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CNN Live Event/Special

Israel Weighs Response to Iran; Donald Trump's Hush Money Trial Begins. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 15, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:46]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And welcome back to our special coverage of Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial. It is the first ever criminal trial of a former president.

I'm Erin Burnett outside the courthouse in New York. And Wolf Blitzer, of course, is with me from our nation's capital today.

So far, the judge has heard heated arguments over evidence and Trump's social media posts, as the former president was seated with his defense attorneys. He's been in the room all morning. Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from payments that were made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, those payments allegedly made to stop her from speaking publicly about their alleged affair.

Prosecutors say the six-figure sum was part of an illegal scheme to hide damaging information from voters in 2016. It is the motive and that reason that is at the heart of this case. Trump pleads not guilty. And in moments, the courts will -- court will reconvene. There's been a lunch break, jury selection still on the agenda.

Our reporters have been in the room and have been covering all angles of this here in Manhattan.

And Kara Scannell was in that courtroom all morning.

So, Kara, what was it like? Tell us.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Donald Trump was in the courtroom today for what ended up being a lot of back-and-forth between the attorneys and not yet the start of jury selection. But Trump was there. He was paying close attention to what was happening.

At times, I saw him pass a note to his attorney, who received it, looked at him and nodded. There was a lot of engagement there. He also was reacting, but in a quieter way than what we see from Trump other times. You could see his facial expressions. He was biting his lower lip, though he didn't speak audibly or make any grand gestures inside the courtroom.

This, though, is the first day of this trial. And Trump is there. He intends to be here for every day of the trial. And what was very interesting is that we learned that Trump wants to go up to every sidebar if the judge has a one-on-one discussion with a client.

That is something that defendants usually almost always waive, that their attorneys go up and the prosecution goes up, but Trump's lawyers saying he wants to go in the one-on-ones, the close proximity with the jurors, the prospective jurors, as they are asked more intimate questions that the judge finds that they don't have to express in open court.

So it's a significant, kind of unusual development, Erin.

BURNETT: And, Kara, I know -- obviously, I don't know how loud it is going out there. We're both hearing these sirens as we're outside the courthouse here in Lower Manhattan.

When you're talking about that, Trump wanting to be a part of those sidebar conversations, how unprecedented is that? And then I know you're out just here for a few moments. You're going to be going back into the courtroom. What do you anticipate happening this afternoon, obviously, presuming he's obviously still going to be there?

What happens then?

SCANNELL: So, now, we -- like, we will begin the actual process of jury selection as we come back into the courtroom. They will bring in about 100 jurors at a time and ask them questions.

So the judge decided today that he would do what Trump had asked for. That is to ask the jury if they had any reason, the prospective jurors, if they had any reason that they couldn't serve in this case, they had a preplanned trip, if they had a religious reason, and then also separately ask anyone in the pool if they thought that they could not be fair and impartial.

Those jurors would be excused if they say that's the case. Then they will begin the process of going through that 42 questionnaire, posing the questions to the jurors. Now, there are some instances where, if the judge has a follow-up question or one of the attorneys do, and they decide not to handle that in the room, in front of everyone else.

Sometimes, that's because they don't want the juror to say something that could influence the thoughts of other jurors. They will then go to a sidebar and discuss that or, in the case -- in this case, possibly into a roving room. That's a room off to the side, just given the particulars of Trump now saying that he wants to go up to all of these sidebars.

So he will be in very close proximity to these potential jurors are -- as they are asked follow-up questions to dive more into whether they can be fair and impartial in this case. And because the Secret Service is here, because Trump is the front-runner, the presumptive nominee, they have the extra security precautions that will make this a little more comfortable, but Trump's lawyers saying he wants to participate in this way.

I have covered about two dozen trials. I can't remember one time the defendant opted to go up to the defense bar as -- or -- excuse me -- up to the bench as the judge and the attorneys are asking questions of the potential jurors.

[13:05:04]

So this is really remarkable to me that he is choosing to do that. And he will be eye to eye with these potential jurors, in close proximity as they answer questions -- Erin.

BURNETT: It's really incredible to watch. History is being made in so many ways.

Kara, thank you. And, Kara, of course, I know you're going back in the courtroom.

When she is -- comes out later this afternoon, if you have seen those jurors, we're going to be joined by her every moment we can.

Phil Mattingly, Paula Reid are with me.

All right, so what do you make of that, the going up to the sidebar, as part of every single sidebar? Kara saying she's never seen it happen before, face to face with the jurors. I mean, it is a pretty incredible statement made by the former president.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is a statement. And it's a statement that suggests he's involved. The stakes are high here, right?

This is not only the first criminal trial of the former president. He faces the possibility of jail time if he is convicted. So his legal team would likely tell you this shows that he's invested. He understands that this is serious.

Now, as a recovering lawyer, I can tell you he might go to a couple of these sidebars and be like, eh, just kidding. I think I'm going to stay at the table. But I think that's the statement they're trying to make.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it's also interesting how much it tracks with everything we have seen with him and all of his legal issues, and there are quite a few, over the course of the last several months, at the same time he's been campaigning.

At the same time, he's the Republican nominee. His involvement and his -- the intensity with which he is trying to thrust his involvement onto center stage has been a focal point, not just of his legal strategy and his lawyers, as they have sought to delay, as they have sought to battle every little piece of every single proceeding.

But, also, it's critical for what he's trying to portray on the campaign trail as well, that he is not only involved, but this is very much about him. This is his fight. And that fight is central to not just what he did in the Republican primary, which was steamroll everybody that he ran against, but also as he heads into this general election.

BURNETT: And, Phil, it's interesting, and you having spent so much time with him, that he is opting to be in a position -- and I know, as Paula said, maybe after you go up a few times to sidebar, you say, hey, enough of that. OK.

But, in the meantime, the proximity that that gives him to the jurors, right, that he is...

MATTINGLY: Yes.

BURNETT: And by sitting in there and watching every single -- every single juror be selected, right, that he wants that face-to-face. He wants that eye contact.

MATTINGLY: And it tracks with not just the legal issues he's been dealing with the last year-plus, but his entire career, right? He sends messages to people. He makes clear that he's there.

And it's not necessarily an explicit show of intimidation or trying to shape the proceedings. But if you implicitly take it that way, he's maybe not going to be that upset about the fact of the matter. And I think that's a recognition, when you think about who's going to be testifying in this trial, who the key players are, and you might have to go back to season one of the Trump show -- I think we're in season eight or 15 at this point in time...

BURNETT: Right.

MATTINGLY: ... to remember a lot of these people who were in the orbit, who were critical players in Trump's orbit before he became president of the United States, all of whom had stories to tell about how he would operate behind the scenes to get messages across...

BURNETT: Right.

MATTINGLY: ... to make sure people knew what he wanted, how he wanted it. It may not have been explicit, but it was there.

And I think there's at least some element of that in what we're seeing so far.

BURNETT: So, Paula, as -- because you are a lawyer, and as addition to covering this, in those sidebar conversations, tell us about what happens in those.

You know, how frequent are they. What would be the -- what would be the nature of them, even at this point in the process, what Kara's witnessing happening right now? And how would the lawyers on the team be responding to the fact that their client, the defendant, wants to be standing up there in those conversations?

REID: Oh, look, he's the client from hell, right? He's a pain in the neck. So I'm sure that his lawyers would prefer that he not be there, so that they would be free to make the legal arguments they need to make, and not necessarily be performing for an audience of one.

But, usually, these sidebar conversations are issues that they want to resolve outside the presence of the jury or, in this case, today, a potential juror. So, these are issues that are sensitive, that may have to deal with some evidence that's being brought up, an objection that is made.

And I'm told from my sources that we can expect, throughout this case, there will likely be a lot of objections, a lot of sidebars, because the defense is -- they are completely focused on preserving every possible issue for appeal.

BURNETT: Right, so every single one,so just to imagine them going up there every time, this unprecedented moment.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: All right, of course, we're here this afternoon as, right now, they're finishing up this lunch break, Wolf, and heading back into the courtroom, where the former president will be, and part of those sidebars, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: History is unfolding as we're watching it all unfold.

Erin, thank you very, very much.

We have got an excellent panel of our analysts, legal and political, who are with me here in Washington.

And, Laura Coates, you're our chief legal analyst. What, there are some 500 potential jurors who are about to be questioned and interviewed. They got a narrow it down to 12 jurors and with six alternate jurors.

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: How do they do that?

COATES: With difficulty by, the way, I mean, to do so.

Remember, the alternates won't know they're actually alternates. You want to make sure it's kept up to them not to know that, because they won't pay attention. They won't believe it in the same persuasion, in the same way.

But you're going to have to figure out how you're going to whittle it down. The juror questionnaire is one start. Now, many of these questions are pretty routine. But the ones that are not include questions about whether you have attended rallies, someone in your circle as well, your views on Trump, not whether you -- how you voted.

[13:10:08]

That's not a part of it. It's not that's precise, but it's more of a proxy line thing, also questions about where you get your media from, really important insight into who you might be thinking about, who you are.

My most important question I have tabulated here is, do you have any strong opinions or firmly held beliefs about whether a former president may be criminally charged in state court? Not a question you see every day, because, who, well, has had a former president actually be charged criminally, but also because it suggests they have a more nuanced perspective here.

At the end of the day, they have to whittle down to these numbers. And they're going to do so by having the judge ask a great deal of questions. But if somebody were to self-select and say they're not able to be impartial, the judge here is not going to question that.

They're going to allow that person to be released, which is not what happened when he oversaw the Trump Organization trial. But, that time, he said it was much too cumbersome to do so. He's changed his mind this time.

BLITZER: Very important information. We're watching it all unfold.

Elie Honig, you're with us as well.

Trump all of a sudden shows up at these sidebar conversations. He's in the courtroom right now. Give us your sense. His lawyers clearly are probably not very happy about that.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It is a very unusual request, so people understand.

Kara said she's never seen it in a couple dozen trials she covered. Same here. I have never seen a defendant standing there at the sidebar. It's not necessarily improper, because a defendant, Donald Trump or anyone else, does have a very broad constitutional right to participate in his own defense.

Now, what happens at those sidebars is the follow-up questioning to the questionnaire that Laura was just talking about, the follow-up questioning asked by the lawyers and the judge. And if I had to put myself in Trump's position strategically, I imagine he's got a couple of objectives, one, as Phil Mattingly was saying before, to make his presence felt, not necessarily in an improper way.

But, look, he's a powerful, charismatic, whether you love him or hate him, figure. And the other is maybe to get a direct sense of the person. Am I getting positive vibes? Did the person give me a look that maybe suggests to me that he or she is in my corner?

So I think that's the strategy behind it. I do remain skeptical whether he's going to want to do it. It's grueling. It's a lot of standing for hours at a time. We will see.

BLITZER: Yes, it's pretty extraordinary a moment indeed.

And this gag order...

HONIG: Yes.

BLITZER: that the judge imposed, the prosecutors are saying Trump has already violated it. HONIG: Yes.

BLITZER: But the judge has not made a final decision.

HONIG: He clearly has.

I mean, the gag order says, you may not make public comments attacking likely witnesses in this case. And just late last week, Donald Trump did just that. He called Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels -- quote -- "sleazebags." How does that not go right down the middle of the gag order.

And we said this morning before we started, we said, this is going to be a moment for the DA. Are they going to ask to have that enforced? And they have. And now it's a big question for Judge Merchan. I don't know how he lets that go and still keeps any teeth in that gag order.

COATES: By the way, Wolf, if we think about the gag order, it's also to protect the jurors.

I mean, if you're going to have a former president standing beside them for follow-up questions, think about the intimidation factor of that just, by virtue of him being in their presence, also somebody who has not been punished for making statements that would be, either if they're intimidating or threatening or insulting, that's going to weigh on the minds of jurors, who are going to say, do I really want to be a part of this trial or not and might make decisions in their questioning based on that belief.

BLITZER: And those jurors, those potential jurors, are probably pretty nervous right now.

COATES: Yes.

BLITZER: Could they be endangered as a result of what's going on as well? And, hopefully, they won't be.

Jeff Zeleny, you're our political reporter. What are some of the Republicans who are watching all of this unfold, what are they telling you about how this has likely already impacted Trump? Because a lot of them are speaking to Trump.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, look, in uncertain ways.

This is something that people acknowledge. The Republicans from outside his campaign and inside his campaign this morning I have been talking to said they do not know how this is going to resolve itself. And that's just not talking about the outcome of the case. They don't know the impact it's going to have on the defendant, who also happens to be the Republican nominee.

This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill, boring tax case. This is deeply personal, deeply personal to the former president. So this could impact him in some ways. And, also, we do not know that past is prologue here. What I mean by that is, for the last year, every time Donald Trump has

been in the courtroom, if it's in New York or Atlanta or elsewhere, his base has rallied behind him. We're at a different point and a different moment now, the general election campaign. A larger audience is watching this.

So the reality is, we should say up front we do not know much about the politics of this. Of course, there are politics of this. It's essentially going to change the moment of the presidential campaign, but we do not know the outcome of this. And there are so many intricacies, interwoven developments here.

People are watching it with great interest because it all hinges on Donald Trump himself in such a personal way.

BLITZER: Yes, it's such a sensitive moment in the campaign already as well, as we're watching it all this time for.

Audie Cornish, I'm anxious to get your thoughts on the Biden campaign's announcement today that President Biden is not planning to say anything or get involved at all in Trump's legal problems today. He's going to stay out of it. What do you make of that?

[13:15:06]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's what he's done so far with a lot of these cases.

Also, there's literally no incentive for him to make a comment about a case where already the defendant is accusing the White House of interference. So, I don't think there's any interest in the White House in playing into that argument.

The other thing I wanted to add and ask Laura is, when it comes to the jury pool, Trump has always criticized the location of courts because he will say, I can't get a fair trial because of the jury, because of the judge.

But, in this case, you're talking about the most famous person in the world who -- whose allegations against him have been reported ad nauseam. They're -- I don't think there is a court in the country where you don't have a jury pool that hasn't heard something about this.

COATES: Well, I remember, the requirement is not that they have to be totally ignorant and be Rip Van Winkle and wake up all of a sudden under a tree and say, oh, wait, was there a trial against the former president, which...

CORNISH: Which I just wish. You actually just described my actual fantasies.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

COATES: That's your fantasy right now? Well, I got news for you.

CORNISH: I appreciate that, yes.

COATES: You can't be Rip Van Winkle in the world we're living right now.

(LAUGHTER)

COATES: But the important question is, really, it's not that you have to be ignorant of all the details. You have to be impartial or be able to set aside your opinions, according to the way charges have actually gone, to be able to make a decision.

Now, that's a lot of intuition and gut-checking to figure out if someone's telling you the truth or not. And somebody -- this is a jury and a jury pool around the nation who there are going to be some who just want 15 minutes of fame, who want to be in that room, for example, to say, oh, I want...

CORNISH: Yes.

COATES: ... to figure out how this goes, and maybe I want to throw it.

CORNISH: Although I have to say, being on a jury in a Trump -- just this morning, I think the New York police were reporting a bomb threat to Alvin Bragg's home.

I don't think there is going to be a jury that won't -- if you're on this, you're affected for life, right? O.J. just passed a few weeks ago. Those jurors, I don't think, ever escaped the public limelight in a way.

And that's something that could happen here. And I think I -- in a way, we have to be thankful to the citizens who end up getting through this process, because they're going to give way more of themselves than a typical trial.

And having the president go up to sidebars, so that he can kind of get a sense of who they are, in an age when you know his ability to use information as a tool and weapon against people, is probably quite intimidating.

BLITZER: Yes, I give a lot of credit to those 500 potential jurors who are being questioned right now, yes.

CORNISH: Yes. We all know about jury duty, but this is epic.

BLITZER: Yes.

When I was a member of a jury in Montgomery County, Maryland, outside of Washington, it was a drunk driving case. It was not a -- but it was still exciting to be a member of that jury. And you can only imagine being a member of a jury involving the president -- former president of the United States, the first time in American history. that has happened, a former president sitting at a criminal trial against him. (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: All right, everybody, stand by.

We're continuing our special coverage. Much more coming up of this historic criminal trial of Donald Trump.

And there's another big story we're following very closely right now, the aftermath of the Iranian attack on Israel, debate over how Israel might respond. We're live from Jerusalem right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:22:32]

BLITZER: All right, this is just into CNN.

One Israeli official tells CNN Israel's war cabinet is weighing military and diplomatic options right now in response to Iran's retaliatory attack over the weekend against Israel.

President Biden just addressed the attack on camera. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As you know, Iran launched an unprecedented aerial attack against Israel, and we mounted an unprecedented military effort to defend Israel.

Together with our partners, we defeated that attack. The United States is committed to Israel's security. We're committed to a cease-fire that will bring the hostages home and preventing conflict from spreading beyond what it already has. We're also committed to the security of our personnel and partners in the region, including Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, is joining us now. He's live in Jerusalem.

Nic, first of all, what do we know about the Israeli war cabinet's meetings that have been going on today?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Wolf, they met for almost three hours. They haven't announced the conclusion.

It fears -- it appears to follow very much on the same tracks as yesterday, where there was almost a five-hour meeting of the war cabinet. And that is, they're determined to act. It's not a question of if they will act. They will. The question that's being discussed is when and how, precisely what to do.

And there is internal pressure within the war cabinet, it seems. Certainly, we have heard it coming from some members saying that Israel should act sooner, rather than later. So, there is a sense in the region at the moment of nervousness that Israel could respond quickly.

But we have heard from members of the war cabinet, like Benny Gantz, like Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying that they would like to build support, a coalition of support, to try to isolate Iran. So, the question is, will it be a military response, which is what Israel is weighing, or will it -- or will it be a -- or will it be a diplomatic response?

So, that really seems to be the question at the moment. And when it comes to -- when it comes to Gaza at the moment, more aid did get into the north. But the possibility of a military operation in the near- term in Rafah seems to be being put on hold. The focus really is on the response to Iran -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, good point. Nic Robertson in Jerusalem for us, thank you very much.

[13:25:00]

I want to bring in CNN military analyst retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton right now.

Colonel Leighton, what do you think the potential options that Israel might be weighing as it considers how it will respond to Iran's unprecedented attack? Because we know at some point Israel will respond either militarily or diplomatically.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, that's certainly true, Wolf.

And there are a lot of different factors here. First, to quickly recall, there were 170 drones, over 120 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles that were fired at Israel. So, this is one of the things that the Israelis have to consider.

They will probably look at not only the distance that they have. It's about 1,000 miles from Israel all the way to Iran, in terms of border to border. But one of the things that the Israelis could look at is the possibility of aerial attacks against Iran. For example, they could go into areas where the Iranians have air bases or naval installations.

So those are the kinds of things that they could do. Whether they will do that or not, of course, depends on how far they want to escalate this. The other thing about this is that there are so many different factors when it comes to these kinds of operations.

And when you see operations like the Iron Dome here, as it's trying to shoot down these missiles, the key element here is that Israel will need to be prepared to do this kind of thing again if they end up attacking Iran. So there are a lot of different aspects to this, but they really have a major effort here that they need to really conduct in order to protect their country, their territory, and their ability to maintain their military forces.

BLITZER: It was -- what was really impressive was the fact that Israel and its partners who helped them were able to shoot down, to intercept, what, about 99 percent of the more than 300 munitions, the drones, the missiles, the rockets, everything else, that the Iranians fired against Israel.

And they were not just coming from Iran. They were coming from Iran's proxy forces as well.

LEIGHTON: That's right, yes.

In fact, those proxy forces really are deployed all throughout these areas. So, when you're looking at Saudi Arabia, that area doesn't have as many proxy forces, but they respond to the proxy forces that are coming out of Yemen, the Houthis. Then you also have proxy forces in Iraq and Syria, and some sleeper cells in Jordan, as well as, of course, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

So all of those forces are arrayed against Israel, and they're doing basically what Iran wants them to do against the Israeli state.

BLITZER: And very quickly, before I let you go, Colonel Leighton, because we were talking about this earlier, you and I both remember the first Gulf War, when the Iraqis under Saddam Hussein started launching Scud missiles at Israel, and they were landing in Israel outside of Tel Aviv and elsewhere.

And the then-U.S. administration appealed to Israel and even sent over a top U.S. official to ask the Israelis, don't respond. That will make the situation even worse.

You were involved in all of that. Remind our viewers about that.

LEIGHTON: Yes, absolutely.

Well, so the Scud forces at the time were based in Western Iraq. And both in the first Gulf War and in the second Gulf War, what the Iraqis did was, they launched Scuds against Israel. In the first Gulf War, there were over 40 different Scuds that impacted, around 46 or so.

When they did that, when the -- when they did that, the key thing to remember was, the Israelis stayed calm and let the United States handle it. The second Gulf War, we conducted operations called Scud- hunting operations and eliminated the threat in the western desert.

BLITZER: Interesting.

Cedric Leighton, I remember those days very, very well, and you do as well. Thanks very much for your expertise.

And, to our viewers, we're also witnessing a truly historic trial just beginning today in Manhattan. Some 500 prospective jurors are waiting to be interviewed by lawyers in the criminal case against the former President of the United States Donald Trump.

You're looking at live pictures from just outside that courthouse in New York City.

We will have much more on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:00]