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Sophisticated, Robust Security Plan Ahead Of Trump Trial Next Week; Fish Are Spinning, Thrashing Themselves To Death In Florida; Critical House Vote For Speaker Johnson On Surveillance Bill. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 12, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:30:35]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: In a surprise move, Harvard has reinstated standardized testing scores as part of its admissions process starting in the fall of 2025. Harvard joins fellow Ivy League schools Dartmouth, Brown, and Yale, who all require students to submit standardized tests as part of their applications.

Later today, Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani, will surrender to federal authorities. He faces a federal charge of bank fraud after allegedly stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office says Mizuhara will not be asked to enter a plea during that hearing.

And new this morning, Pittsburgh coming off of its rainiest April day ever -- 2.74 inches of rainfall that caused damaging floods there and next door in West Virginia. They are under new flood warnings this morning. And threats loom across parts of New England as well. There was running water down the roads when I was coming in this morning, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And wait until you see what's happening in the waters off the Keys this morning.

It is an extraordinary measure being taken to protect and defend like America has never seen before -- a former president and the presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial begins Monday here in New York and it will require an incredible level of security. An unprecedented and strategic choreography between law enforcement and the Secret Service.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is here with us. Brynn, you got a look inside with the NYPD as they are preparing. What did you learn about their plans?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. I mean, this is going to be a robust security package. That's how they described it to me. One thing to keep in mind, this is the first time that we have seen an ex- president on a criminal trial. However, it's not the first time Donald Trump has been in court, right? He's been in and out of the courtroom for the last year or so.

So police have been able to look back at those times -- to the civil fraud trial, to the defamation trial -- and sort of take notes on how to handle security then, and then sort of to make changes, basically, ahead of this major trial, which is expected to last six to eight weeks. So they've been having roundtables about this and discussions about this for the last couple of months.

But as police told me, all the toys are going to be out for this major event, again, that's going to last for several weeks in downtown Manhattan. We're talking about drones, bomb-sniffing dogs, barricades which are going to create frozen drones around that courthouse, and mobile units, of course, as Donald Trump is brought in and out of the courthouse where he is expected to stay at Trump Tower. So the units are going to obviously help him be transported every single day down to the courthouse.

And they're going to have a lot to handle. They have to deal with the media presence. They have to handle any protesters or supporters. Any threats that might come in. Of course, we know from law enforcement there have been more threats when Donald Trump has been in court, whether it be against judges or district attorneys, or anyone else.

So, here's how police say they're going to handle that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN HART, ASSISTANT CHIEF, NYPD INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTERTERRORISM BUREAU: We're going to be looking at the threat picture on a constant basis. Social media scrubbing. Just listening to people making calls or making threats online.

GINGRAS: How do you handle that?

HART: We want to find the basis of the threat. Is it real? Is it an online warrior? Is it -- you know, what kind of extra security preparations do we have to take?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Yeah, being nimble is going to be a major thing here for officers both inside the courtroom and outside the courtroom, certainly having to deal with a lot that all kicks off, of course, on Monday, Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah. Only go downtown if you have to and if you enjoy gridlock.

GINGRAS: Yes.

Brynn Gingras, thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: And if you do enjoy gridlock, that's a whole other issue.

All right. Breaking overnight, a key attorney is leaving Donald Trump's legal team. The departure of Evan Corcoran raises eyebrows because prosecutors could call him as a critical witness in the classified documents case if it ever gets to trial. Corcoran's memos and notes about Trump -- it laid the groundwork for prosecutors in that case.

With me now is national security attorney Bradley Moss. Counselor, very good to see you this morning.

Now, when Kaitlan Collins broke this news last night about Evan Corcoran leaving Trump's legal team -- no longer working for Trump -- you posted on social media, and I want to put it up so people can see. You posted on social media, "Oooooooh." And I think I count seven o's in that.

Now, is that a legal term there? What did you mean by "Oooooooh."

[07:35:02]

BRADLEY MOSS, NATIONAL SECURITY ATTORNEY, PARTNER, LAW OFFICE OF MARK S. ZAID (via Webex by Cisco): Yes, there's a -- there's a long- established case law on that Ooooooo, let me tell you. But no, I think everybody expected at some point this was going to happen. The only question is why did it take so long?

Look, the moment Evan Corcoran was compelled to testify before the grand jury -- the moment he was ordered by the judge in D.C. to turn over those notes, it was almost guaranteed at some point he was going to have to leave this legal team. He was conflicted out on that case, obviously. He had stayed on in the D.C. cases. But it was going to be a very uncomfortable situation to have your lawyer going up there who is allegedly still representing you on other matters, testifying against you, and being one of the critical star witnesses in the obstruction angle.

So I think we all expected this would transpire at some point. I don't know why it quite took so long. Maybe it was the optics. They didn't want to immediately show him being shoved out the door.

But this is just one more piece they don't have on that legal team. It's already an overmatched legal team because Donald Trump can't hold onto lawyers. And now, they've lost Evan Corcoran, too.

BERMAN: Well, it's interesting because Maggie Haberman was on with Kaitlan last night as Kaitlan was breaking this news, and Maggie reported that this information is disquieting. The fact that Corcoran is out is disquieting to Donald Trump.

I'm curious why you think that might be.

MOSS: So, the problem for Donald Trump is Donald Trump hates lawyers who take notes. We've learned about this. His idol of lawyers if Roy Cohn, the disgraced late lawyer from the '70s and '80s. He thought lawyers don't take notes because those can be used against your client. We heard about this during the Mueller probe. He was saying oh, real lawyers don't take notes.

Actually, real lawyers do take notes and it's those notes -- the contemporaneous voice recordings that Evan Corcoran did that are being used against Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago case, particularly on the obstruction angle, to show intent.

So if Donald Trump is finally pushing him aside, that shows they expect that their efforts to get his testimony suppressed are likely going to fail. That if this eventually does make it to trial that Corcoran's testimony is going to be very critical and very damaging, and they're going to try to make this sort of a separation between themselves and Corcoran going forward. They're going to try to downplay what Corcoran wrote down and what he recalled, and sort of say oh, you misunderstood the boss.

BERMAN: So it was a busy overnight in the Mar-a-Lago documents case because also, we got the filings -- the transcripts of the FBI interviews with Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.

And Nauta and his team are basically arguing to have the case against him dismissed because they say he didn't know he was moving classified documents. He had no knowledge of x, y, and z.

Anything you see in those transcripts that raises your eyebrows? And do you think he's got a case here today?

MOSS: Yeah. You can see from these transcripts -- even just the cursory review -- the FBI agents clearly weren't buying what Nauta was initially selling. They were very skeptical of his claims. They had -- you know they were very much looking at it as you sound like you're coached. That's weren't necessarily using those words, but sort of expressing that kind of skepticism it sounded like he was coached.

And certainly, they came back to it later on where he admitted to moving certain things and that he had more knowledge than he had originally admitted to. And that played a key role in him getting hit in this indictment on the obstruction angle.

Now, what he and De Oliveira are trying to do certainly was within their right to do. They're trying to argue they didn't have the requisite knowledge, the indictment is too vague, et cetera, et cetera. These are very standard pretrial motions from a defense attorney that you would expect to see.

I don't anticipate it will be enough, even with Judge Cannon, to get it thrown out. But we're getting sort of a preview here of what their anticipated defense will be at trial if both Nauta and De Oliveira don't cut deals beforehand.

BERMAN: And that's a great point. Even if Judge Cannon doesn't throw it out, what you do see here and what we will see today is a preview, which makes it so interesting.

Bradley Moss, great to see you this morning, and thank you for explaining your --

MOSS: Absolutely -- good morning.

BERMAN: -- "Oooooooh" -- Sara SIDNER: John, we all know what that means.

New CNN reporting this morning. A deadly mystery in the waters off the Florida Keys. Dozens of species of fish have been spinning themselves to death. It's putting some endangered species, like the Sawfish, at risk of extinction. So experts are trying to figure out what the heck's happening here and how can it be stopped.

CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir is joining us now. You were just in the Florida Keys --

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- looking at the situation. Is there any explanation? Are scientists getting any closer to figuring out what the heck's going on?

WEIR: Well, they're trying to figure out in an unprecedented effort. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, is sort of all hands on deck. Let's figure out what's going on under the waters.

This is the smalltooth sawfish. It was one of the first marine animals placed on the endangered species list. It used to range all around the Gulf of Mexico and from Florida up to the Carolinas. There's only a few left now.

[07:40:02]

And what has been is --

SIDNER: Wow.

WEIR: -- normally, you lose four or five a year to bycatch. They accidentally get caught.

SIDNER: Yeah.

WEIR: But now they've seen dozens of these fish -- six in the last week -- washed ashore. These are big --- 11 to 12-foot --

SIDNER: Wow.

WEIR: -- creatures. And they just seem in distress. They seem to be beaching themselves and acting in these erratic ways before dying. They've only managed to rescue one. They're tough to rescue.

Anecdotally, if they move them to clean water the spinning stops. So they think there's something in the water, Sara, but nobody knows for sure. Normally, we'd suspect red tide or low oxygen levels. There's no signs of that.

There is an algae called Gambierdiscus, which really takes off when the water is warm and that creates various amounts of neurotoxins, which can be really harmful to fish and also to humans. Maybe these off-the-charts ocean temperatures we saw last year and may see again this summer are supercharging this Gambierdiscus in a way. But honestly, nobody knows.

And it seems like one of those opening scenes from a horror movie --

SIDNER: Yeah.

WEIR: -- where the -- where the animals are trying to warn us.

SIDNER: Yeah. When you look at it, it's not just the sawfish, right? It's -- there are other species that are all doing that.

WEIR: Yeah, 200 different reports to the Bonefish & Taron Trust of 30 different species. As you can see, some little tropical guys as well.

SIDNER: Um-hum.

WEIR: And so, there is something in the water down there. And, of course, there's pollution and there's all these things. A recent test a couple of years ago -- tested -- Bonefish found dozens of pharmaceuticals --

SIDNER: Right.

WEIR: -- in the fish that get flushed through Floridians from antidepressants to heart medicine that is in the wildlife now as a result of the human pressure there. So a lot of stress on that ecosystem.

SIDNER: It's really disturbing. One thing that isn't though, your new book. It's hopeful. It's very --

WEIR: Oh, thank you.

SIDNER: It's very hopeful about the environment and what's happening -- interesting.

WEIR: Yeah, "Life as We Know It (Can Be)." It comes out next week and it tackles a lot of these big problems hopefully in a new way. But thank you.

SIDNER: Start reading. It's quite good. Thank you, Bill Weir.

WEIR: Yeah.

SIDNER: Appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: And I just learned the fact about pharmaceuticals in Bill's new book when I was reading it two days ago, so it was the first time I'd ever heard that.

All right. This morning, on the subject of books, a library book more than 100 years overdue back home. A copy of "Ivanhoe" was supposed to be returned to the Fort Collins, Colorado library on February 13, 1919. So it was a little late -- just a little.

A man found it while looking through his mother's things. A sticker inside the book said, "A fine of two cents per day shall be collected on all books. If a messenger be sent for a detained book, an additional charge of 25 cents shall be collected." So after adjusting for inflation, the total would have been a $14,000 fine in late fees.

Lucky for all, the library stopped charging late fees a few years ago. They say the book will be displayed in a local museum -- Sara.

SIDNER: Did you do that math this morning or did you have help?

BERMAN: I was adding up. I had to write down two cents for every day for the last 105 years.

SIDNER: So that's what you spent your morning doing?

BERMAN: Exactly. My (INAUDIBLE) wasn't in journalism.

SIDNER: Thank you, John.

All right. Just a few minutes from now, Speaker Mike Johnson will take another shot at getting his House in order. We will be showing that to you live.

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[07:47:40]

SIDNER: It was one of those moments in history that seared itself into our minds -- the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia. But there are incredible personal stories that we're just now learning about in a CNN original series "SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA: THE FINAL FLIGHT." This Sunday night is the two-part finale.

Space and aviation enthusiast his entire life, Tom Foreman looks ahead to the future of space travel and innovation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am tremendously excited by this new series, not just because I'm fascinated by space travel, and science, and the vast cosmos around us, but also because the Space Shuttle in both triumph and tragedy utterly changed how we see our place in the universe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, ignition.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Rockets blasting into orbit to the moon, to Mars, and beyond. Twenty-twenty-four is already shaping up to smash last year's record of more than 200 launches and each, in one way or another, owes a debt to an old friend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, four. We've gone from main engine start. We have liftoff.

FOREMAN (voice-over): America's space shuttle was the stuff of science-fiction fever dreams when it first took off on an April morning in 1981.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the shuttle has cleared the tower.

FOREMAN (voice-over): A workhorse made of more than 200,000 components capable of carrying more people, bigger loads, and in a radical departure from the norms, flying again and again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we've got something that's really going to mean something to the country and the world. The vehicle is performing like a champ, like all of us that have worked so long on it. We knew that she would.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Retro, go! Final, go! Control, go!

FOREMAN (voice-over): The shuttle was, itself, built on the back of the lunar programs of the 1960s and '70s.

RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Initiated by then-President Richard Nixon, the shuttle went through many variations in planning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like apaty (PH) and parity are within 0.1 of what we planned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gosh, you can't do much better than that.

FOREMAN (voice-over): This old NASA film shows the conception of the Space Shuttle in the early 1970s when the design was not yet settled. But eventually, five fully operational shuttles, as we know them, would be built -- Discovery, Atlantis, Challenger, Endeavor, and Columbia.

[07:50:12]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Columbia is now 170 miles up in space.

FOREMAN (voice-over): All to take up 135 missions over 30 years, carrying hundreds of astronauts from a steadily expanding panoply of backgrounds, helping build the International Space Station, fostering international cooperation while demonstrating America's astonishing technological expertise, opening the heavens and changing our relationship to the vast space around us like nothing ever before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Main gear, touchdown.

FOREMAN: Beyond the science, the engineering, and the sheer awesomeness of it all, I think the Space Shuttle showed what brave humans can do when they dare greatly -- when we do our very best. And that's not diminished even when things go wrong.

So, for me, "SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA: THE FINAL FLIGHT" is a series that's extraordinarily touching but also full of hope, and inspiration, and wonder -- and I hope you join us for all of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Tom Foreman, that was great. And again, the finale airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN -- John.

BERMAN: All right. We are standing by for a vote in the House in the next hour that really could show whether House Speaker Mike Johnson has any control over a conference -- over his conference and maybe, ultimately, if he will keep his job.

CNN's Lauren Fox is in Washington. This is about the FISA bill -- the surveillance bill -- but there's really much more at stake here, Lauren.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John. And if you remember, it was just a couple of days ago that the House Republicans were unable to pass that procedural step in order to actually debate this bill. Well, they are going to try again this morning. The vote will kick off at 8:45 a.m. That is when we will see if those 19 hardliners are going to actually cooperate with leadership and move forward with this debate.

This is something that is essential in terms of national security, according to intelligence officials. That is because there is an expiration date coming on April 19. But that's just the first step -- if they can pass the rule. And I should note that many of those 19 who voted against it are signaling that they think good progress has been made.

There was one major change to this bill that would change the reauthorization timeframe from five years to two years. That is something that conservatives say is a big win for Donald Trump. He, of course, had that tweet just a couple of days ago saying that he wanted to get rid of FISA, ordering members to "kill FISA."

That is the question this morning. Is this change enough because the argument from people like Rep. Matt Gaetz is a two-year reauthorization means that if Trump were to win the White House, he would be president who would be able to go ahead and make additional changes to this law. That is why the two-year timeframe some are arguing is a big win for them. That's why we're watching this rule vote very closely this morning.

BERMAN: Again, and they feel better about it than they did last time. But one thing this House leadership team has shown is that counting may not be their strong point, Lauren Fox. And I don't mean that to be cruel. They just haven't been able to count on many of these votes going in.

Lauren Fox, thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. With us now is CNN political commentator and host of PBS "FIRING LINE," Margaret Hoover. And CNN political commentator extraordinaire, S.E. Cupp.

All right, I'm going to start with you, Margaret. What -- this is really remarkable. What does it tell you that Speaker Johnson is having to show members of Congress classified material as they argue over whether to push through this FISA bill -- showing them how important this is after you've already heard the FBI saying this tool is so significant that --

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, HOST, PBS "FIRING LINE": Yeah.

SIDNER: -- not having it could put America in danger?

HOOVER: Look, there's an entirely new crop of Republicans who are in the House of Representatives who haven't had to look at the stone-cold reality of the aftermath of 9/11 and how many terrorist attacks on this country were prevented because of this tool.

There's -- it's shocking also and worth noting that Mike Johnson probably would have been one of the people being shown that classified information had he not sort of spontaneously ascended to this position and found religion on his responsibility as a leader of the country to keep this country safe.

It's a far fall from grace of Republicans in the circa 2000, 2004, 2008 who were the party --

SIDNER: Right.

HOOVER: -- who was constantly agitating for these kind of security measures. And if they don't pass this, Republicans will have on their hands the fact that they made America less secure, not safer.

SIDNER: It is a fascinating sort of twist --

HOOVER: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- from where they were with the Patriot Act and other things back in the early 2000s.

[07:55:00]

S.E. Cupp, Donald Trump is meeting with House Speaker Johnson at Mar- a-Lago, doing a press conference on their plans for voting integrity.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.

SIDNER: You know, what do you make of that? What's happening there? And do you think this is a real effort on Johnson's part because Trump says that it was Johnson's idea to try and keep his job by getting close and showing himself close with Donald Trump?

CUPP: Yeah, there's a couple of things happening here today. I want you to remember when Mike Johnson gets up and implores his House conference to get to work and become functional again, and he just wants to solve problems and do what's right for the American people, do not believe him. Because this has nothing to do with helping constituents. This has nothing to do with keeping the Republican Party functional and in order, and doing their jobs.

This is a campaign stop. He is participating in a stunt for Donald Trump to help Trump spread his conspiracy theories about elections, to kiss his ring -- and as you noted, most importantly, to keep his job. There is nothing serious about this effort. This is yet another attempt by Trump to use Republican leadership and Republican loyalty to him to help him spread his conspiracy theories.

But listen, Mike Johnson would be -- would be well-advised to remember the lessons of Kevin McCarthyism, which is that loyalty to Trump flows one way and one way only. Donald Trump did not help Kevin McCarthy keep his job in the end despite Kevin McCarthy's unwavering loyalty.

SIDNER: Yeah. Donald Trump definitely demands loyalty but does not give it out very often.

I want to move to Arizona. Vice President Kamala Harris headed to Arizona on a reproductive rights tour, as they're calling it, after Arizona revived laws from 1864 criminalizing abortion with one single exception, and that is the life of the mother. It's one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

I'm curious if you think that this -- what happened here is going to really give Democrats the edge now in this battleground state.

HOOVER: I mean, from -- I have looked at polling on this issue across the country. And in Arizona, 65 percent of Arizonans -- this is Republicans and Democrats, OK, not just Democrats -- absolutely are in favor of abortion rights and of women's right to choose and are fundamentally against this.

I guess I can't overstate what an earthquake this is in Arizona. I mean, prior to Monday's ruling, Biden was actually looking pretty weak in Arizona and Trump's numbers were going up. This completely flips the script. This issue is so important.

I think -- the reason it's also important to remember is that we have the saying in the conservative universe there are factions of conservatism and Western conservatives -- Goldwater conservatives -- these are socially libertarian --

SIDNER: Right.

HOOVER: -- on issues related to individual freedom.

Goldwater's family helped set up the first Planned Parenthoods in Arizona more than 50 years ago.

The libertarian strain is so strong in Arizona this is -- and the idea that a territorial law that is literally -- when 19th-century medicine was the --

SIDNER: Right.

HOOVER: -- standard, should govern women's bodies in 2024 is so outrageous and abhorrent.

I actually believe it could replace the border as the most important issue when it comes to Arizona's elections. And I think with Biden, who won that state by 10,000 votes -- next time -- I'm not saying the border is not important but I've spoken to Arizona Republicans. They're all on their heels because of this issue. It does supplant the border as the most important issue. It is right up there with it.

SIDNER: Well, you call it an earthquake, which is -- which is a big deal there --

HOOVER: It is. I mean, it is.

SIDNER: -- politically speaking.

S.E., Donald Trump announced his abortion policy. We all heard. He said look, I'm leaving it up to the states. And then, Arizona did just that. They made a decision. But he has bristled since then.

Here is his most recent comment. I wanted to you take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Did Arizona go too far, sir?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah, they did. I'm sure that the governor and everybody else -- they're going to bring it back into reason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: I'm sure the governor will bring it back -- governor being a Democrat.

So, Arizona Republicans, though, said no, they're not going to change this.

So how do you see this battle playing out?

CUPP: Yeah. I mean, listen, Kamala Harris is in Arizona for a very specific reason. It's not just to promote women's reproductive rights. It's because Donald Trump has been trying to neutralize this issue by kicking it over to the states and refusing to endorse a national ban or even a name a number of weeks after which abortion would be banned if he became president. And people like me have been pointing out that inside the pro-life community, this is seen as a betrayal.

He is trying to neutralize this issue and Kamala Harris and the Biden team does not want him to neutralize this issue. They win on this issue. They know that. It's their best issue. It's their biggest issue.

So, Kamala Harris is going to Arizona to say blame Donald Trump. You can blame Donald Trump for this and Donald Trump will still be bad for women's reproductive rights despite what he is saying today.