolke, the Lakers senior writer for "The

Athletic," covering this story today. Here's the headline from "The Athletic." "Lakers to be sold to Bob Iger, Joshua Kushner one year after Mark Walter bought the team."

So you've been working on the inside story here. What's the inside story? How did this happen?

DAN WOLKE, LAKERS SENIOR WRITER, THE ATHLETIC: How was your weekend? Did you spend $12.5 billion on a sports team?

MICHAELSON: Yes.

WOLKE: Because that's how this seems to have went down. Really, really quickly. And that's one of the biggest takeaways, right? This was a big surprise. It was a big surprise for people inside the Lakers organization was a big, big surprise for people around the NBA. There was no auction. There was no the Lakers are for sale. There were no signs around the building. You know, as best as I can tell, this was Bob Iger said three days. I heard maybe on Friday the conversation started, but this moved really, really quickly. And the dots are kind of there to connect as to why.

MICHAELSON: So Bob Iger and Josh Kushner were apparently looking at buying an expansion team for Las Vegas.

WOLKE: Correct.

MICHAELSON: Then they get word that Mark Walter may be interested in selling the Lakers.

WOLKE: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Mark Walter, who also owns the Dodgers and several other sports franchises, is under DOJ investigation for potential loan fraud. How much does that have to do with what's going on here?

[00:30:01]

WOLKE: I think certainly right, like the reporting about Mark Walter and the investigations from the FBI and the DOJ certainly seems to have accelerated this process. Right? Bloomberg today had a story about that he was looking to raise capital. This is a lot of capital.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

WOLKE: Right?

MICHAELSON: This raised a lot of money.

WOLKE: Like this is one great -- this is one great way to raise a lot of capital. I think what's been fascinating, watching this happen in real time here is that, you know, like this just all happened 14 months ago where this franchise moved from family ownership to this brave new world of venture capital. And like, it was going to be great for the Lakers to modernize, right? And now they've been bought and sold twice in less than 16 months.

MICHAELSON: Well, and a big part of that modernization was that they would have the Dodger owner who had transformed that team into a champion. And a lot of the same people who were working for the Dodgers were coming over to the Lakers. So first off, what happens to all of them? And are the Dodgers potentially for sale?

WOLKE: As far as we can tell, as of right now, the Dodgers are not a part of this transaction. It's a separate thing. But we don't know for sure. Right? Like it's a totally reasonable question to ask. As far as the Dodgers, people that were in the building with the Lakers, it certainly feels like they won't be there anymore. Right? You had Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, who are baseball executives with the Dodgers.

They were at player evaluations before the draft with the Lakers. Like they were definitely involved in those decisions. The president of business operations, Lon Rosen, was a hire made from the Dodgers. I can't imagine that that's going to stay. I think change is certainly coming again when this organization that was like so desperate for moderation.

MICHAELSON: So these owners are pretty famous names.

WOLKE: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Bob Iger, obviously the longtime CEO of Disney, and Josh Kushner, whose last name is probably more famous than his first name. Josh Kushner, was involved in this FIFA deal to potentially expand sponsorships. That went away. That was spectacularly a failure. Were the Lakers essentially his plan B or maybe his plan C after the Vegas deal?

WOLKE: It's a pretty good plan B if you can land the Lakers instead of FIFA. I think what rubbed people so poorly about the FIFA deal is that soccer, and particularly the World Cup, is such a global game, right? And it belongs to everyone it's played in. Doesn't matter if you're rich, if you're poor, it doesn't feel like the type of thing that's for sale. And I think it being for sale really turned a lot of people off.

I think this is different. I think we've seen now, like a lot of the sentimentality about American pro sports teams is gone. But you're right. I mean, very famous names, very famous spouses.

MICHAELSON: Right.

WOLKE: To in all of this. It does feel very Hollywood. It's fitting.

MICHAELSON: Josh Kushner is married to Karlie Kloss, who's a model and actress. Bob Iger is married to Willow Bay.

WOLKE: Former host of NBA herself.

MICHAELSON: Who used the host the "NBA Inside Stuff." They own a female sports team -- the soccer team right now. WOLKE: Angel City.

MICHAELSON: Bob Iger, of course, used to run ESPN, which obviously has a very close relationship and has had the broadcast rights for the NBA Finals for years. So it's going to be interesting to see what he does.

Meanwhile, I want to get you on another big NBA story happening today. Russell Westbrook announced that he is retiring. We just did a giant profile that I worked on for several weeks with Russell Westbrook that came out on Friday.

WOLKE: Why did he do this? You decided he'd had enough?

MICHAELSON: Apparently he said he's out after spending time with me. He's done with the league. He told us then that he wanted to keep playing. He apparently had some interest with the Washington Wizards and the Sacramento Kings, two teams probably not going to be the NBA champions, decided to step away.

But what do you think is Russell's legacy, somebody you've covered very closely and known well for a long time?

WOLKE: I mean, he's one of the most complicated players to talk about, to watch of his generation. I think he played with such ferocity and energy. You would watch him play a game and you would get tired. The mistakes were loud. The successes were loud, very much his own person, a non-conformist, right, and non-conformist sometimes a really difficult to kind of put into a box. But he's an MVP. He's going to be a hall of famer.

You know, your piece I think highlighted he does a lot of really good stuff in his community. He will still do this. He'll be very active in this way. It's just been a weird career. It's just -- and it's been a weird end of the career. But he's going to be in the hall of fame and I think he'll be celebrated.

MICHAELSON: Yes. The most triple doubles in the NBA history. NBA '75 greatest players list. But the work he's done in the community, starting his own school, starting his own fashion line, his own foundation, all the stuff he's done to lift up people is really, really incredible.

WOLKE: Very genuine.

MICHAELSON: And he says -- he said that his legacy, as he said he wanted to be remembered, is for impacting and inspiring his community. And he definitely has done that.

WOLKE: I believe him.

MICHAELSON: Dan, thank you so much. What a day for basketball.

WOLKE: Thanks for having me. Glad to do this.

MICHAELSON: It's fun to hang out with you here on THE STORY IS.

Details are out about the charges faced by the son of a late Hollywood legend.

[00:35:02]

What the indictment reveals about the murder case against Nick Reiner, and why this was done potentially with a grand jury to save celebrities from testifying. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

[00:40:03]

A grand jury indicted Nick Reiner on murder charges in the deaths of his parents. The 32-year-old entered a not guilty plea in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday. He stands accused of stabbing director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, to death in their home last December. The indictment alleges Reiner was lying in wait before attacking them. That was news today.

Plea negotiations are ongoing between Luigi Mangione and federal prosecutors, according to people familiar with the talks. CNN reported in June that Mangione's attorney had spoken with prosecutors about a potential plea deal, but none was reached at the time. Mangione faces state and federal charges in New York related to the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The judge in the federal case set a hearing for Friday.

And a judge ordered recess after Lindsay Clancy was heard sobbing in court during testimony about one of her children's injuries. Psychiatric nurse practitioner also testified that the Massachusetts mother had repeatedly asked to change her meds. Clancy, who killed her three children, said the drugs were causing intrusive thoughts and insomnia. The nurse said she told Clancy the medication takes several weeks to work.

Let's bring in our former federal prosecutor, Neama Rahmani, who is the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers.

Neama, welcome back to THE STORY IS. You've been following all three of the legal cases we just talked about. Let's start with Lindsey Clancy, and let's show everybody what we're talking about in terms of her breaking down in court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about injuries?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Counsel, could -- we're going to take a break this time. All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All, rise. Jury, close your notebooks. Place them on the chairs, please.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MICHAELSON: What kind of impact does something like that have on a jury?

NEAMA RAHMANI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Huge impact, Elex. Look, you're talking about jurors that are ordinary people. They can't help but feel sympathy for someone in Lindsay Clancy's position. She's listening to the medical examiner talk about the autopsy of her daughter. The judge had to declare --

MICHAELSON: The daughter who she killed.

RAHMANI: Yes. So there's no doubt in my mind that the system failed her. She asked for help. She did not receive the help that she desperately needed. A lot of people think that her husband also failed her. I would never attack a grieving widower who also lost his children, but there's no doubt that she is a very sympathetic defendant. If you look at people on social media, a lot of people think that she was desperate for help, begged for it, didn't get the help that she needed.

She was removed involuntarily from a psychiatric facility after trying to check herself in. She was on 12 different medications. It's going to be a tough case for the commonwealth.

MICHAELSON: So you think that this trial is going well for her and her defense.

RAHMANI: I think they have a shot. Normally these type of defenses they're dead in the water. A very small percentage of them actually succeed. But I think the more the defense is able to put the mental health system on trial and show that she was asking for help, wasn't receiving it. Now, as a lawyer, I know that's not the legal test. The legal test is can you tell right from wrong? Are you able to conform your actions to the law? But I'm not sure the jurors are going to really make that distinction here with a very sympathetic defendant.

MICHAELSON: And something like this makes her feel like more of a human being instead of a monster.

RAHMANI: Absolutely.

MICHAELSON: Or anyone want to make her into a monster, the prosecutors.

Luigi Mangione, put the headline up on the screen, looking potentially for a plea deal in federal plea deal talks ahead of a hastily scheduled hearing, sources say. Why would he want to do a plea deal? And what would that do for him?

RAHMANI: Well, Elex, this is masterful lawyering by his defense team. Karen Friedman, Marc Agnifilo, two of the best. And this is why it's pretty well-established that parallel state and federal prosecutions, they don't violate double jeopardy. That's called the dual sovereign doctrine. But there's one important exception in New York state. It's unique. New York has a law that says that a subsequent or second state prosecution can't be based on the same transaction or occurrence as a previous case.

So why am I talking about this? In the federal case, the murder and weapons charges have been dismissed. They just have stalking. But if Mangione can prove that the stalking in the federal court and the murder in the state court are the same transaction or occurrence, they could potentially get the state case dismissed and just plead only to those federal stalking charges.

MICHAELSON: So that could potentially be a big deal where, I mean, does this -- do you think this likely happens?

RAHMANI: It's a huge deal. Again, it's New York's double jeopardy law. Let me tell you the last time it happened actually it was Paul Manafort. He's convicted by a Virginia jury --

MICHAELSON: This was President Trump's campaign manager.

RAHMANI: Exactly. And a young Todd Blanche represented Manafort in New York state court, made the same argument successfully, went up on appeal, said, listen, you can't prosecute him twice. It was Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan D.A., that tried to do so, knowing that Manafort was going to be pardoned. So this argument does have some legs.

[00:45:00]

MICHAELSON: Of course, Todd Blanche, who had served as the president's personal attorney, is now the attorney general of the United States.

All right, here in Southern California, just horrible death for Rob and Michele Reiner, who were killed by their son. Here's the headline. New indictment alleges that Nick Reiner was lying in wait before killing parents Rob and Michele Reiner, allegedly killed by Nick Reiner. Lying in wait. What does that term mean, and why does it matter?

RAHMANI: Well, it matters because it's a special circumstance that makes Nick Reiner eligible for the death penalty. And there's two here. The first is multiple victims. His parents, Rob and Michele. Lying in wait is something that we're really hearing for the first time. Now, this is important because it makes them death penalty eligible and if not mandatory life without the possibility of parole.

But it also leads to the inference that he was waiting in the master bedroom apparently. Now we know that he lived at the home in a guest house, but where he was when these murders happened is critical. And if he was hiding or otherwise in that master bedroom when he allegedly stabbed and killed his parents, that's a big deal.

MICHAELSON: So he's potentially in the bedroom waiting for them to show up. They get there and then that's what happens. It's interesting. He is trying to get access to $1.5 million trust fund that his parents had set aside for him. And there's a petition for that. I want to put this up on the screen. And his lawyer says Nick loved his parents. He is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue. What? What did or did not happen to them? I mean, it's alleged that he

killed them. How is that not at issue?

RAHMANI: It is the issue in the case, Elex, you're absolutely right. So California, like many states, has a slayer statute, which means that if you kill your parents, you're automatically disinherited. There's two ways for it to apply obviously if you're convicted -- he hasn't been convicted yet -- or a probate judge can decide by a lower standard preponderance of the evidence that you did so.

So him being disinherited means that he'll probably have to go with a public defender and not celebrity lawyer Alan Jackson.

MICHAELSON: And by the way, you said that this was taken to a grand jury, which almost never happens as a way to potentially stop people like Conan O'Brien and others from having to testify at a preliminary hearing. But they could be testifying at a murder trial if that comes.

Neama Rahmani, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

Still ahead on THE STORY IS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I'm asking American partners to sell me 5 percent, 5 percent of missiles. What they have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: CNN's Nick Paton Wals, speaking with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who is reviewing his call for U.S. missile interceptors as Ukraine faces an onslaught of Russian strikes. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:52:36]

MICHAELSON: Ukraine's president is making a new plea for U.S. Patriot missile interceptors. Russian strikes have been ravaging Ukraine in recent months as Moscow tries to exploit Kyiv's shortage of those weapons. So much so that the U.N. says July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians in more than four years.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking with CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Are you out of interceptors now? Do you have none left?

ZELENSKYY: No, I will explain to you how it works. So this year we have two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025 first. Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before. We pay 100 percent to Americans. I have the package from the United States, and then my personal involvement, it doesn't work either way. It's my personal talks, meetings and phones -- phone calls each day. With everybody I try to exchange something to missiles.

This year I'm asking American partners to sell me 5 percent, 5 percent of missiles, what they have in their stocks. If they sell us 5 percent, we will go through the winter and save people's lives. If they can sell us 10 percent, we will destroy all the Russians' ballistic missiles.

PATON WALSH: And has that request been answered yet? Have you had a clear indication as to whether --

ZELENSKYY: The answer is -- for today is next. I have 1 percent. This is in what I live each day. From 1 percent to 5 percent, I have some, you know, some months and million phone calls and anything else, what can I do? I do some things which I can't even share. And it's not -- it doesn't mean that it's out of the law. No, but it's -- I can't speak about it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:55:04]

MICHAELSON: Nick Paton Walsh with President Zelenskyy there.

We'll be right back with the top stories of the day. The next hour of THE STORY IS right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: After a decade together, football star Cristiano Ronaldo and girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez have tied the knot. The couple showing off their wedding rings in a photo on Instagram. He's just got a few followers on that platform. They got married Tuesday on the coast of Portugal, the rep said. It was a private and intimate ceremony attended by their five children. The 41 --