[Ana Cabrera, Cnn Anchor:] You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for being here. Thanks for rolling with me this evening. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York and this time tomorrow the very first arrests could be made in the special counsel investigation being led by Robert Mueller. As we've been reporting, a federal grand jury has now approved charges, but what those charges are and who they're against is sealed for now. So far there is no official comment from the White House on the pending indictments. The president did have quite a few other things to stay, however. He tweeted this, "All this Russia talk, right, when the Republicans are making their big push for historic tax cuts and reforms. Is this coincidental? Not." He also unleashed a barrage of blistering attacks on Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, referencing a witch hunt for collusion he claims doesn't exist. And ordering Republican lawmakers to, quote, "do something." Now following those tweets, White House attorney Ty Cobb wanted to make clear that, quote, "contrary to what many have suggested, the president's comments today are unrelated to the activities at the special counsel with whom he continues to cooperate." I want to get straight to my panel. CNN crime and justice reporter, Shimon Prokupecz, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, April Ryan, and lastly, Patrick Healy, CNN political analyst and "New York Times" editor. Shimon, as we look ahead now to tomorrow, it is important to note that Mueller was building on intelligence from previous investigations. He didn't start from scratch.
[Shimon Prokupecz, Cnn Crime And Justice Reporter:] Yes. While he didn't start from scratch, we do know that he ordered some of the investigators of the FBI agents to go back and look at some new information or to perhaps go over the information that they already had because he wanted to do it his own way. But I can tell you, Ana, as you just said, yes, I mean, the special counsel has been sitting on information that the FBI and other investigators have collected for well over a year since the FBI started this investigation which was way back last July before the election. So all of that information has been sitting with the with Mueller and the special counsel team. And then since then really, they've done a lot of their own work, brought in more prosecutors, but absolutely they've been sitting on this and they've had a lot of this information for months, for well over a year now.
[Cabrera:] Shimon, I want to make sure I'm understanding something correctly because these indictments, they're sealed. The person or persons who could be arrested tomorrow, they may not know right now that they have even been charged, meaning there could be Trump associates who know they're the focus of the probe going to bed tonight wondering if they could hear a knock at the door tomorrow, right?
[Prokupecz:] Yes, I mean, that's pretty wild to hear, but yes, that's absolutely true. There could be people who are facing charges that don't know, and in the morning, early morning tomorrow, they will get a knock on their door from the FBI with an arrest warrant saying, hey, come with me, you're being arrested for whatever it may be. And then at that point at some point within that hour or so, they'll be brought to an FBI office here in Washington, D.C. where they'll call their attorneys and then the process will begin. But that is, you know, a likely scenario. You know, we've also been told that someone may surrender. So we don't know exactly what's going to happen, but absolutely there is the possibility that someone is going to sleep tonight and has no idea that they will be arrested in connection to this investigation.
[Cabrera:] April, the president isn't necessarily tweeting about Robert Mueller, but he is spending a lot of time tweeting about what he called a witch hunt and pointing fingers at Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, his attorney says those was not about the Mueller probe. But it appears this news has hit a nerve with the president.
[April Ryan, Cnn Political Analyst:] It's touched a nerve. This president is very concerned, even though he's trying to deflect on Twitter about what's happening. This is a very serious situation. Everyone was wondering when and if this would happen and it's happening now before our eyes. We just have to wait and see. We just don't know who but it is something. This could be one of the major nails that some are looking for to nail a coffin shut. This could begin the process of something linking to Russia.
[Cabrera:] As we know the president often encourages his supporters to watch FOX News, he's close with a number of anchors there including Judge Jeanine Pirro. Listen to what she was pushing on her show this weekend.
[Jeanine Pirro, Fox News Anchor:] It's time, folks. It's time to shut it down, turn the tables, and lock her up. That's what I said. I actually said it, lock her up.
[Cabrera:] So, we had a president that is getting increasingly unpopular with his so-called base. I mean, the latest polls if you take a look at the "Wall Street Journal"-NBC News poll today shows with white college rather, white people without a college degree, it's down from 58 percent last month to just 51 percent approval now. Still the majority, but that's not, again, the 58 percent that it once was, it's dropped seven points. Now could this what we just heard from Judge Pirro there and the president's tweets today really be focused on changing the momentum here and trying to unite Republicans along with a common folk?
[Patrick Healy, Cnn Political Analyst:] That is the that is the wish, that is maybe the fantasy of President Trump and people like Jeanine Pirro that somehow if they say certain things enough, if they throw enough kind of red meat at the base, the base will just keep responding in this totally predictable way. You know, but here's the thing, I mean, President Trump said we're going to be winning so much. We're going to be winning if you put me in office. And the reality is, he has not had the kind of legislative victories that a president, Republican or Democrat, would usually have in the first year in office. And instead, he's going on about how the stock market is doing so great, but that doesn't often help a lot of the, you know, white male people who lack a you know a college degree, who aren't in the market as much as some of those, you know, sort of very wealthy supporters of President Trump. Look, he wants to be spending any president would want to be spending his time right now focused on his tax reform package, on the Asia trip.
[Cabrera:] It's what this week supposed to be about.
[Healy:] This is what this week is supposed to be about. The Asia trip that's coming up at the end of the week. Instead, he is going on Twitter, Jeanine Pirro is going on FOX News talking about Hillary Clinton again. They're not even talking about an agenda or things that could help those voters in the poll that you showed. They're not communicating, they're sort of going in this wishful kind of fantasy that they hope, you know, will distract enough people probably from the big news that's coming.
[Cabrera:] And April, some Republicans have even started calling for Mueller to resign this week. The "Wall Street Journal" editorial board wrote this in a new op-ed, quote, "The "Washington Post" revealed Tuesday that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee jointly paid for that infamous dossier full of Russian disinformation against Donald Trump. Strip out the middlemen and it appears that Democrats paid for Russians to compile wild allegations about a U.S. presidential candidate. Did someone say, quote, 'collusion'?" April, what's your response to that?
[Ryan:] There's a lot going on. And there's a lot of questions circulating on all sides. Right now this investigation is under way and it's got to play out. And that's what everyone said before. And it does have to play out. This investigation has to play out. Now if they want to play another piece for something else, that's fine. But this investigation has to play out. And you cannot impede it because if you impede it, it makes it look like there's something wrong. So this investigation must play out. And when it comes to Hillary Clinton and their campaign, if there needs to be investigations, let there be, but this investigation has to play out.
[Healy:] And one key point to add, if I can, to April's good point, is that the "Wall Street Journal" is owned by Rupert Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch has been one of the staunchest supporters of President Trump. They speak regularly. So an editorial like this is not exactly a shocker.
[Cabrera:] And Shimon, you talked to Justice officials regularly. Has anyone among them express concern that the president might try to fire Robert Mueller?
[Prokupecz:] Well, there's always been concern and even from people at the White House and his attorneys at the White House that, you know, the president would do something like that. It would create a whole new storm of controversy, but privately in talking to justice officials, really, there's always this concern that the White House was going to interfere or somehow tell them what to do and they really like to keep what they do separate from the White House. Even at the FBI, much of this controversy that's ongoing now is because in some ways the White House, you know, not well, was communicating with the FBI inappropriately. You know, those Oval Office meetings with Comey that the president had. So there's always this concern that the White House could try to influence or could somehow interfere from people at the Justice Department, but publicly no one ever says anything to us. And also, you know, I think there is always going to be that concern. So what they did, this is why they have a special counsel. Right? This is why the deputy attorney general appointed Bob Mueller to head this investigation. I think partially because of this concern.
[Cabrera:] Patrick, looking towards tomorrow, what do you see as worst case scenario for the president in terms of who was indicted?
[Healy:] Well, it's the outer ring and the inner ring of advisers. You know, in terms if an indictment comes down as unsealed and it is someone who is still in President Trump's direct orbit, not a former campaign official or a former adviser, but someone who is in, you know, the inner circle or someone who he's still close to, that becomes a huge story. A huge distraction. You know, it becomes the headline that pushes off tax reform, that pushes off kind of the Asia message that they're hoping that this trip. You know, they don't know. I mean, to your point earlier, people are going to bed tonight and they don't know what they're going to wake up with, and President Trump, you know, is so invested in this idea that he be cleared of any kind of collusion.
[Cabrera:] Right.
[Healy:] And for him I think he's going to bed wondering, you know, is what does Mueller have? He fundamentally doesn't know what does Mueller have? And is what he's going to have sort of start changing the narrative about collusion? Right now no definitive evidence. You know, we're going to start seeing those details come out.
[Cabrera:] April, I read Ty Cobb told the "New York Times" in fact this weekend that the president still hasn't been asked to speak with Robert Mueller's team. What is the best case scenario for the president with these indictments?
[Ryan:] The best case scenario for the president with these indictments is that none of his family members are indicted. I think that's the best case scenario for him. Because if his family members or any family member, be it in-law or blood, that's earth-shaking because it's so close to the president. And it makes you wonder even more what did the president know? So that's the best case scenario I think that no family member would be indicted. You know, you just we don't know. And Mueller has information, he has had a broad scope and we know he was able to touch finances, he's touched so many different areas. He's talked to so many different people. People that we know, people that we don't know. So it just I'm not going to speculate because we're hearing so many different things and names in Washington. I don't want to put it out there, but I'm just going to wait and see and listen to what Mueller has to say.
[Cabrera:] All right, thank you all. April, Patrick, Shimon, we appreciate it. We have some breaking news we're following right now concerning an Army Green Beret who died in West Africa back in June. The U.S. Navy is now investigating whether Sergeant Logan Melgar may have been killed by two members of Seal Team Six. The "New York Times" first reported the story and quotes officials as saying Sergeant Melgar died of strangulation. CNN Pentagon reporter Ryan Browne is joining us now from Washington. Ryan, what more have you been able to find out about this investigation?
[Ryan Browne, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] Well, Ana, we now know that two U.S. Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six are being investigated by the Navy's criminal investigation service NCIS. Now the Army was initially investigating the death of Staff Sergeant Melgar but was since transferred its investigation authority in September, so relatively recently, to the Navy showing that Navy personnel were subjects in the investigation. And we now know there were two members of SEAL Team Six. We know that the military medical examiner deemed Sergeant Melgar's death a homicide, and that his widow was informed of the circumstances of his death as well. So the Navy very much looking into this, trying to determine what happened, but at least two Navy SEALs are under investigation.
[Cabrera:] All right, Ryan Browne from the Pentagon, thanks. Coming up, scandal in hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico involving a contract to rebuild the island's power lines. Why officials are now planning to cancel the $300 million deal to a tiny company based in the hometown of Trump's Interior secretary.