Widow's Lawyer Speaks To CNN
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Want to welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Brooke Baldwin alongside my colleague Jake Tapper. We are live on this Monday, from Boston. The 19-year-old bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is currently sitting in a hospital bed, handcuffed, and moments ago, we learned of the charges now filed against him, using, including the biggest charge of all, using a weapon of mass destruction, resulting in the destruction of property. And, of course, the deaths of three people, these three young lives, in addition to injuries, including more than 200 others who are standing around the finish line one week ago today. We are standing around that finish line one week ago today. Boston is a city still reeling after the deadly bombings. A terrorist manhunt, car chases, shootouts, and a city wide lockdown. Now we are minutes away from that moment of silence. We now know the White House, the president, will be pausing to remember the four innocent people who were killed in a week of violence.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: We're also following a group of runners who are determined to finish the race. They started last Monday. But now let's go to Chris Lawrence who has got more information on one of the suspects, the eldest brother, Tamerlan, had a child and a wife, Katherine Russell, you've spoken to her. Chris, you've spoken to her lawyer. What did they tell you and what are you learning from the folks there about her religious beliefs?</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good question, Jake. Basically she is the woman that everyone has been wanting to know about. That's a federal agent passing by behind me right there, federal agents have been posted outside Katherine Russell's parents home, which is right here. This is where she's been staying for the past several days. Federal agents have been trying to speak with her, trying to determine what, if anything, she knew about what her husband was doing and who else he may have been affiliated with besides his younger brother. The attorney says basically that she understands their interest. She understands that it is a national security issue, and she feels very, very strongly about what happened to the victims of Boston. He also says quite bluntly, the family is a complete mess. He said Katherine Russell is distraught over what happened. He said she did not know anything about what her husband was doing, and says basically that right now her concern is with their 3-year-old daughter, who she now is trying to raise as a widow -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Chris, National Public Radio last week found three roommates of Kate Russell, of Katherine Russell, who lived with her in college, and said that they never liked Tamerlan, that once he came into their lives around 2008 or 2009, he started becoming belligerent, violent.</s>BALDWIN: Brainwashing words.</s>TAPPER: Brainwashing, said that when she married him, she basically cut off all contact with all of her friends. This, first of all, would undermine the argument that he wasn't really radicalized until 2011, if he's violent and doing that brainwashing in 2008, 2009, but more to the point, what does the family say about her state of mind even before these attacks?</s>LAWRENCE: Basically, Jake, she's known to her close friends as Katie, Katie Russell. She's young. She just graduated high school in, like, 2007. They were married in 2010 and basically she was raised as a Christian. She converted to Islam after becoming involved with Tamerlan, and we're told she is an observant Muslim, wears a head scarf and was wearing a head scarf when she was here earlier this morning.</s>TAPPER: All right, Chris Lawrence in Rhode Island, following the developments with the wife of Tamerlan, who is holed up with her family in Rhode Island, I imagine it must be --</s>BALDWIN: Tough for the parents, I'm sure and just getting their little girl back. We're following that story. We're also getting as we have been reading this criminal complaint, new nuggets because we now know the charges have been read to the younger suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. We are going to Don Lemon who is standing outside of Beth Israel Hospital not too far from us here in Boston. We'll get an update on his condition. And as we're learning more, we will share some of these new details about the moments just about one week ago today. Again, we're waiting for also a moment of silence less than 20 minutes away now. You're watching special coverage here on CNN.