Pressure Growing On White House Over Labor Secretary; Sen. Nancy Pelosi (D) California Suggests House May Take Criminal Contempt Action Against Barr And Ross; House Judiciary Moves To Subpoena Trump Officials On Immigration And Potential Obstruction Of Justice
POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: All right, top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Jim Sciutto has the day off. And this morning, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta job is still in intact, but for how long as pressure grows on Capitol. Soon, sources tell us Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer will take to the center floor and call for Acosta's resignation. This follows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for him to resign overnight. Acosta is under fire for his role getting a sweetheart plea deal from multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein when Acosta was a prosecutor in Miami over a decade ago. The deal essentially saved Epstein years in prison despite the FBI identifying dozens of underage girls who say they were sexually abused by Epstein. On Monday, federal prosecutors unsealed two new sex trafficking charges against Epstein. He has pleaded not guilty in court. Listen to the reaction from one of the women who says that she also was sexually abused by him.</s>COURTNEY WILD, ALLEGED EPSTEIN VICTIM: Just to hear that they're standing up for the victims, you know what I mean, it's just like so overwhelmingly -- it's past due.</s>HARLOW: Tears obviously that she has from what she endured. Lauren Fox is with me on Capitol Hill. So, Lauren, how loud are the calls growing for Acosta to resign, and particularly are they across party lines?</s>LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, no. And, you know, for democrats, this is a time where they are calling for Labor Secretary Acosta to step aside. You saw Nancy Pelosi tweeting last night, quote, Secretary Acosta must step down. As U.S. Attorney, he engaged an unconscionable agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, kept secret from courageous young victims, preventing them from seeking justice. This was known by POTUS when he appointed to the cabinet. And, Poppy, in just a little bit, we expect Chuck Schumer, the leader of the democrats in the Senate, to also call for Acosta to resign. But I will tell you, you know, the White House, republicans are arguing that this is just another attack on the Trump administration and his cabinet. Here's what Kellyanne Conway, as Senior Adviser to the President, said earlier.</s>KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR COUNSELOR: It's classic for the Democratic Party to not focus on the perpetrator at hand and instead to focus on a member of the Trump administration. They're so obsessed with this president that they immediately go to Alex Acosta rather than Jeffrey Epstein.</s>FOX: And I will tell you I went yesterday to Lamar Alexander, who is the Chairman of the Committee that confirmed Acosta for that job at the Labor Department. He told me that he thought there was, quote, no need for Acosta to step aside. He said that these issues about the settlement more than a decade ago were already litigated in his committee during that confirmation hearing. That's what we're hearing from a lot of other republicans if they've seen the latest reports at all. Poppy?</s>HARLOW: Yes. Except for the fact that Julie Brown, a great reporting in the Miami Herald, came out after those confirmation hearings, so a lot of it wasn't publicly known then. Lauren Fox, thank you very much. Let's talk about the politics and the legal side of this. Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Congressional Correspondent for The New York Times, is with me, Elie Honig, a former state and federal prosecutor. So, Elie, just on the legal case here, you say Epstein has three legal options and they are all bad.</s>ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. He's in a world of trouble here. Option number one, he can go to trial. That will take several months. But if he goes to trial, odds are he's going to get convicted. We saw the indictment yesterday. We saw the Southern District's bail memo. They appear to have a very strong case against him. If he goes to trial and he loses, he'll never get out of prison.</s>HARLOW: With cooperators this time.</s>HONIG: Yes, cooperators, victims, I'm sure they have travel records, phone records, other things to corroborate. Option number two, he can plead guilty without cooperation. But I don't think the Southern District is going to give him anything near what he got in Florida. If I'm in their position, I'm not even thinking about anything less than a decade. And option number three is cooperate. Now, usually cooperation leads to the lowest sentence for defendants. He'd have to give everybody up. It's not pick and choose in the Southern District. And I'm not sure the Southern District wants to cooperate him.</s>HARLOW: But if he were to give people up, remember, there were four unindicted co-conspirators in this who in the last deal, that sweetheart deal, it was agreed that they would never face federal prosecution for this. So if he even cooperated and gave up those names because it's on the public corruption division in New York that is handling this, could those people be charged given the previous deal?</s>HONIG: Yes, they can still be charged. First of all, that whole deal that Acosta made where he immunized people around Epstein is completely unprecedented. I've done so many deals like this. I've never even heard of that idea. There is no such thing as immunizing co-conspirators around the defendant. And second of all, it's not blinding, certainly not binding on the Southern District of New York, so they should not rest easy.</s>HARLOW: Okay. So, Julie, let me talk to you about the politics of this on two fronts, first with the republicans. So as you just heard from Lauren Fox, these are not bipartisan calls for Acosta to go. It's Schumer, it's Pelosi and it's not republicans. Is that politically risky for republicans here when you're talking about dozens of underage young girls who say that they were sexually abused for years?</s>JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, listen, I mean, I think this is going to become a pretty untenable position for them, but it's not clear that that is going to move them off of their position. Their line on this is that, yes, you know, Jeffrey Epstein may be a despicable human being, he may have done horrible things, but the Labor Secretary wasn't responsible for those things and this was a plea deal that he made when he was in a different job. It was known and he was confirmed anyway. And I think we're going to see them pretty much stick to that position. It may become a very unappealing one for them to some degree. But we have seen them stand behind the President particularly when it comes to issues of personnel. I think the bigger issue is whether the President is going to continue to stick behind Secretary Acosta. He clearly is now. You heard Kellyanne Conway earlier today. They're presenting a pretty united front. But at the point where this becomes a distraction and President Trump he begins to feel -- if he begins to feel like this is taking away from him and his administration and his ability to do things and make his points, we may see him take a turn, and then I think we may see republicans follow.</s>HARLOW: So what about democrats? Because you had -- it was nine total, you know, senators, eight democratic senators, Angus King who caucuses with the democrats, who voted to confirm him back in 2017, Julie, and six of them are still in the Senate, including West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. And here's what he just told Politico about this, quote, about Acosta, if he made a mistake or a judgment call or something like that, does that affect the way he's doing his job now? I'm going to basically judge him on what he's doing and how he's doing it, again, for someone whose job it is to oversee any human trafficking.</s>DAVIS: Right. I mean, I do think that we are going to see acceleration among democrats of the calls for Acosta to resign. I don't know if they're going to -- if Joe Manchin is going to change his mind. He was one of the less controversial of President Trump's nominees back in 2017 when he was confirmed. There were only a handful that got bipartisan support and he was obviously one of them. But as you pointed out earlier, this was before Julie Brown's great reporting and all of this was known before these new charges, and the really atrocious details that are coming forward about what Mr. Epstein is alleged to have done, all of which we have to assume at least part of which Secretary Acosta knew at the time when he was working out this plea deal. So I think for democrats, particularly with both of their leaders now in the House and the Senate calling for him to step down, we're going to hear that spread a little bit more broadly and it's going to be -- I think it's going to end up being a pretty unified front on their side. We don't know though whether that will influence the White House and what Secretary Acosta will do.</s>HARLOW: That's true. Okay. Thank you very much, Julie and Elie. We appreciate it very much. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House could vote this week to hold Attorney General Bill Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt. This comes after Barr and Ross refused to turn over those documents related to the administration's push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. And this is all happening as Attorney General Barr says President Trump plans to continue that fight. One option on the table is an executive order. Our Justice Correspondent, Jessica Schneider, joins me live from Washington. So, very soon, it sounds like we're going to hear from Barr essentially a completely new legal argument from the administration as to the why factor here.</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right, and it could happen within the next day or two, Poppy, because we have learned that the President is now considering either an executive order or a presidential memorandum directing that this citizenship question be included on the 2020 census could come as soon as this week. Of course, the President has been pushing this despite the Supreme Court's ruling that the administration's initial rationale was, as they put it, contrived. But, of course, the President believes that this ongoing fight will only strengthen his support among conservatives. And the Attorney General says he has been in constant discussions with the President and is confident that there is a path to getting the citizenship question on the census and that a plan forward will be announced in the next day or two. But, really, that doesn't factor in the reality here that the census has already gone to print without the question and the legal fights are still going strong. And then you've got something playing out on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is saying that this is all part of an effort by the administration to shut out diverse voices across the country. She said yesterday it's part of the administration's plan to, as she put it, make America white again. And now, Speaker Pelosi is even sending a warning that she could schedule a full House vote soon to hold Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and A.G. Barr in criminal contempt. So, Poppy, this is all playing out on multiple front, the administration promising that the question will appear, but those fights are playing out in court and now, of course, on Capitol Hill. Poppy?</s>HARLOW: Okay. Jessica Schneider, thank you for the update. I appreciate it as always. This just in, the democratic-led House Judiciary Committee ratcheting up their fight with the Trump administration, they are making it clear they plan to target their subpoena power on two different issues. Our Manu Raju has the reporting and he joins me now. What can you tell us?</s>MANU RAJU, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. One on immigration. The committee is going to move on Thursday to authorize subpoenas to get information regarding the President's policies, about zero tolerance policy at the border that resulted in the child separation, the policy for migrant families crossing, they're going to demand records and testimony from current and former administration officials, but also the committee is moving to authorize subpoenas for 12 different individuals as part of its investigation into potential obstruction of justice. Now, on that obstruction probe, that includes people like the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is going to be soon hit with a subpoena. Also, the President's former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, as well as his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, former Staff Secretary Rob Porter, Michael Flynn, the former National Security Adviser, who, of course, pleaded guilty to his conversations with the Russians for lying to the FBI about those conversations. Those individuals will be -- Jerry Nadler will have the power to serve those individuals with a subpoena after the committee votes on Thursday to move forward. But also, Poppy, interesting people on this list including David Pecker. He was the head of AMI, the parent company of National Enquirer. And the questions that the democrats have is his knowledge and involvement in that hush money scandal to keep silent those alleged Trump affairs that were about to come out in the run-up to the 2016 elections. Democrats on that committee have been trying to dig into the issue. They've sent letters to individuals like Mr. Pecker. They've gotten resistance. So this is why they're moving to compel production of documents and testimony. But, Poppy, like all of these matters, the question is will they get cooperation. They've seen time and again resistance from the administration, which is why we're seeing a likely fight in the courts on all of these matters. Now ,we will see even more people potentially being fought in court, so the democrats can ultimately get compliance, but, yes, a ratcheting up of this fight between the House Democrats and the White House over all these investigations, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: And it certainly is. Manu Raju, thank you so much for the reporting. Still to come, Jill Biden defends her husband after political attacks target his record on civil rights.</s>JILL BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: The American people know Joe Biden. They know his values. They know what he stands for. And they didn't buy it.</s>HARLOW: Much more of CNN's exclusive sit-down with the Bidens ahead. Plus, Obamacare faces a major test in court today, and this matters as the administration pushes to do away with all Obamacare, and that means protecting pre-existing conditions with no articulated plan on how to replace it. Also, President Trump taking new shots this morning at the British government after the leak of those unflattering memos from the U.K. Ambassador.