This is a rush transcript from "The Big Story With John Gibson and Heather Nauert," February 4, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JOHN GIBSON, CO-HOST: Advice he should have taken for himself. Douglas, thanks very much. Most people think the tape speaks for itself, but Joran's attorneys say, what we saw in the footage was hardly a confession. Van der Sloot's attorney, Rosemarie Arnold, is with us now. Rosemary, Joran confesses on tape. Why shouldn't we believe it?
ROSEMARIE ARNOLD, JORAN VAN DER SLOOT'S ATTORNEY: First of all, in the worst case scenario, it's a confession to making a phone call. That's first of all. But Joran says -
HEATHER NAUERT, CO-HOST: Hold it. What do you mean? A confession made in the phone call because he said that the body went out and he put the body out there. So, what do you mean?
ARNOLD: He said that in one part. What you have here is 20 hours of so repetitious recordings that yielded about 3 minutes of tape on this show and in those three minutes, there were six or seven inconsistencies in there were five things that he said that were provably wrong, and during the tape, one time he said, well, my friend said go home, you have a test tomorrow, quickly go. So, I went home and went to sleep. On another day he said, but I carried the body out to the boat. But there are so many things on that tape. First of all, the friend wasn't in Aruba in 2005 and he never own a boat. So, right there -
NAUERT: OK. Let's back up because this is all relatively new. We don't want to get to confusing with people. When referring to this friend, Joran claimed that this friend of his had helped him dispose of the body, but he never named this friend until later on, until after this interview, and you're saying now that this friend was not in Aruba at the time. So, some people who are following this closely might say, all right, well, Joran might have said that he was involved with this friend, knowing that a friend had an alibi, knowing that it could all look like a lie.
ARNOLD: But why would he confess if he wanted it to look like a lie then go to the payphone. He says I went to the pay phone by the Marriott to call this friend, but the Aruban coast guard checked that pay phone and no such call was made that night.
NAUERT: And we have not confirmed that it's true with the Aruban coast guard. So, that's what your statement is.
GIBSON: Rosemarie, but you're in a strange position for an attorney representing a client to now have to go out and prove your own client lied, and at the same time say, your own client tells summary truth when he says he didn't kill her, so which is it? When is he lying? When is he telling the truth? When he said he didn't kill her or when he says he did kill her?
ARNOLD: Well, the things on the tape are provably wrong. It's clear on the tape that he is just trying to gain the affection of this man who, who in our opinion is a criminal, and in Joran's opinion, that's who he wants to be with. Well, he tells him I got into a fight in a casino and that's why I have this cut on my eye.
NAUERT: Well, Joran says later on, I feel so much better that I confessed this to you not his exact words but something along the lines and he felt better that he got it off his chest. Isn't that an admission that what he told this guy was in fact the truth?
ARNOLD: I don't think so, because like I've said, so many things he told this guy we can prove are wrong. He said I had a fight in the casino that's why I have a cut in my eye. When we have hospital records that show he fell in his house. He said, I'm flunking out of school, I'm big, I'm bad, I'm cool and I'm flunking out of school. But we know, he got straight A's at school.
NAUERT: Why would he make up something he's under scrutiny for so many years now? Why would he make up something so outrageous?
ARNOLD: Because he was trying to gain this man's affections.
NAUERT: Come on. Gaining this guy's affection just by saying, I mean, to confess to committing a horrible crime? It doesn't make sense.
ARNOLD: Well, he didn't confess to committing a horrible crime at all. He confessed to making a phone call. And the Aruban authorities went to court already to try to get him rearrested on this tape and the judge said, this tape is insufficient to cause him to be detained again. It's insufficient to arrest him.
GIBSON: But Rosemarie, you've got the situation where the prosecutor is asking for the judge to issue a rearrest warrant and I believe the Aruban prosecutor, I don't know whether the judge has ruled on this, but Aruban prosecutor thinks this tape is admissible. If it's admissible, don't you have a big problem?
ARNOLD: No, because the judge has already ruled that the tape is legally insufficient to rearrest Joran. And if it's admissible in the event that that does happen, if they win on appeal, which I don't think they will, all he does is confess to making a phone call from a pay phone and saying to his friend, help me.
GIBSON: Well, it's more than that. He knows that she's dying. She's convulsing. He tries to resuscitate her. He's unsuccessful. He doesn't call 911. He calls his buddy and says, help me dispose of the body. Then he helps haul the body to the boat and waves goodbye as the guy sails out to sea to dump the body. It's more than one phone call.
ARNOLD: But that's not what the tape says. The tape doesn't say I called my friend to say hey, come and help me dump the body. I called his friend to say I need help. And then, at one point of the tape he says, I went home and I went to sleep because I had a test the next day. And in another day he says, oh, I carried the body to the boat. So, he's inconsistent even in the three minutes of the 20 hours that they were able to use to convince -
GIBSON: But Rosemarie, you're a great lawyer, I'm sure. If I had a problem, I'd hire you, but haven't you got a terrible problem here? Believe my client, he says he didn't kill her. Don't believe my client when he says I helped dispose of her body?
ARNOLD: That's my position, and I'm sticking to it.
GIBSON: Rosemarie Arnold representing Joran van der Sloot. Rosemarie, thanks very much.
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