Shadow Diplomacy; Interview With Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD); White House Releases Details of Trump-Putin Call Hours After Kremlin Confirms Conversation; New York Times Report: Bolton, Pompeo, Esper Tried To Persuade President Trump To Release Ukraine Aid.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: New reporting reveals his top policy advisers desperately tried and failed to stop him. Shadow diplomacy. It turns out Rudy Giuliani's unofficial intervention in U.S. foreign policy goes beyond Ukraine. Why did he reportedly make back-channel contact with Venezuela's president? And Putin's call. The White House confirms Mr. Trump had a friendly phone chat with the Kremlin leader hours after Russia publicly shared details. Was there anything about the conversation that the U.S. did not want to talk about? We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Brianna Keilar. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Authorities say the attempted murder of Hasidic Jews at a Hanukkah celebration in New York was an act of hate. The suspect in the stabbing attack appeared before a federal judge a short while ago and was ordered to remain behind bars, as he faces new hate crime charges. Investigators say they found anti-Semitic journal entries in his home pointing to a possible motive. And also tonight, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to travel to Ukraine this week, as impeachment continues to grip Washington. With a Senate trial looming, "The New York Times" has revealed new details about President Trump's decision to freeze Ukraine aid and how his top policy officials pleaded with him to release the money. This hour, I will talk with House Judiciary Committee member Jamie Raskin and with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. And our correspondents and analysts also are standing by. First, let's go to CNN national correspondent Sara Sidner. She is at the scene of that Hanukkah attack in Monsey, New York. Sarah, what more do we know tonight about the suspect and this stabbing?</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we have talked to several members of the Jewish community here in Monsey, New York, and they are telling us they are frankly terrified about what is happening in their community and across the country, including what's happened in New York recently. Lots more details coming out about the suspect. A lot of people concerned about what they're hearing from authorities, where he is linked to certain groups, who has talked with anti-Semitic words, according to authorities, and now he is facing five federal hate crimes.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): Tonight, the man accused of going on a stabbing rampage during a Hanukkah celebration in New York is now facing federal hate crime charges. Federal authorities revealing chilling new details discovered in what they say was Grafton Thomas' handwritten journal, including a reference to Adolf Hitler and Nazi culture, on the same page as a drawing of a Star of David and a swastika, as well as recent Internet searches by the suspect, including the location of synagogues in New York and New Jersey. The suspect's attorney, though, disputes the allegation of an anti- Semitic motive.</s>MICHAEL SUSSMAN, ATTORNEY FOR GRAFTON THOMAS: Reverend Page and I -- and review scores of papers which frankly show the ramblings of a disturbed individual. But there is no suggestion in any of those ramblings and pages of writing of an anti-Semitic motive.</s>SIDNER: Witnesses say the suspect slashed his way through a house full of Orthodox Jewish worshipers, injuring five and leaving behind a terrible blood-soaked scene during what was a Hanukkah celebration. Josef Gluck was inside that home.</s>JOSEF GLUCK, ATTACK SURVIVOR: When I first saw him, he came -- I just saw him wielding his knife back and forth, trying to hit guys.</s>SIDNER (on camera): Was he saying anything?</s>GLUCK: Nothing. He didn't say a word to anyone inside. He just spoke to me outside once.</s>SIDNER: What did he say?</s>GLUCK: "Hey, you, I will get you."</s>SIDNER (voice-over): Gluck managed to get out there.</s>GLUCK: There were kids in there, so I decided to run back in.</s>SIDNER: Run back in and fight. His only weapon? The furniture around him, now in shambles.</s>GLUCK: Picked it up from the back. And I tossed it at his face. He was three feet away from me. I hit him in his face. And he started -- and I -- and he started coming after me out towards the door.</s>SIDNER: When the attacker left, Gluck followed at a distance, worried he was about to go into the synagogue next door. By then, the ambulances were arriving, treating the wounded.</s>JOSH HANS, HATZOLOH EMS OF ROCKLAND COUNTY: It was a very jarring see. There was a lot of blood. There were patients that were laying on the floor severely injured. And it's just something that you don't see every day.</s>SIDNER: His team whisked away four of the five injured in the Hatzoloh Ambulance Service, a volunteer service made up of Jewish community members. Less than two hours later, police tracked down the suspect using the license plate number Gluck had given them. When the New York police officers captured him, they said he was covered in blood and smelled of bleach, a possible attempt to clean away the blood.</s>GLUCK: Thousands of Jewish mothers went to sleep more calm that night, not worrying about their kids going to school the next day, or their husbands going to pray the next day, or their going shopping the next day, not knowing what's going to happen.</s>SIDNER (on camera): You have a guardian angel.</s>GLUCK: God is the guardian. I'm a messenger.</s>SIDNER: Now, as far as those who were injured, we know that four of the five people who were injured have been able to leave the hospital. But one elderly gentleman remains in the hospital with very serious injuries. I do want to also mention and talk about the fact that there have been so many of these attacks across New York. And some of the attacks have been where children are there and they're having slurs thrown at them or their families, and people have literally been physically attacked. And some of the attacks have just been words. And a lot of people here say it's those attacks, the smaller ones that you don't hear as much about, that really have people disturbed, because it's everyday people on a subway, on the street that are coming out with these words. We should also mention, you will remember, back in November, you had an attack in New Jersey, and that was linked to the Black Hebrew Israelites. Well, the suspect in the complaint, according to prosecutors, the suspect also had mentioned the Black Hebrew Israelites as well when they went through some of his dealings, some of his writings. And so they are looking at all kinds of possibilities as to why exactly he perpetrated this attack on people who were simply trying to enjoy their Hanukkah -- Brianna.</s>KEILAR: Sara Sidner in Monsey, New York, thank you. And, tonight, the Trump administration is planning new outreach to Ukraine, as we're learning more about the freeze in U.S. aid that helped lead to the president's impeachment. CNN White House correspondent Boris Sanchez is with Mr. Trump in Florida. And Ukraine and impeachment, Boris, continue to loom over the president's holiday getaway, even today.</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna. This potential upcoming Senate trial hanging like a dark cloud over the president's holiday here in Palm Beach. He spent yet another day at his golf resort. No clear indication that he's angry or upset. Not that many tweets from the president today, but his foreign policy is getting a closer look, and it is raising questions.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): With a Senate trial looming, President Trump hit the links at his West Palm Beach golf club today facing renewed scrutiny over foreign policy and his decision to freeze aid to Ukraine. "The New York Times" reporting Trump's top foreign policy advisers tried talking him out of it, one by one. Then National Security Adviser John Bolton, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who's scheduled to visit Ukraine later this week, took turns imploring Trump not to withhold the aid during an Oval Office meeting in August, arguing that helping Ukraine is in the country's best interest, but Trump dismissing them, saying he does not trust Ukraine's new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to weed out corruption. And -- quote -- "Ukraine is a corrupt country. We are pissing away our money." Newly released e-mails also reveal acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney playing a key role in freezing the funds, writing to an aide just two days after Trump's call with Zelensky -- quote -- "I'm just trying to tie up some loose ends. Did we ever find out about the money for Ukraine and whether we can hold it back?" The aide responding that it was possible, but wouldn't be pretty, adding Mulvaney should -- quote -- "expect Congress to become unhinged." According to "The New York Times," when another aide, Mark Sandy, later questioned if freezing money appropriated by Congress was legal, the White House took the unusual step of removing his authority to oversee the funds. New questions also emerging tonight about this shadow diplomacy effort by the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that appears to go beyond Ukraine. "The Washington Post" reports Rudy Giuliani held a back-channel talk with Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro last summer, Giuliani trying to establish a separate line of communication between Trump and the Venezuelan leader, while attempting to coax Maduro into abdicating power. Sources familiar with the effort say Giuliani's attempts were dismissed by then National Security Adviser Bolton, with a former senior administration official telling "The Post" White House officials did not understand why Giuliani was even involved in Venezuela policy. The White House tonight also facing heightened foreign policy challenges in the Mideast, an Iranian-backed militia vowing vengeance following U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq over the weekend, the attacks in response to the killing of an American contractor last week.</s>MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Today, what we did was take a decisive response that makes clear what President Trump has said for months and months and months, which is that we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy.</s>SANCHEZ: Pompeo and Esper, joined by Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley, stopping in Palm Beach for roughly three hours Sunday, briefing Trump and reporters on the attacks and vowing to continue exerting maximum pressure on Iran, reviving concerns about whether Trump, despite previously condemning U.S. military action in the region, would risk another war in the Mideast heading into the 2020 campaign.</s>SANCHEZ: One more bit of news, Brianna. We have learned that President Trump shared a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, the two men apparently discussing counterterrorism measures. The Kremlin reporting that Vladimir Putin for the second time invited President Trump to Moscow for Victory Day celebrations, marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. President Trump had previously expressed an interest in attending -- Brianna.</s>KEILAR: All right, Boris, thank you so much in West Palm Beach, Florida. And another story that we're following tonight, a federal judge just dismissed a lawsuit that was filed to challenge a House subpoena in the impeachment inquiry. CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider is here with us now. Explain to us what happened here, Jessica.</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this really was a key case that could have put the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches to the test, but it has now been dismissed by a federal judge right here in D.C. It's Judge Richard Leon, and he has said that a lawsuit filed by former Deputy National Security Adviser Charles Kupperman, he says it is now moot. And that's because this was a lawsuit asking the federal court to decide whether Kupperman had to comply with a subpoena that has since been withdrawn that had been in effect during the House impeachment hearings just earlier this month. But Judge Leon points out that this subpoena, it was no longer in effect, it had been withdrawn. And the House has since promised not to reissue a subpoena. That's, of course, because the impeachment has already gone forward. The president has been impeached. And, also, the executive branch has promised that Kupperman will not be punished for defying that original subpoena. Now, this was a case that was of key interest at the height of the House hearings, but it has since lost really all of its urgency. Kupperman's boss, John Bolton, was also implicated in this case, since the two men shared a lawyer. And this lawyer had really dangled the possibility that John Bolton perhaps would testify in House hearings if a judge ruled that Kupperman had to testify. And it was at the same time that Bolton's attorney floated this idea that Bolton did have personal knowledge of meetings and conversations that could be crucial to the House's inquiry about the withholding of military aid to Ukraine. But the court now staying out of the fight, at least for now, Judge Leon writing this in part, saying: "Have no doubt, though. Should the winds of political fortune shift and the House were to reissue a subpoena to Dr. Kupperman, he will face the same conflicting directives that precipitated this suit. If so, he will undoubtedly be back before this court seeking a solution to a constitutional dilemma that has longstanding political consequences, balancing Congress' well-established power to investigate with a president's need to have a small group of national security advisers who have some form of immunity from compelled congressional testimony." But, Brianna, really, that still begs the question, what if witnesses are called in this upcoming Senate trial? Could Kupperman or even John Bolton be issued subpoenas? And then would this fight be right back in the courts? Of course, it's unlikely that either would face a subpoena with a Senate Republican majority, but Judge Leon in this ruling, he makes clear, Brianna, that this fight is over for now, but really maybe not forever -- Brianna.</s>KEILAR: Jessica Schneider, thank you so much for that report. And joining me now is Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin. He serves on the Judiciary and the Oversight committees. And, sir, thank you so much for joining us.</s>REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): I'm delighted to be with you.</s>KEILAR: So, this decision, this judge's ruling, the reason he's basically saying this is a moot issue is because Democrats withdrew the subpoena of Kupperman. Do you wish that, in a way, that Democrats had not, so that there was this possibility of getting more information that could have helped your case?</s>RASKIN: No, I don't think so. We had 17 sworn witnesses under oath, all of whom essentially told different parts of the exact same story, which is, the president engaged in the shakedown of President Zelensky in order to get him involved and embroiled in our presidential election by going after the Bidens and by reviving the discredited 2016 conspiracy theory that it wasn't Vladimir Putin and the Russians that had engaged in a sweeping and systematic campaign against our election; it was the Ukrainians. And so these were two bogus things that President Trump was trying to get President Zelensky to do, and lording over him hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance, as well as the much- sought-after White House meeting that Zelensky had wanted. So the evidence was not just overwhelming. It was uncontradicted. It was unrefuted. So, if we had 18 witnesses, instead of 17 witnesses, maybe it would have been a tiny bit better, but the point is, is that there was overwhelming evidence for the prosecutor in this case, the House of Representatives, to say, we have seen enough. This president has committed high crimes and misdemeanors against the American people. It's a crime in progress, and it's a danger to the republic.</s>KEILAR: It could certainly help Democrats case if Congress heard from John Bolton, who has the same lawyer as Kupperman. According to some of the testimony that we saw on the House side, he said, this was a drug deal. He said, Rudy Giuliani was a hand grenade who was going to blow everybody up. Knowing that, and with Democrats pushing to have witnesses testify in the Senate trial, does that affect anything there?</s>RASKIN: Well, it does. It underscores the absolute importance of having a real trial in the U.S. Senate. The way the Constitution is set up in Article 1 for impeachment purposes is, the House acts like a grand jury and a prosecutor. It brings the charges. Two charges have been brought forward, abuse of power, and then obstruction of Congress in our impeachment investigation. Now it goes to the Senate. But the Senate must conduct a real trial. And the problem is, is that Senator McConnell said, basically, he'd seen enough, and he's coordinating with the White House. And then Lindsey Graham, the chair of the House -- of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was saying he didn't need to see any evidence or any facts at all. That's an absolutely disgraceful abdication of their constitutional duty. They're going to have to swear an oath, along with the 98 other senators, to say that they solemnly swear that, in the matter of the impeachment of Donald Trump, that they will render impartial justice under the Constitution and the laws. It's not an impartial justice if you say you have already made up your mind, you don't need to see the facts and evidence. And that's true, not just for Republicans. It's true for Democrats too. Democrats should be open to the possibility that they come forward with exculpatory evidence. Right now, we haven't seen any, but maybe the president comes forward with an alibi that we haven't seen yet.</s>KEILAR: There's a "New York Times" report that has new details on the aid that the president withheld from Ukraine as he tried to get them to investigate Joe Biden and Joe Biden's son, Hunter. They're reporting that the defense secretary, the secretary of state, and then the national security adviser, John Bolton, lobbied the president intensely in the Oval Office, saying, you need to let this go forward. This is actually good for America that Ukraine gets its military aid. He disregarded them. What does that tell you? And what does that mean for your impeachment case?</s>RASKIN: That tells us that this was Donald Trump's decision and Donald Trump's alone, and it's not going to work to be able to blame it on Pompeo or Rudy Giuliani or anybody else, that the president made this decision. And those Cabinet members that you just cited who are saying...</s>KEILAR: But how do you prove that if you don't hear from John Bolton?</s>RASKIN: Well, that's why we need a real trial and we need real witnesses. And I trust that our colleagues over on the Senate side will render faithful constitutional service by making sure there's a real trial. But those Cabinet members that you just mentioned who were urging the president to let the money go through, as he was legally obliged to do, because that was money that was adopted by Congress, it was approved by Congress. It went through the anti-corruption screen at the Department of Defense. All they had to do was let it go through. But they weren't letting it through. Those same members of the Cabinet who urged the president to do the right thing were the ones who President Trump told not to go testify. He blockaded the witnesses. And he didn't turn over a single subpoenaed document. Think about that. This is the United States of America. Anybody else in America would have to participate in the trial. And the president thinks he's above the law.</s>KEILAR: You're back on the 7th. And the articles of impeachment, at some point, we would expect that they would go to the Senate. I have heard a lot of Democrats say they will. They don't exactly know when. Have you been strategizing? Has the -- have Democrats been strategizing about when that's going to happen? Do you have any idea?</s>RASKIN: Well, we want them to go over there as soon as possible, because we think that this is not only a series of high crimes and misdemeanors.</s>KEILAR: So, in like a couple of days after you leave -- after you come back?</s>RASKIN: Well, it is a crime in progress. It's still going on. There's still people like Rudy Giuliani who are going over to Ukraine and are still trying to perpetrate...</s>KEILAR: Are you going to send them over on the 7th?</s>RASKIN: Well, here's the thing. We want to make sure that the Senate is going to do its job. And that's the thing. The Senate has got to have a real trial. They're sworn under oath to render impartial justice in this case.</s>KEILAR: But when would you like to send them over?</s>RASKIN: As soon as there are procedures in place for a fair trial. And everybody in America knows what a fair...</s>KEILAR: Before mid-January?</s>RASKIN: Well, I hope it's as soon as possible. I hope it's next week. I hope that they will be able to come up with an agreement. Look, 100 senators in the Clinton trial agreed to the procedures. It's not that difficult. Americans know what a fair trial is. A fair trial is when all the evidence is heard, all the relevant witnesses come in and are able to testify, and we get at the truth of the matter. So it's not a big mystery what a fair trial is. The mistake is when some of the GOP leadership say, oh, this is just a political process, it's not a real trial. Read the Constitution. It is a real trial.</s>KEILAR: Congressman Jamie Raskin, thank you so much.</s>RASKIN: Brianna, thank you so much for having me.</s>KEILAR: Appreciate you coming into the studio. And just ahead, I'm going to talk with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio about the Hanukkah stabbing attack and the surge in anti-Semitic incidents that we have seen in and around New York City.