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CNN International: Trump's Criminal Trial Opening Remarks and First Witness; U.S. Report Cites War Crimes Allegation in Gaza Conflict; Pro-Palestinian Protest Sweep Across U.S. Universities; Flash Floods, Torrential Rains Batter Middle East and Asia. Aired 4- 4:30a ET
Aired April 23, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Very, very sad day in America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The prosecution was very clear on the nature of the fraud, the purpose of the fraud and the illegality of the fraud relating to the president's cover up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no place for hate in this city.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just can't believe in New York City at Columbia University, Jewish students are afraid to go to classes in the United States of America in 2024.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tens of millions of people are in the path of torrential rain and rushing floodwaters. The rain is swelling rivers, reservoirs and waterways.
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Anna Coren sitting in today for Max Foster.
It's Tuesday, April 23, 4 p.m. here in Hong Kong, 4 a.m. in New York, where Donald Trump's hush money case will resume in just a few hours. This marks the jury's first peek into the high-stakes world of alleged cover-ups and porn star payoffs.
During opening remarks, Trump's lawyer said there's nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It's called democracy. But prosecutors say no, it's called criminal conspiracy.
The first witness is expected back on the stand today for some intense questioning. David Pecker on the right is the former publisher of the tabloid The "National Enquirer." He was a key player in the alleged scheme to pay former adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her story. He's been a long-time friend of Trump and has issued a catch- and-kill strategy. That is to buy the rights to stories that might threaten the former president and suppress them, which Trump's attorney says is not illegal. Pecker was also involved in paying model Karen McDougal, who had an alleged affair with Trump for her story and then, burying it. Trump has denied the affairs.
Well, the former U.S. president, the first to face a criminal trial, could get prison time if convicted. CNN's Paula Reid picks up the story.
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TRUMP: What's going on right here should never be happening. It's a very, very sad day in America.
PAULA REID CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former President Donald Trump's criminal trial kicked off with jurors hearing competing accounts of why a hush money payment was made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels just weeks before the 2016 election. Matthew Colangelo laid out the prosecutor's theory of the case, which he said is about election fraud, pure and simple.
He says it all started with a 2015 meeting at Trump Tower between Trump, his former attorney, Michael Cohen, and the former publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker.
The government alleges Pecker agreed to use the Enquirer to help Trump's campaign by buying and suppressing negative stories about him and by amplifying stories that were favorable to him. Prosecutors allege the salacious Access Hollywood tape unearthed just before the 2016 election was significant because it turned the rest of the presidential campaign entirely upside down.
TRUMP: When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever you want?
TRUMP: Grab them by the (BLEEP).
REID (voice-over): They allege that once the tape became public, Trump's campaign went into damage control mode. Worried about what an allegation of an affair with an adult film star might do, Trump and Cohen arranged a $130,000 payment to keep Stormy Daniels quiet just two weeks before the election.
TRUMP: It's a case as to bookkeeping, which is a very minor thing in terms of the law. And this is what they try and take me off the trail for. That check's being made to a lawyer. He is a lawyer or was a lawyer.
REID (voice-over): In the defense's opening statement Attorney Todd Blanche argued his client is innocent, saying President Trump did not commit any crimes and called the 34 counts of falsifying business records against him, just pieces of paper.
Blanche directly responded to the allegations of election fraud, saying there's nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It's called democracy.
[04:05:00]
The defense then attacked likely witnesses, Daniels and Cohen. Blanche called Daniels allegation of an affair, sinister and an attempt to embarrass President Trump. He then shifted to Trump's former lawyer, Cohen, who he says is quote obsessed with Trump and that Cohen's financial livelihood depends on Trump's destruction.
David Pecker was the first witness to be called shortly before he took the stand. Prosecutors referred to him as a co conspirator for helping Trump try to cover up his alleged affair.
Paula Reid, CNN New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Now, these historic proceedings are not televised, so CNN used the court transcript of the opening statements to figure out what words the attorneys used the most. The prosecution said election at least 41 times, defendant almost 50 times, and the names Karen McDougal, Stormy Daniels and David Pecker all received dozens of mentions.
When the defense spoke, Trump's name naturally came up the most, more than 80 times. Stormy Daniels got at least 15 mentions, and the Trump camp had plenty to say about Michael Cohen dropping his name at least 60 times. Trump also took some swipes at his former fixer after leaving court.
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TRUMP: What are they going to look at, all the lies that Cohen did in the last trial? He got caught lying in the last trial. So he got caught lying. Pure lie.
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COREN: Earlier, criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson told me that he believes the prosecution did lay out a compelling case in the opening statements by focusing on the alleged cover up conspiracy and fraud.
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JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think the prosecution also made this about the larger issue, not the salacious issue about Stormy Daniels, but the issue about election interference, the issue about the nature of why these payments were made, right? And the payments being made to influence the election.
And that's important because it's not just about the falsification of business records. It's about why they were falsified. And so I just think as a general matter in opening up the case, the prosecution was very clear on the nature of the fraud, the purpose of the fraud and the illegality of the fraud relating to the president's cover up in this case. COREN: Joey, Trump's lawyer will try to minimize what occurred. I mean, he's already referred to it as business record violations, just 34 pieces of paper. He will stick with the argument that Trump had no intent, no knowledge. How will that wash with the jury?
JACKSON: Yes, you know, so remain to be seen. I thought the defense did an effective job of basically saying, hey, there's nothing to see here. Of course he influenced the election.
He was running for president. And in a democracy, that's what people do. And in terms of this, this nondisclosure agreement, people sign those every day. So what? He's protecting his family.
And as to matters of business records of fraud, my client doesn't know anything about that, right?
As we look there, just the entirety of the jury who's there to hear the case. But the reality is, is that I think the defense is using what they have certainly attacking Michael Cohen as a person who can't be trusted a person who's guilty of perjury that is lying under oath. Stormy Daniels, the unsavory life that many will think she had.
And so they -- that is the defense -- went after that and went after the issue of reasonable doubt and how so much of it exists, suggesting that Trump is completely innocent.
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COREN (on camera): Well, now to damning new allegations of war crimes in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared the details in the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report on Monday. It cites extensive and well publicized cases of killings, abductions and sexual violence by Hamas and other groups during the October 7th attacks on Israel. But it also details systemic torture and inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israel, as well as the forced disappearance of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza.
Blinken points out the report does not represent the U.S. Government's conclusions that relies on a wide variety of sources, including government officials, abuse victims, international organizations and the media. And he says the U.S. applies the same standard for all.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Do we have a double standard? The answer is no. As this report makes clear in general as we're looking at human rights and the condition of human rights around the world, we apply the same standard to everyone. And that doesn't change whether the country in question is an adversary, a competitor, a friend or an ally.
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And that's usually important.
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COREN: Meantime, Gaza civil defense workers have uncovered a mass grave with nearly 300 bodies at a hospital in Khan Younis. CNN's Nada Bashir has the story, and we warn you some of the videos in her report a graphic.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the last 10 days, this mother has returned to Gaza's Nasser Hospital, searching desperately for the body of her 24 year old daughter, Coulthard. She had been buried at this makeshift grave site in January. Now her body is missing.
The Israelis turned the hospital upside down, she says. They dug up all the dead bodies and moved them around.
These are the shrouded corpses of those retrieved from a newly discovered mass grave in Khan Younis. Nearly 300 bodies have so far been recovered, according to Gaza's civil defense. But the search is still ongoing.
This is a crime against humanity, Dr. Al-Maraya says. How could the Israeli occupation forces dig up these graves and mishandle the bodies of our martyrs? In some cases, they even opened and removed the bodies from their bags, even though their names have been marked on them.
Many of the bodies recovered here were buried by relatives or medics on the hospital's grounds in January as a temporary measure. Israel's relentless bombardment of the southern city, making it too difficult to carry out a traditional burial.
Following the IDF's withdrawal from Khan Younis, families returned in the hope of finally laying their loved ones to rest, only to find that their bodies had been exhumed by the Israeli military, according to civil defense officials, and discarded in this nearby mass grave.
I still haven't found my son Khalil's body, this father says. We'd buried him over there, but we can't find him anymore. We just want to give him a dignified burial.
According to Gaza's civil defense chief, some bodies have been discovered with their hands tied together. An indication, he says, that these may be the victims of alleged field executions, though CNN is unable to verify such claims and cannot confirm the causes of death among the bodies being unearthed.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment without response. But this would not be the first time graves have been disturbed by the Israeli military, the IDF previously acknowledging that its forces have exhumed graves in Gaza in order to carry out DNA tests to identify potential hostages.
This man points to the palm tree beside which his brother, Alah, had been buried. Two weeks on, and his body has still not been found. Under international humanitarian law graves must, in times of war, be respected, properly maintained and marked so they may always be found. But in Gaza, the Palestinian people have been robbed of their dignity, even in death.
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COREN: Such a disturbing report. Nada Bashir joins us now from London. Nada, tell us more about what you were learning from this human rights report.
BASHIR (on camera): Well, there are certainly mounting concerns around the human rights situation, both in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank. This discovery of yet another mass grave, of course, raising real concerns for many in the international community. But as you mentioned, Anna, new details emerging in the State Department report, which relies, of course, on independent account, as well as, of course, reports from U.N. agencies and other human rights organizations.
And among some of the more startling highlights in this report is reports of systemic torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment of Palestinian detainees who were arrested and detained after October 7th in Gaza.
We certainly saw that first-hand in our own reporting meeting with Palestinians in hiding, fearing detention in the occupied West Bank weeks after the outbreak of the war, particularly Gazan workers detained in Israeli territory.
And, of course, there have been other key issues highlighted in this State Department report, including the disappearance of thousands of Palestinians, forced disappearance, as reported by the International Committee for the Red Cross, which has 4,000 cases highlighted there.
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Of course, we've been hearing for some time now questions and concerns around the treatment of Palestinian detainees, particularly in the occupied West Bank, where many are children under the age of 18, many held under administrative detention, meaning no charges laid against them, no clear ongoing legal process.
This State Department report also raises concern around the use of what is described as exceptional measures during interrogations by Israel's security forces.
So real concerns being highlighted here around the treatment or mistreatment of Palestinians by the Israeli authorities. But, again, this does not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. government.
COREN: Nada Bashir, we certainly appreciate your reporting. Thank you.
Well, dozens of protesters in Israel gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home on the first night of Passover on Monday. They decided not to participate in the traditional Passover meal this year, instead demanding that the government make a deal for the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. More than 130 hostages still remain in Hamas custody. Some of them are believed to be dead.
Well, meantime, pro-Palestinian protests are sweeping across universities in the U.S. amid the Passover holiday. Columbia University, the epicenter of the demonstrations, says all classes at its main campus will be hybrid until the semester ends on April 29th. CNN's Isabel Rosales reports that some Jewish students on campus say they are terrified.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was assaulted in the middle of campus. This is an actual crisis and an imminent threat.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tensions boiling over at Columbia. And other top universities like MIT, NYU and Yale, where at least 45 protesters camping on college grounds, were arrested early this morning by the Yale University Police Department. Yale University releasing a statement saying the university would not tolerate behavior that interfered with university operations or threatened, harassed or intimidated others.
The arrests on college campuses coming as verbal confrontations between pro-Palestinian protesters and Jewish students --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They can knock into me.
ROSALES (voice-over): -- have escalated into physical ones.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't goad me. Don't touch me.
ELISHA BAKER, COLUMBIA STUDENT: My friend on Saturday night was full blown assaulted. He had, you know, he was shoved around.
ANDREW STEIN, COLUMBIA STUDENT: My friend had was had a flown a flag stolen out of his hands and rocks thrown at his face.
ROSALES (voice-over): Columbia Monday, resorting to cancelling in person classes and calling for a reset to de escalate the rancor. A rabbi linked to the university urging Jewish students to stay home, saying the events have made it clear that Columbia University's public safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students safety.
The hostilities at Columbia growing for months alongside peaceful protesters camping in this tent city, the encampment and the fear drawing criticism from business leaders like New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who says he will no longer be donating to his alma mater, though he financially supports the Jewish Hillel on campus.
ROBERT KRAFT, CEO, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: I just can't believe in New York City at Columbia University, Jewish students are afraid to go to classes.
ROSALES (voice-over): The rebuke coming amid calls for action from congressional leaders who toured the Columbia campus today.
REP. DANIEL GOLDMAN (D-NY): That is unacceptable for a university. That is unacceptable for an academic institution. And all universities have an obligation to maintain the safety and security of their students from all backgrounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We would like you to leave.
CROWD, CHANTING: We would like you to leave.
ROSALES (voice-over): The NYPD saying they're prepared to enter Columbia's campus if they're called in and pointing to the heavy police presence just outside Columbia's gates.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any kind of violence is not going to be tolerated. And that includes harassment.
ROSALES: Let me give you a sense of the movements that we've seen from these demonstrators here on the campus of Yale Monday morning. That is when we saw tensions really rising between police officers and demonstrators when they were asked to disperse. Those that didn't, well, we saw them arrested and charged, just under 50 of them. That area, a university plaza just in that direction now has been blocked off by police cruisers and yellow tape.
Then a couple of hours after that, we saw them occupying a public road just a couple of blocks that away when officers told them to leave. They did. And now they are gathered here in front of the university's library. At times we hear them chanting, singing, displaying the Palestinian flag as well.
Meanwhile, New Haven's mayor putting out a statement saying that their first amendment right to protest, that is important, but it is also important that it is done in a, quote, safe and orderly manner.
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COREN: Isabel Rosales reporting.
[04:20:00]
The protests have also spread to other college campuses. New York police say they were called in by NYU after demonstrators refused to disperse despite repeated requests. Some students and faculty members were arrested.
Well, meanwhile, New York City's mayor is condemning hateful speech during the protests.
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ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: There is no place for hate in this city. I don't care if it's antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Sikhism. We don't have a place for that.
And I don't want to be and I won't be the mayor if we have to take off your hijab, your yarmulke or your turban when you enter a place of higher education or use our transportation system or walk out streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has been following the developments at NYU.
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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The protests have been going on here for most of the night. I'm standing outside the business school here in the West Village in Manhattan at NYU. You can see there's this standoff between the NYPD and protesters.
What happened here just a short time ago was there was an encampment. Students who were protesting set up tents and the police moved in on the request by the school to clear the encampment.
And the school says in a statement that they found that there were people who infiltrated the encampment that were not NYU students. And as a result of that, they asked the NYPD to come in and remove the encampment, to remove the tents.
The other thing the school said in this statement was that they heard that people were making intimidating chants, which raised a lot of concern for them, but also that there were incidents of anti-Semitism. And so all of that -- because of all that, they decided to bring the NYPD. And now for almost three hours, there has been this standoff.
The other thing what we learned from the NYPD is that there were faculty members that were locked arm to arm to try and prevent the NYPD from arresting the protesters that were behind here.
The NYPD and the school has now cleared this entire area. And most of the items that were here before, like tents and other things belonging to many of the protesters, have been cleared. At this point right now, there are about 100 or so protesters that remain. The NYPD is allowing them to stay out here on the street and continue their chants.
There's no indication that they're going to make any arrests at this point. But there's obvious concern here from the school and the NYPD that if they leave, that many of the protesters are going to try to get back on the campus.
But this is certainly another escalation at another university, after these protests, for the school to call the NYPD in and to remove students, to arrest students, and to arrest faculty is something that is going to certainly spark perhaps more protests, like we've seen over at Columbia University. And this is going to be one of these moments here at this university, at NYU, where we're going to see probably students and other faculty members raise concern over what the school here decided to do.
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COREN: Shimon Prokupecz reporting there from New York.
Well, the British Parliament has passed a controversial bill, which will allow the government to turn away asylum seekers and send them to Rwanda instead. It's been two years since the idea was pitched as a way to deter illegal and dangerous boats carrying migrants to the U.K.
The bill was ruled unlawful by Britain's Supreme Court last year, which cited safety concerns for migrants and Rwanda's poor human rights record. But British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is determined to make the plan work.
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RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The first flight will leave in 10 to 12 weeks. And the success of this deterrent doesn't rest on one flight alone. It rests on the relentless continual process of successfully and permanently removing people to Rwanda, with a regular rhythm of multiple flights every month over the summer and beyond until the boats are stopped.
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COREN: Well, Sunak faces reelection later this year, and illegal migration will no doubt be a big issue at the polls. Critics say the bill has cost the British government too much, and opponents in the Labour Party have vowed to scrap the policy if they win.
India's Prime Minister is facing backlash after remarks at a rally sparked accusations of hate speech. We'll have his comments and the reaction just ahead.
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Plus, torrential rains and flash floods across parts of Asia and the Middle East, how people are dealing with the extreme weather.
And how animators in North Korea may have worked on popular American cartoon shows without U.S. studios realizing it.
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COREN: Unprecedented flooding in Dubai last week was so intense it could be seen from space. Well, these NASA satellite shots show the area at the beginning of the month and then after the clouds parted when the rains were done. Well, those dark pools of the standing water still present from the UAE's largest deluge on record.
Dubai received an entire year's worth of rain in just 12 hours, while areas further east recorded nearly two years worth of rain in a day.
Weather events like this are becoming increasingly more common due to climate change. CNN's Ivan Watson has details on severe weather across Asia and the Middle East and the destruction it's caused.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sweeping floods are threatening towns and cities from the Pacific Ocean to the Middle East. In Guangdong, Southeast China, tens of millions of people are in the path of torrential rain and rushing floodwaters. Here, the annual flood season has come early and ferociously.
The rain is swelling rivers, reservoirs and waterways. On Saturday, a CCTV camera catches the moment a surge so powerful it destroys this bridge. Thousands of people have been evacuated. Over one million were without power over the weekend.
Thousands of miles west in Iran, children cling onto fallen trees desperately waiting for help as devastating floods sweep through the country's southeast. With rivers overflowing, Iranians are warned to watch out for crocodiles forced out of their natural habitats.
Torrential rains and flash floods battered neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan this past week, leaving more than 100 dead and injuring over 100 more, authorities say. Others have been left stranded by the rising waters. In Afghanistan, families look at what's left of their homes, assessing the extent of the damage.
DOST NABI, GULDAG VILLAGE RESIDENT (through translator): There was a flood last night at three o'clock and there were three goats in this room that were lost. People are taking out their animals and belongings from under the mud, and people suffered huge losses. All of the walls of the houses have been destroyed and need to be rebuilt.
WATSON (voice-over): Afghans already suffering from poverty and a lack of food will now try to salvage flood damaged farmland. Hundreds of livestock have been killed.
ADAM KAN, FARMER (through translator): A week ago, the floods came here and destroyed these houses as well as 60 to 70 acres of land. And then again, this time the flood came and destroyed everything here. These fields were planted with vegetables, but the flood destroyed everything.
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WATSON (voice-over): Authorities are responding, but not fast enough, say some residents of flooded towns. Angry, this man in Iran says, we do not have drinkable water or roads. And in Pakistan, this man says he's disappointed with the government.
They failed to help the local people here during this disaster, he says. They haven't sent any help, nor restored the roads or the electricity.
More rain is forecast across Asia, where millions will brace for the threat of even more damage.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
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