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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Candidates Visit Fair; Cosby Sex Allegations; Theaters Raising Security. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 14, 2015 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[12:00:00] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday, everyone. Hello. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

He has been up, he has been down and today Jeb Bush is at the Iowa State Fair declaring the polls irrelevant and promising a, quote, "slow and steady campaign to the finish line." We assume our CNN poll of likely Iowa caucus goers is among those that Governor Bush isn't so thrilled about since he's nowhere in the top tier of the GOP nomination seekers, but rather in a three-way tie for seventh place. Essentially tied with everybody else on the screen given the poll's four-point margin of error.

And while I'm throwing a bunch of numbers at you, the Iowa caucuses are less than six months away, but Jeb Bush notes correctly, that is a lifetime in politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, polls are irrelevant. During the week of the - the 10 days of the state fair, there will be people moving up and moving down. It's always been that way. I'll remind you that my dad in 1980 was probably at asterisk at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: OK, Jeb's dad did win the presidency, but not until 1988. Tomorrow, this year's current front-runner, Donald Trump, and then on the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton, are going to pay their respects to an institution no presidential candidate dare avoid.

And where we find the candidates, we find CNN's political director David Chalian and senior digital correspondent Chris Moody.

All right, so, Chris, I'm going to begin with you, if I can. Trump's not going to take the soap box, apparently, and I guess Hillary Clinton doesn't plan to take the soap box either, but just about everybody else plans to either be there or be on the box. Run me through who's gone to the fair up on the box yesterday and today.

CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Donald Trump may never really be a conventional candidate, but today we saw Jeb Bush up on the soap box and then other candidates will be coming in. Donald Trump wanted to fly his helicopter into the fair here but they said no. I think Donald Trump's challenge coming into the fair here is to

appear - not to appear like he's above it. This is an opportunity where candidates are talk - having forced to talk to the people and be very exposed to people. And candidates who come in and put on a big flashy show aren't always necessarily treated especially well. This is a time that Iowans have to speak directly to candidates and they want that authenticity. And I think that's going to be Donald Trump's challenge as he comes in here this weekend.

BANFIELD: So, dovetail on that, David, if you will, because a lot of people discounted Donald Trump's machine on the ground. And when I say the machine on the ground, I mean the kind of machine that got President Obama elected. It is that extremely significant network of supporters at the grass-roots level who can actually motivate people in Iowa to take part in the caucuses. It is hard work to be a caucus voter. You don't just go in and mark a ballot. You've got to go to meetings. You've got to be dedicated. And you've got to have political operatives who can actually rally those folks on the ground. It appears now that Donald Trump might actually be doing that outside of those fairgrounds.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Right, Ashleigh, I don't think we're at the place yet that the Obama 2008 campaign was at where they brought in a whole slew of new people that had never participated in the caucuses before. They expanded that caucus electorate due to that hard on-the-ground organizing. But it does seem now, looking at what Donald Trump is building here, he has an old Republican Party of Iowa hand, a real expert at the caucuses who runs his Iowa operation here and they are going to build something to try to do exactly that, to bring in new people that aren't part of the typical traditional Republican caucus going electorate, expand that electorate and therefore be able to make a big show here.

It's a very difficult task but it's one that now Donald Trump seems to be committed to doing. We'll see as we look at the - sort of the financial filings that come in the fall, how much money he's putting behind this effort. That we don't know yet, but it does look like that they are going to begin that effort in earnest.

BANFIELD: OK. Let me pull in another famous name, one we haven't heard of in a while but that is now getting into the headlines courtesy of some Buzzfeed reporting. Apparently former Vice President Al Gore's supporters, and according to Buzzfeed, were talking about a potential run for the vice president. That's been knocked down pretty darn quickly. But there's got to be something, Chris, behind the notion that that kind of headline even happens. What is it?

MOODY: Well, as the headlines look - turn sour for Hillary Clinton, you're seeing a lot of activists, especially people we've talked to here at the Iowa State Fair, who said, hey, I'm open to hearing somebody else. Martin O'Malley was here yesterday. He spoke at the soap box and Jim Webb did as well. I think people are open.

Now, this is not to discount the large group of support that is for Hillary Clinton right now. She has a strong, firm base and large, giant numbers. However, I think there are still open - openness opportunities for other candidates to take a look at these campaigns (ph). And, yes, they did shoot it down. But just the fact that these conversations are happening, even if they're on the back burner or on the sidelines, could be just a little bit worrying for Hillary Clinton.

[12:05:17] BANFIELD: I have to wrap it there, but I am not going to wrap it without asking for this one word answer from both of you. At the state fair, would you choose deep fried butter or would you choose deep fried nacho balls?

CHALIAN: Oh, nacho ball, definitely.

MOODY: Wherever there's nachos, I've got to go with nachos. I mean, yes, nachos, that's the answer.

BANFIELD: That contemplation took way too long. I'd go for the deep fried butter for sure.

CHALIAN: No question.

BANFIELD: Guys, thank you. It's nice to see you. Have some fun there today while you're doing your reporting.

MOODY: Take care.

BANFIELD: Chris Moody, David Chalian reporting live from the Iowa State Fair.

In case anybody was wondering, a certain pro wrestler turned reform party governor of Minnesota says that he would happily tag team the presidential nominee in 2016. Jesse Ventura is, of course, who I'm talking about. And he told CNN that he is, quote, "the voice of the independent voter" and thus would be an asset to candidates running outside the mainstream. Donald Trump, for instance. But here's the weird part. He wouldn't just run with Donald Trump. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE VENTURA, FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: I didn't - I didn't necessarily say I want to run with him. We have differences of opinions on many issues. But I think Donald Trump is wonderful that he's shaking the system to its core. We have a government in Washington that's broken clearly and it needs to be shaken up and Trump is doing that and so is Bernie Sanders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: That's right, he mentioned Bernie Sanders. He actually even said he would be interested in considering that kind of a ticket. They couldn't be more opposed. But Ventura says he sees great parallels between his campaigns and those of both Sanders and Trump. So far neither man has commented publicly, though, on Ventura's overture to both of them - if that's what we can call it.

Just a reminder, CNN's going to host three Republican debates. The first one takes place in September. And then in October, CNN's going to hose the first Democratic presidential debate. So stay with us here on CNN for the very latest on the race for the White House.

It's happened again and by my count it's happened about 40 times now. Up next, Bill Cosby's attorney is here to respond to three new accusers and their lawyer, Gloria Allred, who's laid out a personal challenge to - to her yesterday, in fact, right here on this program. Debate - let's debate this whole issue of whether he did it or didn't do it. We're going to talk to her next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:10:58] BANFIELD: Three brand-new accusers and a new challenge for Bill Cosby's attorney centering on the notion that his accusers simply waited too long to speak up. Is 10 or 20 or 30 or even 40 years too long? It is according to the law.

These are all the women. Take a close look at your screen. You're actually going to have to squint because there's so many faces we had to make them pretty small to fit them in all on one graphic. There are 40 in total at this point but there's only 35 pictures because five of them don't want to be publicly identified.

I don't even have time to list the 35 names, but many of them share similar stories from decades ago saying that Bill Cosby drugged them, raped them or simply molested them or harassed them, but criminally. The statute of limitations for nearly all of their cases is up and Mr. Cosby has denied that he's a rapist. He's denied that he drugged women without their consent. He did actually talk about getting Quaaludes for the purpose of giving them to women for sex.

And these women can only do one thing, and that is tell their stories. Tell them publicly, loud, on television. But last month, Bill Cosby's attorney told "The Huffington Post," they simply waited too long and that that's wrong. Gloria Allred is representing many of the accusers you just saw on your screen, and when she joined me here yesterday on the set, she had this challenge for Bill Cosby's attorney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLORIA ALLRED, REPRESENTS COSBY ACCUSERS: I challenge her to debate me. Let's say right here on your program, or right here on CNN, come on with me anytime, anywhere, because you have been out there, a lot of the victims feel that you've been attacking them, have been filibustering reporters' questions, have been avoiding and evading and giving Bill Cosby-like evasive answers. Come on. I don't think you're going to be able to do that in a debate with me.

I will debate you. It doesn't - not about the case that I am currently litigating, Judy Huth versus Bill Cosby, but about any other allegations of the victims. You say it's too late for them to come forward or they shouldn't wait 10, 20, 30, 40 years. I want to talk with you about that. If you have the courage to come on with me, let's do it. Let's get it on. But don't just be out there all by yourself circling, giving these ridiculous explanations and defense of Mr. Cosby.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BANFIELD: And Bill Cosby's attorney, Monique Pressley, joins me now live.

It's great to have you. Thank you very much for - for coming on with me. I really wanted you to be on with Gloria yesterday and I know we made the overture to you, Monique, and you gave us the statement saying effectively, I'll paraphrase it if I can, that, you know, it's not the right venue to have these arguments, that the courtroom is the right venue, and I respect that completely, but that does not preclude me from asking you some pretty tough questions.

So with that in mind, it is uncomfortable to say the least for me as an anchor on television news to have to put up a graphic with 35 faces who effectively have almost identical stories of accusations and not believe for a moment just because they didn't have a moment in court that there isn't some element of truth to it. You know the old expression, where there's smoke, there's fire. How can you deny that, Monique?

MONIQUE PRESSLEY, BILL COSBY'S ATTORNEY: Well, those are all expressions and people may feel uncomfortable doing many things with respect to this case, but it doesn't change the facts. As you said yesterday in interviewing counsel for Miss Huth and other, normally on LEGAL VIEW, and I watch the show all the time and enjoy it, we're talking about cases that are actually in a court of law. But, for some reason, for months at a time, we've been talking about non-cases, we've been talking about accusations, we've been talking about unsubstantiated allegations when I'm representing a client, Mr. Cosby, who's never been charged with a crime, who's never been convicted of a crime and has vehemently denied, as you stated at the open, one, drugging women without their consent or, two, having nonconsensual sexual interaction with any other adult. And those are - those are the facts.

[12:15:04] BANFIELD: Well, wait, no, no, no, hold on, hold on. I've got to stop you there. I've got to stop you there, because I was waiting - wow, I'm so glad you said that. I was waiting in that deposition reading for him to vehemently deny drugging women without their consent. And then came the question that was asked of him, "Mr. Cosby, did you ever give any of those young women the Quaaludes without their knowledge?" And there was an objection. And it was a redirect to the Jane Doe's pleas, "no, I will not, do not answer it," his lawyer told him. "It's a discovery deposition." And the denial didn't come. If truth is your best friend -

PRESSLEY: No, (INAUDIBLE) that deposition.

BANFIELD: Why not say no? There was no answer and the lawyer said you can't answer.

PRESSLEY: And as I actually said when I was on your program the last time, I can't question or second guess why the attorney did what the attorney did in the deposition advising Mr. Cosby, and it may have had to do with an agreement between counsel as to what questions would and would not be answered. But what has come from Mr. Cosby through counsel, including me, is a denial of drugging women without their consent and a denial of non-consensual sexual activity with any other adult.

BANFIELD: Then why not sue these women? Why not sue every single one of them for libel? Because, do you know what, his entire legacy is taking a thrashing. He's losing money. And you, as an attorney, know full well, Monique Pressley, that if someone says something untrue about you, even as a public figure, and you lose a whole bunch of money because of it, it's classic libel. He would walk in, it would be a slam dunk and he could clear all of this ugliness, yet there's not been one case filed by your client of libel against these women for what they're saying. Why is that?

PRESSLEY: Well, you mean there hasn't been one case yet. And I do agree with you that there are classic cases -

BANFIELD: Are you going to file?

PRESSLEY: Of libel out there. There are classic cases of defamation.

BANFIELD: Are you - are - tell me, make news, please. Please, make news with me.

PRESSLEY: And I'm not going to make any - and I'm not going to make any news today by giving you any of what we may or may not do as legal team for Mr. Cosby. But what I will say is that there aren't any options off of the table right now.

BANFIELD: OK.

PRESSLEY: That there's no legal action that is not being considered. And certainly, if you look at the Huth case in California, the one case that counsel was unwilling to discuss yesterday, there is a counterclaim involved in that case. There is a motion for demure (ph) to dismiss the case. There is a motion for sanctions for the outrageous behavior of that case and that's something that I would expect for the media to pay attention to, just like they're paying attention to all of the other accusations that are out there with nothing them holding them down.

BANFIELD: You know what, Monique, you are great. I am going to hire you when I need a lawyer because you are really good at this. But I am going to press you on that motion for demurement (ph) and the motions to dismiss. Every case gets that. Every case. There has been no countersuit for libel because that means Mr. Cosby has to go into court and under oath he has to answer questions. The truth is the only defense in this respect. And if he goes after those women - by the way, the damaging is happening daily, so I don't know why there'd be any delay in filing any kind of libel suit against these women. Are they liars?

PRESSLEY: Well, let's look at it another way. And as I keep saying when everyone asks me that, today's not my day to get sued, so I'm not calling them liars. What I'm saying is that Mr. Cosby has denied the accusations and the allegations. But there are other reasons why you may or may not bring a defamation suit. When you look at people - and if you listen even to the comments from counsel yesterday, when you asked a direct question about why they're coming forward, what is the point when there's no legal leg to stand on?

And the point then is for some sort of vindication through public opinion. So what perhaps others would want Mr. Cosby to do is to begin to bring them into the courtroom for a process that they can't otherwise get on their own because 20 years, 30 years, 40, almost 50 years later, there's no way to come into a courtroom and get the attention or even vindication if they believe that they deserve some justice, justice.

BANFIELD: Monique.

PRESSLEY: But instead, they would rather that I advise my client to sue them and take them into court so that the book deals, the attention, the interviews, the magazine articles will (INAUDIBLE).

BANFIELD: Well, you're not going to get a book deal if there's 40 of them. That's diluted. No, no, you're not going to get a book deal if there's 40 of you with the same story. I have to, you know, argue that. But, listen, I - I'm going to invite you -

PRESSLEY: And the stories are not the same. The stories aren't even close to the same.

BANFIELD: They are horrifyingly similar. I'm sorry, I will - I will argue that until I'm blue in the dress, but you and I both know those similar stories, whether they were molested or allegedly molested or raped or drugged, they all have similar stories.

But I would like to give you the open invitation, Monique, to sit on this set with me the minute you and your client decide to file for libel, to go after these women for effectively lying, because if he's denying what they did, it means the women are lying and I'd like to see that in a court of law. Will you accept that invitation?

[12:20:06] PRESSLEY: We'll see where we end up when the time comes. I'm not giving away anything or offering any additional news today.

BANFIELD: OK, Monique, it's great to see you. Have a good weekend and I hope to see you soon.

PRESSLEY: Thank you so much for having me.

BANFIELD: Monique Pressley live on our air today from Washington, D.C.

I want to bring in CNN legal analyst and defense attorney Danny Cevallos.

Danny, one of the things that Monique has been very clear in many of her interviews has been that, look, it's a woman's responsibility if she's had a crime waged against her, like the crime of sexual violations, molestation, rape, sexual assault, depending on where your jurisdiction is, it's her responsibility to come into court and assert her rights in a court of law. I differ here because I have watched the evolution of rape and reporting rape and even laws that say you can't even be raped by your own spouse. There's been a remarkable evolution over the last 40 years. I dare say there's been an evolution over the last 20.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Over the last five you could make an argument. I mean we had spousal rape statutes that permitted spousal rape up until not too long ago. You would be shocked how recent that was. So we've evolved. To say there's been a sea change in the law of sexual assault is all of the states is an understatement. It's - it's huge.

BANFIELD: So, I mean, statistically speaking, I'm just going to get you to answer this as the guy who takes the clients who come and look for a defense (ph). It is an entirely different thing to have your handbag stolen on the street and to be pistol whipped and go into the local precinct and report that you've had a crime waged against you, than having a sexual violation happen and go in and go and get a rape kit from the hospital.

CEVALLOS: Oh, definitely.

BANFIELD: And have nurses and doctors probe you and ask you about everything from your sexual history that evening, that week, whatever else, to going into a court and have that public record.

CEVALLOS: And I think our laws have evolved to recognize that this is a painful process and that's why we have done a number of different things. We've enacted rape shield laws and the rules of evidence. We've done a number of things to protect victims in these very unique cases because they are unique to normal assault cases. They're much worse and they involve many more issues and historically we have - we have not exactly incentivized victims to come forward. But, fundamentally, at the end of the day, victims do have to come forward to create a case, to prosecute a defendant. And that's why we have statutes of limitations.

BANFIELD: Which, by the way, have evolved into longer and longer periods with an understanding of that.

CEVALLOS: Of course, yes, and - and some - and some have done away with -

BANFIELD: Yes.

CEVALLOS: I mean there's a strong argument to do away with all statues of limitations in sexual assault cases -

BANFIELD: Like murder.

CEVALLOS: Like we currently do for murder.

BANFIELD: Yes.

CEVALLOS: So the idea is, I mean, as a society we have to decide, after a certain period of time, statute of limitations, the idea behind it is that evidence is stale and do we really believe what somebody says if they didn't bring it up until four decade later.

BANFIELD: Yes. CEVALLOS: And that is just a question that we as a society have to answer on our own.

BANFIELD: And I think the issue has been and continues to be that some - not all crimes are the same and there are a lot of apples and oranges out there and they need to be treated differently.

Have a good weekend.

CEVALLOS: You too.

BANFIELD: Thanks for coming in, Danny.

Coming up next, Los Angeles police are stationing themselves outside of some movie theaters that are showing the film "Straight Outta Compton." Do you think this is a good idea? Do you think it's necessary? You're going to find out why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:26:40] BANFIELD: A movie called "Straight Outta Compton" is hitting theaters this weekend and the film's studio, Universal, says that it's going to help support theaters that are adding extra security for the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just hit that first beat hard. You're cruising down the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Cruising down street in my six (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, that was dope, (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Compton's very own Ice Cube, Eazy-E and Dr. Dre. I've got to tell you, you are witnessing history.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are scared of you guys. You have a unique voice. The world needs to hear it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want NWA? Let's give them NWA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The biopic tells the original story of the rap group NWA during the late 1980s and it includes scenes of police brutality and Los Angeles gangs. The LAPD has told CNN Money that there will be extra police around theaters for this film's release. The movie made its public premier last night without a hitch, but there are some concerns about this coming weekend.

Gang violence was a big problem back in the '80s in Compton and it is still a problem today. And the mayor of Compton, who's just 33 years old, is making a big effort to work with gang members to reduce violence in her city. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR AJA BROWN, COMPTON, CALIFORNIA: I asked, could we get all the gang members that are representative of different neighborhoods together for a meeting. And we met right here in this building, right here in this community center, and we talked about, you know, is peace possible because the power is in their hands to stop the violence and the shootings. And so they made a commitment to work together for peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Joining me now live on the phone to talk about theater security in the Los Angeles area is LAPD Police Commander Andrew Smith.

Commander Smith, thanks so much for being on the show today.

Give me a bit of a run through in terms of how you're dispatching this security. Is it only certain parts of Los Angeles? Is it most theaters in Los Angeles? And how you chose where the additional manpower will go.

ANDREW SMITH, LAPD COMMANDER: Sure thing. Well, L.A. is divided up into 21 geographic areas. Each of those areas has a captain and we've asked each of our captains to meet with the theater owners and managers and determine what was the best plan for each of their specific areas. Some areas have decided to have an officer actually posted at the theater during the times these theaters are playing the particular movie and other areas are just having officers possibly just do extra patrol in the area and just to keep an eye on it. That's basically - we fine tune it to whatever neighborhood.

BANFIELD: So I want to get your thoughts, though, because I think some people upon first hearing that there would be security at a movie that's predominantly about black culture, black music, police brutality, et cetera, was a bit odd considering there's plenty of violent movies out there that don't get protection. But on deeper reasoning, is it a - is it a gang issue? Are you concerned that rival gangs may end up in the same theaters because this movie highlights very much a lot of the beginnings of the gang culture?

[12:29:52] SMITH: Right. Well, first of all, we have been doing more patrolling around our theaters here in Los Angeles because of all the theater violence that we've seen across the country ever since Colorado and a couple of those copycats. But you're exactly right, you know, if rival gangs come to the same theater at the same time to watch this particular show, it's a recipe for possibly trouble. So we want to make sure that everybody that goes to the theater has a great movie experience and everybody feels feels comfortable and everybody is safe.