Former Trump Staffer Faces Jail Time for Six Months; Former CIA Officials in Full Force Against Trump; More to Follow Brennan's Lead; President Carter Calls Trump a Disaster In Human Rights and Treating People
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Let's get after it.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: I'm pulling my ear. See you later. It's 10 o'clock.</s>LEMON: Let's get after it.</s>CUOMO: I'm not anything like that.</s>LEMON: I know.</s>CUOMO: You don't need glasses.</s>LEMON: OK. Well, these are prescription.</s>CUOMO: Yes, sure.</s>LEMON: Tell my eye doctor that.</s>CUOMO: I will.</s>LEMON: All right. Al right, Chris, thank you. Have great weekend. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. We have breaking news in the Russian investigation to tell you about. The Special Counsel Robert Mueller is recommending a sentence of up to six months in jail for former Trump campaign staffer George Papadopoulos who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. And we have more breaking news to tell you about as well. President Trump doubling on his enemies list tonight. The White House has reportedly drafted multiple documents revoking security clearances of the critics the president wants to punish. And one senior official says they have discussed timing the release of those documents as a distraction during news cycles unfavorable to the president. That's according to the Washington Post. And this latest efforts to distract and deflect comes as 60 former CIA officials have signed a letter warning President Trump that, quote, "the country will be weakened if there's a political litmus test before seasoned experts are allowed to share their views." That's on top of 15 former officials who have already issued a similar statement in response to the president's decision earlier this week to revoke the security clearance of ex-CIA Chief John Brennan. But the president he says this.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no silence. If anything I'm giving them a bigger voice. Many people don't even know who he is. And now he has a bigger voice and that's OK with me because I like taking on voices like that.</s>LEMON: That's as President Trump tries to defend his former campaign chairman as a jury in Virginia ends a second day of deliberations in the Manafort trial with no verdict in sight.</s>TRUMP: I think the whole Manafort trial is very sad when you look another what's going on. I think it's a very sad day for our country.</s>LEMON: Well, now that is absolutely true. It is a very sad day for our country. It's a very sad day for our country when a candidate for the highest office in the nation puts his campaign in hands of man like Paul Manafort. The man Donald Trump chose to help him get elected is on trial on charges that could land him in jail for the rest of his life if he's convicted on all of them. But the president rather than keeping quiet and letting justice take its course lashing out at the man prosecuting Manafort and that's Robert Mueller.</s>TRUMP: Mr. Mueller is highly conflicted. In fact, Comey is like his best friend. I could go into conflict after conflict. But sadly, Mr. Mueller is conflicted. Let him write his report. We did nothing. There's no collusion.</s>LEMON: Here we go again. The old I know you are, but what am I strategy. Robert Mueller is a former director of the FBI who was nominated by President George W. Bush. His appointment as special counsel has been upheld by four federal judges. Most recently by a judge appointed to the bench by President Trump himself. But that didn't stop Trump from returning to the baseless charge he's thrown around again and again.</s>TRUMP: Look, I say it. I say it again. That whole situation is a rigged witch hunt. It's a totally rigged deal. They should be looking at the other side.</s>LEMON: So the fact is, Mueller's investigation has already resulted in 191 criminal charges against 35 defendants and five guilty pleas so far. In the face of all this, the White House is scrambling to spin the president's actions. Kellyanne Conway today offering a defense you might call pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.</s>KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISOR: Why is everybody so obsessed with the president of the United States? He can't even begin or finish the sentence in (Inaudible) lifetime. It's kind of weird.</s>LEMON: Well, Donald Trump is man who always needs an enemy. Someone to blame especially now. With ex-aide Omarosa holding as many as 200 secretly recorded tapes of team Trump and with the possibility of a presidential interview with Robert Mueller looming. Mueller who is investigating Russia's attack on our democracy during the 2016 election. And whether anyone from the Trump campaign was involved. But President Trump doesn't see it as an attack on our democracy. One that should be battled with all the weapons at our disposal. He sees it as an attack on him on his legitimacy. He sees it as questioning his election victory and if there's one thing Trump cannot tolerate, it's anybody who questions his most cherished belief. That he's a winner. I want to bring in CNN Political Analyst, Carl Bernstein, CNN Presidential Historian, Douglas Brinkley, and CNN National Security Analyst, Juliette Kayyem. Good evening, everyone. Happy Friday to you.</s>DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Good evening too.</s>LEMON: Juliette, let's start with this breaking news tonight about the special counsel recommending up to six months of jail time for George Papadopoulos. Remember, he is one that pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. But the special counsel is arguing that lies have consequences. Because he, they are saying the impeded the investigation and that his cooperation has been disappointing. What's your reaction?</s>JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, actually it's quite interesting and enlightening to see what happened with Papadopoulos who has been sort of a hero of the resistance. A lot of people thought he's giving this much information. It's clear from the documents tonight that were filed that he's been anything but. He's not been forthcoming. That they actually believe him to be stalling on information. And the key point for your audience to know is that there was a professor who basically (Inaudible) who basically was sort of the potentially central point of linking the Russians with the Trump campaign. He was in the United States and Papadopoulos lies, essentially made it very difficult for the Mueller team to be able to interview him or to even detain him. He's no longer in the United States and they are unable to have those conversations with this professor. So it's based on one person and sort of a missed opportunity but the bigger point is you don't lie. And even if you're lying and say you want to be helpful, if you're not helpful, we want you to go to jail.</s>LEMON: So we now have two letters, Juliette, protesting Trump over the handling of the security clearances. One by 15 former senior intelligence officers.</s>KAYYEM: Yes.</s>LEMON: One by 60 former CIA officials. I just want to read from this letter, from the second letter, OK? And it says, "We believe equally strongly that former government officials have the right to express their unclassified views on what they see as critical national security issues without fear of being punished for doing so." So, these two letters are a striking rebuke by 75 former officials who worked for Republican and Democratic administrations after Trump revoked John Brennan's clearance.</s>KAYYEM: That's exactly right. So let me just begin with how sort of, you know, how odd this is for this group of people, both letters actually, but mostly these are people that you and I have never heard of. They don't like to be in the rough-and-tumble of politics, they consider themselves political. But because the Trump presidency has been so undermining of America's not only legitimacy in the outside world but of course our own internal national security when it comes to our voting integrity, they spoke up. I just, you know, put it in perspective, Bill Shine who is now the communications director in charge of sort of hiding, you know, decades of harassment at Fox News and Sarah Huckabee Sanders who essentially lies every day to the American public, a public that's paying for her, they are in charge of determining who -- who's security clearances are going to be revoked at what time, right, because the Trump people want it to be done at times in which he is facing bad news. And what they don't realize, right, not only it's that absurd, is the Trump White House every day is facing bad news. I mean, it's like the idea that they are waiting for some quiet. I mean, they are the bad news, right? I mean, it's not like the outside world is creating it for them. So we're going to see these happen. It's, as you've heard all night, it's pathetic. I mean, in the end it's just pathetic.</s>LEMON: And it was striking to see the names scrolling of the 60 people who signed the letter as you were there, you know, speaking about it. Carl, I got to ask you, The Washington Post" is reporting tonight that the White House has drafted more clearance cancellations. I'm going to read from that. This is Trump wants to sign most, if not all of them, said one senior White House official who indicated that communications aides including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Bill Shine, the newly named deputy chief of staff have discussed the optimum times to release them as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles. Juliette touched on this a little bit. So they're going -- they're going to be pulling these clearances and putting this information out when they need to distract from something. That's blatantly political.</s>CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Of course it's blatantly political. We have to go to the very basis of what Trump is doing here. And that is, he is, as part of a cover up is trying to undermine and bury the Mueller investigation at every turn. And that includes through all this diversionary action. I've talked to people in the White House, lawyers involved defending some former White House people, people in his administration and all of them say that Trump is both in panic about the Mueller investigation and where it is leading in terms of investigating collusion involving key members of his administration and his campaign, perhaps himself. Perhaps his family. And we are also witnessing right now an unprecedented revolt. Let's look at what these statements by these 65 officials of the intelligence community really are. Since the establishment of the intelligence apparatus of this country in 1947 and 1948, there has never been anything like this a revolt. Let's call it for what it is by the most highly regarded intelligence professionals against the conduct of the president of the United States. A stinging rebuke in which they picture him as a despot who does not believe in free speech. And that's really what this is partly about. It's part of enemies of the people and trying to characterize those who might question him as being enemies of the people.</s>LEMON: Douglas Brinkley, I want to play this for you. This is John Brennan on MSNBC tonight and then we'll talk about it. Here it is.</s>JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER UNITED STATES CIA DIRECTOR: He's drunk on power. He really is. I think he's abusing the powers of that office. I think right now this country is in a crisis in terms of what Mr. Trump has done and as liable to do. And so, are the Republicans on the Hill who have given him a pass, are they going to wait for a disaster to happen before they actually find their backbones and spines to speak up against somebody who clearly, clearly is not carrying out his responsibilities?</s>LEMON: What's your reaction, Douglas?</s>DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: That Brennan is an American hero for speaking up. His tenure at the CIA was impeccable. We owe him so much. And he's now leading the crusade to tell people that Donald Trump is unfit for command. He's -- these are the best and the brightest, the wisest people on foreign policy and intelligence that are writing these letters. Someone of retirement saying this president is a disaster for the country going on right now. And it's not partisan. It's patriotism. People need to speak up. The shock in history is going to be how timid that these Republican senators are. They are so worried about the midterms. So worried about Donald Trump tweeting against them. So paranoid being mocked by Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity that they are cowering right now. And it's GOP that at best they are saying well, let's get through the Kavanaugh hearings. Let's get a Supreme Court justice and then we'll grapple with Donald Trump after the election. So I--</s>LEMON: Well, won't there be something else down the road, Douglas? Will they say, well, now that we have gotten through that, let's just get through this. And then it will just continue to go on. Go on, Douglas. Sorry to cut you off.</s>BRINKLEY: That's the problem. No, Don, you're right. That's it. And that's the problem here. But we're in dangerous waters right now. And just like Omarosa's doing her 200 tapes every week. She's a student of Donald Trump who is now going to be taking away security clearances from people with you know, 20, 30 plus career serving the United States in the best and most noble way. Everybody needs to speak up and defend Brennan right now. I've been surprised that former President George W. Bush staying so quiet. Eight years a president of the United States. His father had been head of the CIA. The CIA is named after Bush. Speak up and denounce Donald Trump because some of these other people in the list aren't household names where Bush is.</s>LEMON: Juliette, is this how a purge starts?</s>KAYYEM: It is. But as most things that Trump tries to do, it is backfiring, you know, as Doug just said. The amplification. I mean, basically what happened with John Brennan is you got people who really had been relatively quiet during this period. You know, they were part, they still believe in the bipartisan national security establishment. They all went to all the fancy conferences. And then, you know, you fire John Brennan and all of a sudden this group of 15 or 16 is now unified to say what a disaster Donald Trump is for our national security and how seemingly over his head he is in terms of being able to understand a larger need that the United States has an interest outside of Donald Trump. So it's how Donald Trump would like a purge to begin and we have to anticipate more will happen. But I think we should be heartened by the push back. It's not the same as being president of the United States. But there is a significant push back that people are talking about in the agencies and that the leadership is certainly expressing. I've always said I can't believe no one has quit this administration. I think it's time for Dan Coats to man up, so to speak. I think it's been clear he does not like some of the behaviors by the Trump administration. He's the head of national intelligence. He was caught off guard at the Aspen Institute in terms of the invitations of Putin and he did not know of this purging. He's, and somewhere where Coats is expendable unlike Mattis, who I think would be a disaster if he left. And I think it's time.</s>LEMON: Yes. OK. Stand by, everyone. We're going to talk more about clearances. And when we come back, no sign of a verdict from jurors in the Paul Manafort trial. The first trial to come out of the Mueller investigation. The president is already trying to defend his former campaign chairman calling the whole thing very sad. But in the sign of things to come Mueller's team is almost three times the evidence for Manafort's upcoming second trial.