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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Suicide Bomber Strikes in Turkey; El Chapo Capture and Interview Sparking Questions; Bowe Bergdahl Appears Before a Judge; Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch to Wed. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 12, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


[12:30:00] ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- was a member of ISIS. Now that a official source telling us that nine of them were German, Ashleigh. And Turkish authorities do now say that this suicide bomber was a member of ISIS.

You know, most certainly is not the first time that ISIS has carried out attacks in Turkey. The Turkish government blamed ISIS for the twin suicide bombings that happened at the capital Ankara in October that claimed 100 lives, as well as the suicide bomber that target a gathering the border town of Suruc over the summer.

And over the past few months, and longer in fact, the Turkish government has been conducting these massive country-wide sweeps rounding up hundreds of individuals, and in some instances even they say preventing attacks from taking place, and also not just rounding up individuals, but things like suicide belt, explosives and weaponry throughout this massive [inaudible].

Today's attack shows that the country that still remain incredibly vulnerable, unable to fully shield itself from the violence. This attack not just an attack that was targeting the tourism industry, the economic core of the country, but one that happened as you were also saying there are earlier in the very heart of the country's historic district, going after some would argue the very soul of this country, Ashleigh.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Arwa Damon reporting live for us from the scene of the blast that just happened within the last several hours. She is going to continue the follow that story for us. Thank you, Arwa.

I want to take you now to the capture of the drug lord named "El Chapo." We have some previously unseen footage of El Chapo that you just have to watch "Rolling Stone" the magazine has just released its entire interview with the drug lord. You'll probably remember it was conducted by a-list actor Sean Penn, and then the small portion from the 17 minute clip.

The kingpin talks about the evolution of the drug trade and as well, his prison escapes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

BANFIELD: Probably hearing the rooster in the background, here something else in the foreground, Sean Penn. The actor is now firing back at his critics following this secret meeting with El Chapo, and in a brief e-mail he sent to the associated press he says, "I have nothing to hide." This is coming after Mexico attorney general's saying that Penn's meeting with El Chapo was "Essential for El Chapo's capture." In fact new pictures suggest just how close Sean Penn may have been monitored by the authorities because these pictures show him arriving at the Mexican airport back in October just before their meeing.

I want to send things over to CNN Nick Valencia who's standing by live outside that now famous prison where El Chapo remains behind bars and has broken out once before. I can only imagine that there is unbelievable security this time around. But before we even talk about that, there's so much more on this unseen footage from "Rolling Stone." Get me to the salient points. So, what more do we learn from it?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly it is majority of what we read in that article by Sean Penn released over the weekend by "Rolling Stone" in it we hear more from the drug kingpin himself a rare explosive interview. He has been very reclusive since he entered the drug world and specially since he rose to the top of the cartels here in Mexico.

We hear a little bit more from him about his excuse of using violence, saying he only used it when it is necessary. We also, as you were talking about a little earlier, he talks about his two daring escapes, one from this Altiplano penitentiary here.

And he also said that he has very limited option. He had limited option growing up as a child in the state of Sinaloa, having grown up to a very poor family, it's a poor area and he said that the only option of getting out of Sinaloa was to enter the drug world.

[12:35:02] And of course probably the most, you know, outstanding, outlandish thing that he talks about is distancing himself from the violence, the tens of thousands of Mexicans that have been killed in the drug war eventually responsible by-- I'm sorry I should say a lot of it responsible at the hands of El Chapo, and many innocents killed at the hands of El Chapo, and he seem to distance himself from those who were killed. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Yeah. And suggesting I had it bad. It was the only way so I made it bad for everybody else. That's kind of the answer in a nutshell.

VALENCIA: Yeah.

BANFIELD: Nick Valencia great work down there. Thank you for that. I appreciate it.

Coming up next, the affluenza mom is now out of jail. We're going to tell you how it happened, what it cost her, and what her brand-new fashion statement is. And before you criticize me for that, it is essential to the story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: The mother of the so-called "Affluenza" teenager Ethan Couch. She's out of jail, Mrs. Tonya.

[12:40:04] She left the Tarrant County lockup this morning, and she has a brand-new accessory, it's kind of like a bracelet that for your ankle and better known as the ankle monitor. Her son Ethan now notorious, because he got probation for drunk driving, a crash that killed four people back in 2013.

Well, the prosecutors say that Tonya, his mom helped him to slip out of the country all the way to Mexico last month. All of that to avoid a probationary hearing and potentially some jail time. Tonya Couch was being held on $1 million bond, but a very nice judge lower that bond yesterday to a paltry $75,000, which is paltry when you are wealthy as the couch family is.

CNN Legal Analyst and Defense Attorney Danny Cevallos join me now, along with former New York prosecutor Dan Schorr. So Mr. Prosecutor how on earth does this work? How does a rich lady get a million dollar bond lowered to $75,000 when she had prepared (ph) to jump over the border for no good.

DAN SCHORR, FORMER NEW YORK PROSECUTOR: Well, on the surface it's very surprising. Bail is supposed to primarily get you to return to court, and so she fled to Mexico so you think she was a flight risk. In her defense, what they argue successfully is A, it wasn't a violent crime and B, there are other conditions to get her to return to court. She has an ankle bracelet. They're going to restrict where she can live. And they are taking her passport just other restrictions also.

So what the court think is, OK, the money is not going to keep her from fleeing again, but maybe his other restriction will, and in lieu of the high bond, that they're going to set other severe restrictions to stop her from leaving.

BANFIELD: And I think we all have to remember that Mrs. Couch went to Mexico and didn't break any laws herself, she wasn't under a probationary restriction. It was her son.

SCHORR: Well, after self.

BANFIELD: Whether she hated in...

(CROSSTALK)

SCHORR: After in the adult whether crime level.

BANFIELD: But she not flight risk her own probationary terms or her own. So now she is. Now she is under her own restriction for travel. But you've got a theory about the whole idea of her son still cooling his heels in the Mexican jail. There's this talk about deportation, versus extradition, and you've got this magical theory that he is actually running a clock?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah. This is probably not the place for conjecture, but its just the thought. What if in this case often if you're in juvenile court, you are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court? And yes he has 10 years of probation, but I believe he may have to be mechanically transferred to adult court, because I don't think you can't send a 30-year-old to juvenile hall if he violates probation in Texas.

So, if he's not mechanically transferred. Maybe they ran thinking if I just run out the clock until I'm over the age of juvenile court jurisdiction, if I have already been transferred to adult court, maybe I come back and adult court can't do anything to me. Maybe that was their sort of convoluted idea in running. And procedurally I'm not entirely sure if that's the case or not in Texas.

BANFIELD: They must think that us American folks are pretty dumb and I'm talking about them thinking their brother are pretty dumb because it's not beyond those in Texas jurisprudence stand to elevate him to adult court. Checkmate?

SCHORR: Right. But the adult court would apply a future a future violations, not to the current violation. Not to the current violation, that thing that strange...

BANFIELD: Really?

SCHORR: Right. The current violation he's only still only faces 120 days in jail under the juvenile violation. The strange thing is even if he is trying to run out the clock, he's doing it in a Mexican facility, so it is not as if he is free during this time. If you get to avoid juvenile probation, but you have to do it by being in a Mexican holding facility, it doesn't seem like jury move.

BANFIELD: Not bad if it's only two years compared to eight which is what he might have been facing in Texas. I still think that they can do something. I think that there is some kind of jury rigging that you can do to work him into a different system, maybe it's the...

CEVALLOS: I think it's for future violations.

BANFIELD: Only futures. You don't think that they can do somethings with the current violation of probation.

CEVALLOS: Not unless he is in the adult court if he runs at the clock.

BANFIELD: Well, not against drunk...

CEVALLOS: That is my theory.

BANFIELD: ... with this whole thing moved to adult court and with a whole processes that circulated in the petition. We'll have to continue this conversation tomorrow. We're out of time on this. But man, just of thought she actually gets to walk. It is very frustrating for a lot of people.

CEVALLOS: But she'll be back in court.

BANFIELD: She will indeed. Danny Cevallos and Dan Schorr, thank you for that.

[12:44:00] Coming up next, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is also appearing before a judge. This is military judge though it's happening this hour. He is a former Taliban prisoner who is still facing the possibility of life behind bars because of what he did when he was in Afghanistan is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is facing a judge today. Again, this time it's a hearing on the charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy sort of a process and several appearances in this whole process.

You will remember that he disappeared from the post in Afghanistan in June of '09 and was later captured by the Taliban until he was released in a prisoner swap five years later in 2014.

If he is convicted of the charges against him, he could be held once again as a prisoner this time by Americans, this time for life.

His attorneys says that he has already endured torture during his nearly five years in captivity, which Bergdahl has described it in vivid detail and interviews with film maker Mark Boal. The interview says then the focus of a popular podcast serial, named serial.

Here's a quick clip.

(BEGIN VIDEOC CLIP)

BOWE BERGDAHL, SERGEANT: When they move around they put a girl dress over me and then I put a burka over me. And then because, you know, anything I touch, because I'm an infidel or I'm a cuffer or whatever you want to call it, everything I touch is dirty. So they would leave thankfully they left the dress in the burka in the room, and so I was able to use that as, you know, warmth.

(END VIDEOC CLIP)

BANFIELD: Attorney of former J.A.G. Steven Raiser joins me now to talk about that.

So the hearing has just ended, Steven. And from what we gather still no plea entered in this case, but there was some arguing about the discovery, some discussion about classified material, and protection order, obviously, discussed about that classified material. And then the awards that Sergeant Bergdahl wear, and my guess is that he wants to be able wear his awards in courtroom and that that could be prejudicial if there's going to be a panel of jury members as suppose to have been trial with just a judge.

[12:50:16] STEVEN RAISER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Correct, yeah, that will be something that they want to discuss is to whether or not he would be allowed to wear those, because of course those awards are in question at this trial. I don't believe there going to be successful in having them removed those because I don't think there would be unduly prejudicial to the panel.

And he is a POW and he gets those awards for five years enduring it, right, regardless of the circumstances.

BANFIELD: Like the interesting you just said, those awards are questionable now, there's no question he was a POW. I mean he gets those awards from having endured 5 years regardless of how he ended up in their hands, he endured it right?

RAISER: Well he endured it, but if he caused it, he could be relieve of those awards, because -- sure he could be discharged dishonorably which is the worst possible thing that can happen to a shoulder outside of the prison system, sure he could lose his awards as well.

I mean if you put yourself in a dangerous situation, endangered your unit, then there would be consideration as to whether or not you would be awarded those awards that you would normally have gotten under normal circumstances.

BANFIELD: My assumption is that the awards of the least that is concern at this point with ten years to life potentially.

So I would love it if you could with your service background put yourself in Sergeant Bergdahl's position. And I know this is tricky because we don't have all of the discovery yet. But would you want to face a jury of your peers or would you choose to face just the judge as the bench trial would allow you?

RAISER: Well, that's difficult as you indicated when it is true. First thing you have to decide is whether or not that judge is going to be a good fit for your case because if you believe that the judge could be helpful to you of course, you're going to go with the bench trial.

Generally speaking, I think you've had a lot of animosity from his fellow soldiers in regards to what he did. And I think it would be difficult to pick an impartial panel. So there is going to be a strong consideration in this case to determine that maybe avoiding the panel altogether might be the best way to go. But of course, you're going to have to look at that judge very carefully.

BANFIELD: You'll have to come back for the next hearing.

RAISER: Absolutely, thank you much.

BANFIELD: ... Nice to see you again.

RAISER: You too.

BANFIELD: Thank you for your service.

RAISER: Thank you.

BANFIELD: I have an update for you from the Supreme Court, because the big nine have just handed down a major ruling on the capital punishment in this country.

By an eight to one margin, not big, the high court struck down the sentencing protocol in Florida where the judges, not the jury, that actually make the definitive end decision on what happens to the defendant in the death case. The jury makes a recommendation, but it's just a recommendation to the judge.

This is a precedent from 2002 and it makes clear only that juries have the power to identify so called aggravating factors that can justify execution. It's bit in the weeds, but it is significant as it does come from the supreme court.

And coming up next, brace yourselves for the big announcement, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Mick Jagger's ex-wife Jerry Hall -- they were never really married. Jerry Hall are now officially an item. And when I say item and I mean they're engaged to really be an item. I can't wait to see the guest list for this wedding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:21] BANFIELD: If you get only one wedding invitation this year, this is going to be the one to try to finagle. Rupert Murdoch, the thrice married founder of chairman -- and chairman of News Corp. has proposed to Jerry Hall, the super model and the beautiful ex of Mick Jagger, they have announced their intention to wed.

And our senior media and politics Dylan Byers joins me with some juicy details on this one.

First of all, I didn't even know they were dating, I felt very, very dumb for not knowing but apparently it's only been four months so I shouldn't feel so bad.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA & POLITICS REPORTER: It hasn't been that long. You should know, it's only been three months since it's been reported. They were spotted together at the Rugby match. Next thing, you know, they are at the Golden Globe, on the Red Carpet and he's proposed.

BANFIELD: I was even there, and I didn't know that. So that's how thick I am.

BYERS: Well they did, you know, they did it in a rather charming way, this way that they announced it in like a little, you know, just a little announcement in the times of London which he of course owns.

BANFIELD: OK, that's delightful. Well it's unusual age discrepancy. But, you know, in this day and age, there are always a couple of decades between people of fabulous ilk. But she doesn't needed the money. I mean a lot of people will say, "Oh yeah, beautiful lady with older guy it must be a money thing, Jerry Hall is Mick's ex and they've got four children together. She's got plenty of plenty of money.

BYERS: No, she doesn't necessarily need the money so it sort of (inaudible) three conclusions, one, more money is always good. Two, they both want companionship in later age.

BANFIELD: Oh, there's that adorable announcement, it is tiny and it is...

BYERS: See.

BANFIELD: And there's no extra type face or anything.

BYERS: And then three, which is maybe the minority opinion is there actually in love. And, you know, there's actually a very interesting piece in the British G.Q. just out from the Author Michael Wolf about Rupert Murdoch is this sort of unlikely romantic, it's unlikely playboy.

We think of him as this very buttoned down, buttoned up businessman, sort of old and curmudgeonly. But, you know, here he is with the said four wives, you know, he's running around the world dating, you know, actresses and models.

BANFIELD: Maybe it is a such a good old-fashioned whirlwind love story Dan, where we to judge.

Thank you for that. It must be a hell of...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: ... let me tell you that, Dylan thank you for that.

By the way, if you want to be like Rupert Murdoch, kind of takes you into the B category billionaire. And you can do it folks because there's this the Powerball lottery. The jackpot has now blown to $1.5 billion with a B and its keep going up until tomorrow night's drawing.

The ticket sales keep growing, so does the jackpot, and if you're one of those people who opts for the cash instead of that long pay out, your lump sum cash pay out is a whopping $930 million.

[13:00:00] It is a world record, and I sound like a broken record because it's already been a world record and it continues to be so. So good luck, and I hope you don't win over me, but then again, nice to have you. Wolf is next. See you tomorrow.