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AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

Subway Spokesman Jared Fogle to Plead Guilty; Trump Closer to Clinton Who Is Falling in Polls; Trump Leading Discussion in Race; Hackers Post Ashley Madison Info on Dark Web. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 19, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


[11:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news involving one of the most famous pitchmen who ate a lot of Subway and lost a lot of weight, right now pleading guilty to child porn charges. Shocking new revelations about Jared Fogle.

The best Republican candidate against Hillary Clinton. The big surprise in the new CNN poll, and that surprise rhymes with Donald Trump.

And then, anonymous no more. If you're cheating with the help of Ashley Madison, the secret's out. I'll speak live with one of the most famous divorce lawyers, a guy you might need.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman. Kate Bolduan is off today.

We begin with breaking news. The former Subway spokesman, Jared Fogle, is expected to accept a plea agreement and plead guilty to a child pornography charge and another charge, traveling to engage in illicit sexual contact with minors. Under the agreement, he's expected to get less than 13 years in prison but more than five years in prison.

I want to bring in CNN correspondent, Jean Casarez.

Jean, we knew this case was going on, but the details in this plea agreement, what he's admitting to, shocking.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shocking. Absolutely shocking. John, we have received the actually plea agreement he has signed here. It has very, very details. It is a judge that ultimately determines the fate. But according to this plea agreement he will plead guilty to count one and count two, as you have just described, the distribution and receipt of child pornography and travels to engage in illicit sexual activity with minors. I want to look at count ii. It says he traveled to New York City two different times between 2010 and 2013 where he solicited and engaged in sexual contact, sexual intercourse with minors. Minor victim number 13, she was 17 years old, the plaza hotel where he engaged in this activity. But once federal investigators found her she said when she was 16 years old he had engaged in sexual activity with her three times. This was all for monetary compensation. Another victim when she was 16 years old on another trip that Jared Fogle engaged in sexual activity with her. Now, this agreement, John, says if there are any other victims out there, they'll be added into this. The court is having a continued jurisdiction. This may not be over.

BERMAN: You said two he had sex with and plus what's on the computer.

CASAREZ: Number one through 12 minor victims, that would be secret recordings that his associate, the head of his foundation to combat childhood obesity took the pictures and they will be getting $100,000 too. The 1.4 million dollars must be put in a fund within ten days to be immediately distributed to them.

BERMAN: And a minimum of fever years in prison.

Jean Casarez, thanks so much.

All happening now. We'll continue to watch it. Thank you.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

BERMAN: New this morning, those footsteps you hear, Hillary Clinton, could be coming from the polished loafers of Donald Trump. In a brand-new CNN/ORC poll, Trump is closer to Hillary Clinton, as close or closer than any Republican candidate, and this is a big challenge. That's not the only problem. The front-runner has fallen below 50 percent, just one of the signs that the increasingly lingering and increasingly loudness over her e-mails is damaging her choices.

Joining us now, CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson.

Good morning to you.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey, there. Good morning.

BERMAN: A lot inside these numbers, and a lot not good for Hillary Clinton.

HENDERSON: As you said, Donald Trump with those loafers on sort of tiptoeing up behind her. The argument had been all along that Donald Trump had no shot in a general election matchup and these numbers for now seem to suggest something different for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Also, some numbers about Biden. He's considered to be jumping into this thing. If we look at some of the numbers here, it looks like 53 percent say that Joe Biden should jumping in this thing and 45 percent say no, he shouldn't join this race. He's part of the 12 or 13 percent grabbing a slice. And then as you said, Sanders is creeping all bit. Of some other polls, Trump, 4r5 percent, 51 percent. And another poll I was really interested in, black lives matter movement. This is, of course, a movement that's been very vocal this summer, disrupting some events, Hillary Clinton events. You see there 30 percent favorable ratings, 33 percent unknown at this point, don't quite know about this movement but I'm sure given all the attention they've gotten and grabbed this summer, that will change. If you look deep into the numbers, their differences are based on how they feel about it. African-Americans, non-white voters much more likely to have favorable opinion. Liberal voters likely to have a favorable opinion as well. But yeah, this is a surprise that Donald Trump is nipping at Hillary Clinton in these polls. I think Jeb Bush has always made the inherent argument. He isn't as close to Hillary Clinton as Donald Trump is at this point.

[11:06:23]BERMAN: Not today.

Nia-Malika Henderson, fascinating. Thank you so much.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

BERMAN: I want to discuss this much more with a man who's had a good sense of Donald Trump, his former political advisor and a man who has been in Republican politics for decades, Roger Stone.

Thanks so much for being here.

ROGER STONE, FORMER POLITICAL ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP: Good to be here.

BERMAN: Donald Trump six points back on Hillary Clinton. We see him as close or closer than any Republican candidate. He trailed by 16 points in July. So he's getting closer by the minute to Hillary Clinton. Why do you think it's happening?

STONE: Well, he's consolidating. If you look at the poll, he's now 79 percent of the Republicans. There was a time when it was 56 percent. And before that, more. That's where he is. The voters are ready for something very different. They're down on politics, career politicians, political institutions, elite media. They're down on the whole system. They think is system rigged against him. In Trump they see a guy who is blunt, can't be bought, can't be bullied. Says political things. They say the opposite. We can build walls. They like the can-do spirit. Trump is a passionate guy and the voters are digging it.

BERMAN: A few weeks ago, you stopped working for Donald Trump, you left or were fired or -- you broke up. Let's just say that to be fair.

STONE: OK.

BERMAN: You know, the thing with Megyn Kelly, you said, I want to wait and see the next polls that comes out, see what effect it has, indicating it might be hurting him. Now we've seen credible polls. There's the CNN poll, which seems to indicate it's not hurting him one bit.

STONE: I was holding my breath. Conventional wisdom doesn't apply to Donald J. Trump. This reform thing is a movement. He also in your own poll is picking up among more conservative and blue-collared Democrats.

BERMAN: So it wasn't a mistake to go after Megyn Kelly.

STONE: No, no, no. Well, no. The question is, where was he then. I still believe firmly that he needs to pivot to his issue agenda. He laid out what I think is a very important and significant immigration plan which further intensifies his supports his quest for the nomination. His book "Time to Get Tough" is now out in paperback. For anyone who says Trump has no plans, no thoughts, read the book.

BERMAN: I want to talk about his plans in just a moment. Before that, I want to talk about Hillary Clinton. As a strategist, I want to play you what she said last night about the e-mail controversy and her response to questions about whether she wiped her e-mail server clean. Let's listen.

STONE: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My personal e-mails are my personal business, right? That's all I can say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you wipe the whole server?

CLINTON: I have no idea. That's why we turned it over --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were the official in charge. Did you wipe the server?

CLINTON: What like a cloth or something?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. I don't know how it works digitally. I don't know.

CLINTON: I don't know digitally at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I know you're no fan of Hillary Clinton. How do you think she did in response to that, how do you feel.

STONE: One of my rules is that when you're explaining, you're losing. She's totally on defense. This reminds me of Watergate. The cover-up it gets worse and worse. We learn something new about this about administration leaks every day. First, it was no classified documents and then it was three and, yesterday, it was 60.

[11:10:09] BERMAN: You said she's playing defense. It is interesting. Over the weekend, she gave a speech, a red-meat supports in Iowa, and they loved it when she said this is all basically a partisan witch hunt.

STONE: Of course, they would love it. She said people aren't speaking to me about it. She's missing the bigger picture, which is her poll numbers in terms of truthfulness and being trustworthy are plummeted. She's destroyed her credibility. I also must say her performance on the stump confounds me. She is incapable of sounding sincere. She cannot sound sincere. Bill Clinton was, at a minimum, a great and convincing salesman for himself. She has no political talents. She sounds like she's lying even if she's telling the truth.

BERMAN: This weekend's performance widely praised. Let's leave that there.

When we come back -- stick around, Roger.

When we come back, I'm going to ask you if Donald Trump understands his own policy proposals. Stick around for that.

Also coming up, Ashley Madison where everybody knows your name. Married cheaters nervous after hackers reveal their identities. We're going to have a divorce lawyer joining me next.

And he did not act alone. The race is on to find the man suspected of bombing a tourist hub. Why the net might be getting bigger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:14:50] BERMAN: All right. New proof today that Donald Trump is driving the Republican discussion on many fronts. Watch as his opponents discuss the idea of rescinding the birthright citizenship, the notion enshrined in the 14th Amendment that if you're born in the United States, you're a citizen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R-WI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Southern borders are being penetrated every day by drug cartels, drugs, human trafficking. No sovereign nation should be allowing that. As president I'm going to adhere to the laws and hold the walls of the United States of merge.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm open to doing things that prevent people who deliberately come to the U.S. for purposes but take advantage of the 14th Amendment but I'm not in favor of repealing it.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The idea that we would go out in cars and hunt people down, it's not doable. And secondly, I don't think it's right. I don't think it's inhumane.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This Constitutionally protected right and I don't support revoking it to suggest that people born in this country are not United States citizens or they don't have this in the Constitution. I just reject it out of hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Make no mistake, these candidates are talking about it in this way because Donald Trump was talking about it.

Joining me again, former Trump adviser, Roger Stone.

I don't want to talk about birthright citizenship right now. That's been discussed. I want to talk about a tweet. Let me read it to you. "When foreigners attend our great colleges and want to stay in the United States, they should not be thrown out of country." That seems to contradict his first policy plan that came out over the weekend in which he said, "Americans are losing jobs because foreigners are here, illegal immigrants are here." It also contradicts his new H1B visa plans, which makes it harder for foreign graduates of colleges to get stem jobs. Do you think he fully understands the details of his proposals?

STONE: That's not inconsistent. You're going have legal immigration and he's for legal immigration, but before you can have a reasonable immigration people that will bring people here to take jobs and pay taxes and maybe ultimately become citizens through a process. He understands that you first have to secure the border. They say that can't be done. He's a builder.

BERMAN: Do you think he --

(CROSSTALK)

STONE: And then -- and then you can start bringing people in. But everybody has to go before you can determine a rational policy. Why? Because they'll break the financial back of this country and, therefore, somebody has to put their foot down and say no. That somebody is Donald Trump. Now I don't know what the lawyers are saying or the court is saying. Maybe this is a symbolic argument but if it is, it's winning votes.

BERMAN: Well, when it comes to support for Donald Trump do you think the details matter?

STONE: I think a lot of voters have certain cognitive dissidence. He's getting social conservatives, economic conservatives, some Libertarian, some supply side conservatives, debt hawks. The conservative and Republican base is not monolithic. It has subsets that he seems to be appealing to all of them.

BERMAN: Ever crossed "T" and dotted "I" doesn't matter as much for him as perhaps for every other candidate.

STONE: I don't think this is about 14-point plans and getting down in the weeds about specific types of applications. It never worked for Ronald Reagan. It's about big, sweeping ideas. Secure our borders. There's an idea for you.

Let me ask you this. Would we even be talking about sanctuary cities in the Congress if Donald Trump had purposely almost singlehandedly acting this way?

BERMAN: You say the ruling class is pissing its pants right now.

STONE: Oh, yeah.

BERMAN: What do you mean?

STONE: Donald Trump can't be bought. You see, all these other candidates have been gorging on special interest campaign contributions all their lives, with the exception of Dr. Carson and Carly Fiorina. Isn't it interesting? Those two are moving up, although Trump is a lot more, and they're not in politics. The lobbyists, the special interests, the special pleaders, if you will, the super PACs the billionaires, these people are apoplectic about the rise of Trump. He can't be bought. He can bring sweeping conservative reform.

BERMAN: You suggest the RNC has a secret war room now making plans to take out Donald Trump. Do you really believe that?

STONE: I really do. They want a candidate in the form of Jeb Bush, who's running behind Trump and much more behind Hillary Clinton or Chris Christie or John Kasich. Yes, that's what they would prefer.

(CROSSTALK)

STONE: Give us another loser like John McCain.

BERMAN: That's different than being in a dark room with guys figuring out ways to take him out.

STONE: Look, I talk to a lot of reporters, sometimes off the record. Sometimes, when I say to them, where did you get this hit piece of information, they'll tell me, oh, the sources was the Republican National Committee. Come on. This is the game. It's the way it works.

BERMAN: They're taking him down.

STONE: They're trying. But look how successful they have been. Look. I'm sure the chairman will deny this if anybody even bothers to ask him about this. The political establishment, they don't know what to do about Trump because they said, oh, the immigration thing will kill him. First, they said he'll never run, and then he ran. Then they said he'll never file his financial disclosures. He filed and on time. It was Jeb who kept asking for extensions. Then they said, he's going to fall flat on his face. And he goes up in the polls. Immigration happens, he soars, they say, he going to crash. Now he takes on John McCain whose records on veterans and POWs is terrible and he is not beloved in the base of our party, and he goes even further than the polls.

[11:20:35] BERMAN: Every time he does that, he goes up --

STONE: Right.

BERMAN: -- which means this next debate, September 16th on CNN, that will be key.

Roger Stone --

STONE: Great to be with you.

BERMAN: -- great to have you with us. Appreciate it.

Don't miss tonight's special report, Donald Trump speaking to our own Chris Cuomo. He's playing the game, and as Roger says, he's writing his own rules. Donald Trump is. That interview at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN. 20 minutes after the hour. Anonymous no more. If you're cheating with Ashley Madison, well, the secret's out. We're going to speak with one of the most famous divorce layers.

Two explosions, a huge manhunt, the race is to find a man suspected of bombing a tourist hub. Now we're learning that this man did not act alone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:24:45] BERMAN: If you're an Internet-using adulterer, your life just got complicated or more complicated. Hackers have published the names of users of Ashley Madison, which, if you do not know, is a dating website for adulterers. A few weeks ago the hackers warned the company to shutdown or else. Writing online, "Find yourself in here, learn your lesson, and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you'll get over it."

The hackers published the named in so-called deep web. Only those with special browsers can access it. But still it's out there.

Joining now is famed divorce attorney, Raoul Felder.

Thanks so much for being with us.

RAOUL FELDER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Pleasure.

BERMAN: You're an attorney, legal guy, not a net guy or privacy guy, but it seems to me if you're launching a site for adultery, the purpose there is discretion. And the minute you're not secure, there is no discretion.

FELDER: Listen. It's the best thing that's ever happened to a defense lawyer. If you open the window, they're dancing in the street. At the same time, count your blessings. Count the number of crimes. Intellectual property of a crime. Extortion is crime. It goes on and on. What about the damage that goes on to all the contributors or all these jerks.

BERMAN: You're a divorce attorney. There could be fodder for your cases. Hey, look?

FELDER: Oh, no question. It's not simple divorce grounds here. The humiliation you put a wife through. People are going to make fun. Kids are going to be embarrassed at school. That's going to end up, Ka-ching, ka-ching.

BERMAN: What would you tell them?

FELDER: Believe in prayer. That's all is going to help you.

BERMAN: There's nothing else.

FELDER: There's nothing else. It's going to get worse because it may go into detail. All this bizarre stuff is going to start coming out.

BERMAN: But they're going to say to you, hey, Raoul, this was all supposed to be secret.

FELDER: Tough. You take your chances. Anything -- we tell our clients generally don't send e-mail, e-mail it, text, unless you want the whole world to know about it.

BERMAN: What kind of person would use this?

FELDER: They don't admit it yet, but they're going to have no choice pretty soon. You can't delete it. Hillary Clinton is going to find that out pretty soon. There's always tracks, crumbs, traces. So you're stuck for all time. If a moral is to be made out of all this, don't do it.

BERMAN: Raoul Felder, your business has gotten more interesting.

Thanks so much for being here.

FELDER: Thank you.

BERMAN: A dark secret inside one of the country's elite prep schools. Did an upper classman compete in a sex competition? Today, a teen girl takes the stand to face her accused rapist.

Plus, another possible case of the plague. That's right. The plague in the United States. So should we be concerned?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)