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The Lead with Jake Tapper
50+ Dismissed Today From Jury Pool; Hope Hicks Expected To Testify In Hush Money Trial; Israel Weighs Response After Iran's Unprecedented Attack; Court Adjourns In First Day Of Trump's New York Hush Money Case; Pro-Palestinian Protests Disrupt Traffic In Several U.S. Cities. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired April 15, 2024 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:15]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Day one of the New York hush money cover up case against Donald Trump is ramping up any minute.
THE LEAD starts right now.
Major rulings already is the first day of trial comes to a close. A Playboy model is being allowed to testify that infamous "Access Hollywood" tape not allowed to the aired in court.
Plus, a decision put off on a potential gag order violation by Donald Trump.
We'll have all the moments as this rather salacious case gets going.
Plus, one key name on the witness list, what former Trump White House aide Hope Hicks has already said on the record and what that might mean for her former bosses case.
And Israel's war cabinet meets again, weighing how to strike back after Iran's unprecedented direct attack. What CNN is hearing about the calculations they're making.
(MUSIC)
TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
We begin with our breaking news, jury selection in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York City is underway, but moments ago, more than half of this first batch of prospective jurors were sent home packing. Why? Well, they said they could not be filled here or impartial.
In just about 30 minutes, Donald Trump's first day in this trial will come to an end. But before jury selection even began, prosecutors were already asking Judge Juan Merchan to fine Donald Trump. They were accusing him of violating his gag order with three social media posts he made about the case, including one at 9:12 Eastern this morning, possibly while actually inside court.
Trump in one post referred to two key witnesses as sleaze bags. Those were his former attorney, Michael Cohen, and his former alleged paramour, adult film star and director Stormy Daniels. Remember, Donald Trump is being charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover for up the alleged role in a hush money scheme to buy Daniels silence and that of another alleged mistress before the 2016 election.
Here's how a Stormy Daniels herself described it in 2018.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, "60 MINUTES": Was it hush money to stay silent?
STORMY DANIELS, ADULT FILM STAR: Yes
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: All right. Wow.
Trump denied of course, knowing anything about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: He said he did not know anything about hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. But then in 2019 Michael Cohen testified before Congress and he said something else.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I'm ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump's elicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty. He is denying the affairs and as we wait for a jury to be seated and for the judges ruling on that alleged gag order violation, Judge Merchan has been deciding what evidence and what testimony jurors will be allowed to hear.
CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid is outside the courtroom for us.
And, Paula, the jury selection process has begun an already about 50 people have been let go?
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, over 50 let go because they felt they could not be impartial in this case. And Jake, that's a significant number because the Trumps team and one to have that statistic, they didn't want everyone who has dismissed in that first phase all be lumped in as one. They wanted that statistic to preserve issue for an appeal. I mean, they expect to eventually have to possibly appeal this case and they want to be able to point and say, look, we lost over half of the potential jurors because they could not be impartial.
Now, after that cut, then they lost about ten additional people for other reasons. And then they are taking a smaller group of potential jurors. And these folks have to go through this jury questionnaire questions like, where do you work? Where do you get your news and how do you feel? About the former president?
But, Jake, it's remarkable because these people have to answer these questions in front of the former presidents. Imagine the pressure there, but that is the process as it would be conducted for any other defendant.
Now, so far, they have not selected a single juror, but it's not even clear they'll be able to do that today. They will continue this process starting with approximately 100 people and whittling them down. Each day except for Wednesdays on repeat until they select 12 jurors and six alternates.
TAPPER: So far, have there been any big wins for Trump or for the prosecution?
REID: And the biggest win for Trump was getting that statistic stake about those who cant be impartial. But then before jury selection got underway, there were a lot of other motions, a lot about evidence. These questions that the judge had to resolve dealers lose some win, some for both sides, for example, the prosecution.
One and that Judge Merchan will not recuse himself from this case.
[16:05:02]
Now, we didn't expect that he would. The Trump team has been pushing for that. That issue is still pending before the Court of Appeals, but he declined to do that at the outset.
The judge also ruled that Karen McDougal, who also received hush one for her alleged affair with former President Trump ahead of the 2016 election. She can testify and also that evidence about other stories about Trump's opponents that were amplified by the "National Enquirer" can be included.
Now, those two things are significant because they help the district attorneys argument that all of this the hush money payment Stormy Daniels at these other payments to other mistresses. And then stories that would be helpful to Trump, but they were negative about his opponents that all of this was part of an effort to interfere in the 2016 election.
But the Trump team also had some wins, for example, the judge will not allow into the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape. He will not allow in portions of it the deposition from the E. Jean Carroll's civil litigation where this tape was discussed and he also said that three accounts of sexual assault by former President Trump that surfaced after the "Access Hollywood" tape, those will also not be allowed in.
So again, these are all pretty minor evidentiary issues, but some wins for the prosecution. Some losses for the prosecution. Same with the defense team.
TAPPER: All right. Paula Reid, thanks so much.
Our CNN legal analysts are here, Carrie Cordero and Elie Honig.
Elie, do you think that they will be able -- the prosecutors and defense and the judge, will they be able to find an impartial jury? Is there is it possible for Donald Trump to be tried by an impartial jury in Manhattan.
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So the technical legal answer to that, Jake, is yes, the prosecutors were correct. First of all, to charge this case in Manhattan, sometimes prosecutors engage in a little bit of forum shopping sometimes you have an option of multiple counties are multiple districts, and maybe you look for one that's more favorable here, Manhattan was the right and probably only place to charge the case. And as we see now, were going through this jury selection process, which is meant to weed out people who are unduly biased.
By the way, it is remarkable that more than half the people said right off the bat knowing one paragraph of information about this case, I can not be biased and walked out the door. That's got to be a world's record. And I think it speaks to just how polarizing Donald Trump is. So that's the sort of --
TAPPER: Or how scared people --
HONIG: Or how scared people are, right.
TAPPER: -- about being on a jury. They may not want no part of this.
So that's the sort of technical legal answer. Will this qualify legally as a fair trial, fair jury? Yes, in all likelihood. But let's also be real about what were talking about here. Manhattanites overwhelmingly disliked Donald Trump politically and personally. He got 12 percent of the vote in 2020 and less than that in 2016.
And just think about the converse. There's a county in Oklahoma, Woods County, where the vote count was basically flip Trump got 85 percent or so of the vote there. Don't we think that the outcome might be substantially different if you were tried in Woods County Oklahoma, than in New York County in Manhattan.
So let's be real. It's a very tough jury pool for Donald Trump, but sometimes that's how it goes.
TAPPER: Carrie, the judge, Judge Merchan, said in a written order, quote, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror does or does not like one of the parties, unquote.
So this morning, I asked a jury consultant and attorney about this. Take a listen to his response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RENATO STABILE, JURY CONSULTANT & ATTORNEY: Most jurors come into jury selection. They don't know the defendant on trial. This is completely different. Everybody knows him. Everybody has a view of him. And I think under New York law, that that has to be taken into account.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: What do you think?
CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, on one hand, that's correct. On the other hand, there are trials that take place in the United States of famous people. There's actors and television personalities and people who have been in the entertainment industry and former politicians.
I mean, we do have people who are well-known who go through the criminal justice system. So I don't think it's totally out of bounds that a person who is well-known. Former President Trump is obviously a unique person because he's a former president. And so that puts it in a whole another category.
TAPPER: What do you think, Elie?
HONIG: Well, the problem for Donald Trump is just mathematically, there's going to be a huge number of jurors here who say, I'm inclined against him, but I can be -- yes, I can be fair, Your Honor.
And let me tell you something, when a judge is looking at you and says, don't you think you can put aside your personal beliefs, your political beliefs, and follow my instructions, guy, where on the robe and rule on this case fairly? Ninety-nine percent of people are going yes, yes, I can do that, right? You had an example today that Bill Brennan gave you about his experience in the Trump Org trial.
And the problem for Trump's team has are people telling the truth when they said that, can they real? I tend to side with were not us to build with the jury consultant. I think humans are humans and as much as we like to think of ourselves as unbiased, its really, really hard when you get down to especially a case like this, where it's not necessarily cut and dry where there is room for interpretation.
And so, I think Trumps to be real at a substantial disadvantage here.
TAPPER: Let's talk about the gag order because Judge Merchan has instructed Donald Trump that he -- he can say what he wants about the case. You can say what he wants about the judge. You can say what he wants with the prosecutor, but he can't -- he needs to stop talking about the witnesses.
[16:10:06]
He needs to stop talking about the family of the judge or the district attorney, or others. And this is actually like a debate. You hear Trump attorney saying, every time I've interviewed one, I'll ask them about Michael Cohen's credibility or whatever and they say, I have to be careful about what I can say because there's this unprecedented gag order.
I get the idea that you don't want Donald Trump intimidating or threatening witnesses, but by the same time is it not questionable to say that Donald Trump can't say anything publicly about people who are like Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels or whoever are attacking him publicly?
CORDERO: I think this is going to be one of the most difficult issues for the judge to navigate in this case and that's because he does have First Amendment rights. Former President Trump has First Amendment rights to be able to speak about this publicly. He's also a candidate.
It also is taking place in this newish environment in the United States of threats against people who are part of the criminal justice system court personnel judges, their families, et cetera
TAPPER: Which Trump ushered in, we should note.
CORDERO: And he has fomented that environment. At the same time, it's going to be really difficult for the judge to enforce consequences, because if you're talking about monetary fines, well, fines that are in the thousands of dollars that might mean something to a regular person are going to be pennies to him. They are going to have absolutely zero different effect.
You know, if you say a few thousand dollars per tweet or something, that's not going to mean anything to him. It's like change.
TAPPER: Yeah.
CORDERO: So I think it will be very difficult and then the idea of potentially holding him in contempt or holding him in custody is -- seems pretty out of bounds of what a judge would be likely to do.
So, in terms of controlling Donald Trump. But I quickly, if you could, Elie, there's these things called the Parker warnings, which is about basically behave yourself in court, right? Trump responded, yes, three times as he was read these Parker warnings, acknowledging he could get that he could get kicked out of court if there's an outburst.
Could you see any scenario where this judge kicks Donald Trump out of his own trial or sends him to jail if he is supposed to show up and he doesn't?
HONIG: I don't see the judge sending Donald Trump during this trial. I just think that's too precipitous, but on the first question, could it kick them out of court?
Absolutely. If Donald Trump does the exact same thing in this case that he did in the E. Jean Carroll case with the outburst, he would get kicked out of court for that portion of the day. So, that could well happen.
TAPPER: All right. Carrie Cordero and Elie Honig, thanks so much.
From the jury to potential testimony, Hope Hicks is on the witness list. What the former White House aide has said in prior interviews that could come into play in this hush-money cover up case.
Plus, the challenge for authorities after protesters shut down parts of two major U.S. cities.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:16:50]
TAPPER: And we're back with our law and justice lead.
We know of a few key witnesses expected to be called to testify in Trump's hush money cover-up trial. One of them who has not gotten as much attention as others is Hope Hicks. Trump's former press secretary during his 2016 campaign. She also worked in his White House.
CNN's Jamie Gangel is with me now to talk about what she might be able to say.
We know from Michael Cohen's 2019 trial --
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.
TAPPER: -- that Hope Hicks, at least according to him and according to her testimony, was involved in some critical phone calls in 2016, October, right before the election, after the "Access Hollywood" tape dropped and around at the time the Stormy Daniels saga was playing out, she testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2019, those phone calls were about the "Access Hollywood" tape, but the timing is interesting.
What might we hear from her when she testifies?
GANGEL: So, again, let's just repeat for the record she says she did not know anything about Stormy Daniels until November and she is sticking with that story. That said to your point, October was a bad month for the Trump campaign. First, "Access Hollywood", then all of these phone calls.
We don't know what's in those phone calls. But we are hearing that there are text messages, emails, other evidence. So I think we have to wait to see what she testifies, but it does raise the question what did she know and when did she know it?
TAPPER: Yeah. And the judge wouldn't -- presumably, wouldn't let her testify if she didn't have information germane to this issue, not the "Access Hollywood" issue, per say, but this issue having to do with Stormy Daniels. Should Donald Trump theoretically be nervous about Hope Hicks testifying? She was with him for all of this journey, very close to him, very loyal to him.
GANGEL: I think, you just said two words. Very close to him.
TAPPER: Yeah.
GANGEL: She is the inner circle of the inner circle. She was a confidant. She was in the room a lot. She was on phone calls a lot.
So, if -- let's stress if -- those calls were about Stormy Daniels, she may know something.
TAPPER: She may. It's a big question mark as of right now.
Lets turn to another key witness, Michael Cohen, who as we will hear from the defense team over and over and over, he pleaded guilty to perjury charges in 2019. Now, he might be one of the key witnesses for the prosecution in this trial.
We had Lanny Davis. His former attorney on earlier today and land he said something along the lines of he only committed perjury because he had been told to do so by Donald Trump. He was lying then basically saying -- he was lying, then when he worked for Trump. He's telling the truth now.
But that's going to be a big hurdle for the prosecution to convince the jury, hey, listen to Michael Cohen now, even if he was convicted of lying before.
GANGEL: So there's no question Donald Trumps lawyers are going to play this to the hilt. That said, the other thing, Lanny Davis made a point of telling us this morning, but he didn't say what was in it is there are emails, there are text messages.
[16:20:01]
There's other information. In other words they're not going to just be relying on Michael Cohen as a witness.
One other thing, what is Michael Cohen? Have to gain at this point? He's already served his time. He's not getting anything out of it.
TAPPER: Interesting. Jamie Gangel, thank you so much.
We're also following the major pending decision right now for Israel's war cabinet and the prime minister. Israel has vowed to directly respond to Iran's unprecedented attack on Israel over the weekend, what were hearing about how and when that might response might go down, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:25:01]
TAPPER: Turning to our worldly now.
Right now, Israel's government is weighing a monumental decision, how and when to respond to Iran after this weekend's missile and attack drone barrage, the first ever direct attack by Iran on Israel. CNN's Clarissa Ward is in Tel Aviv for us.
And, Clarissa, the U.S. is urging restraint. Will Netanyahu and the war cabinet listen?
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think at this stage, Jake, what we do know is that Israel's leadership has been very clear that there will be some kind of response and it seems that there will be a military component to that response.
However, it does seem that they are also taking on board some of the concerns that have been raised by Israel's backers in the West. We heard Secretary of State Antony Blinken again urging restraint and sort of a subtle way saying strength and wisdom need to be different sides of the same coin.
Of course, Israel's also dealing with other pressures, not just external pressures, Jake, but internal pressures, pressures from right-wing elements of Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition who have said this is, you know, this needs to be forceful. We need to give Iran a bloody nose. We need to reinstate deterrent.
So, there's a lot of different competing factors here. I think at the end of the day, you're looking at a choice of probably three options. Potentially it could be a direct tit-for-tat attack on a military installation on Iran. It could be an asymmetric attack on one of Iran's numerous proxies in the region. It could be some kind of a cyber attack.
I think you would also expect to see some kind of a diplomatic effort trying to build a coalition, trying to forcefully isolate Iran further. But at this stage, we simply don't know yet exactly what the scale and the scope of this will be. What it will look like, and when crucially it will happen, Jake.
Clarissa, sources are telling CNN that while Israel's war cabinet is waiting -- weighing its options with regards to Iran, the Rafah ground invasion in Gaza has been delayed.
WARD: That's what we're hearing. I mean, this operation has been delayed for quite some time for a number of reasons. It's no secret that Israel has been facing a huge amount of pressure on this and a huge amount of criticism. There have been real concerns voiced about the more than 1 million civilians who are living now in Rafah who are camped out there, where would they be moved to? How could they be protected?
Then you have the desperate humanitarian situation, the fact that famine is stalking northern Gaza. And so, there's been a massive amount of pressure and criticism leveled at Israel. And I think there's a sense from some of Israel's allies that like listen, this moment, this attack from Iran has allowed you to reframe the narrative, to reframe the conversation. It's given you a little bit of goodwill on the international stage.
And so I do think there's pressure for Israel to sort of take advantage of that. But again, we come back to this thing of competing pressures because within Israel, there is also a lot of pressure to show results from this war, to show results in terms of hostages being released, those talks have essentially collapsed.
So not exactly a surprise that Israel would use this moment to deflect away from that by focusing on Iran and then the broader issue will certainly return very quickly of what is to be done about the situation in Rafah, and, of course, the disastrous situation inside Gaza -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Clarissa Ward in Tel Aviv for us, thanks so much.
Let's get right to retired U.S. Army General Johnson Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute.
General, thanks so much for joining us.
You've been following this minute by minute. Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told me yesterday that he saw several options for Israel in terms of responding to Iran, that might deter Iran from further attacks.
Take a listen to former Ambassador Bolton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOPR TO UNITED STATES: Start by flattening Iran's air defense capabilities. Next, you might go after headquarters of the regular military and the revolutionary guards. You could consider going after their oil infrastructure, the oil fields, the distribution pipelines, the export port facilities, and most importantly, I think Israel should be looking at this as an opportunity to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program, which is the existential threat that Israel faces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Is that realistic? Are those decent ideas for how Israel could retaliate in your view?
MAJ. JOHN SPENCER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Hey, Jake, thanks for having me and just to clarify, it's major -- not general yet.
TAPPER: Sorry.
SPENCER: That's okay.
TAPPER: In our view -- in our mind, you are general.
SPENCER: Thank you.
SPENCER: All those things are, of course, possibilities. I don't think -- and one, you had to recognize the historic attack that was done with drones and missiles onto Israel, and that it has to be a comprehensive re-establishment of deterrence. So it's not just it for tat, although Iran clearly escalated this many rungs up the basically escalation ladder in comparison with what everybody thinks the reasons that it happened. It has to be a comprehensive. I'm not saying any of those things aren't, but that's Israel's decision
[16:30:34]
TAPPER: The Institute for the Study of War notes that Iran's approach was modeled after the way Russia strikes Ukraine and, quote, Ukrainian air defenses have averaged interception rates have only about 16 percent of Russian ballistic missiles during recent large strikes. The Iranian likely expected that Israeli rights would be higher than the Ukrainian rates, but not above 90 percent, unquote.
Are you surprised that the Iranians, at least according to this analysis, seemed to have underestimated Israel and Israel's allies so significantly.
SPENCER: No, I'm not surprised at all. This is a sign of Iranian power and the lack thereof. But I also don't want to discount just because it's 99 percent and I'm proud of the United States for assisting Jordan and others since Iran did violate many country's airspace.
But it was their intentions, what they're trying to do? Yes, and modeling a multi-wave attack. And people somehow trying to make that seem like it -- they didn't mean to cause harm. And even this, this morning, the White House at no, no, they -- they wanted to do a lot of destruction, and cause a lot of casualties. Just because they weren't successful, it doesn't mean they didn't intend to.
TAPPER: I also wanted your take on this delay for the Rafah ground offensive. Israel is weighing the response to Iran's attack, but obviously, they still have their goals of getting back their hostages from Gaza and defeating Hamas to the extent they can.
Sources are telling CNN that the Israeli air force planned on dropping leaflets in the densely populated city as soon as today, do you think a delay is the right move.
SPENCER: I mean, I'm sure there are many factors to include everybody discounting the fact that it attacks daily in the north of Israel, and that does take resources and they're over 100,000 Israeli citizens. You can't go home. I think Israel will conduct a Rafah operation when they feel the time is right and are able to successfully move civilians out of harms way, but also deal with things as nations attacking them.
So I don't know if they're delayed or not or whether that's a good decision, but I do believe strongly that the job has to be finished Hamas has to be destroyed and the hostages had to be brought home but the way it's done does matter.
TAPPER: All right. Major John Spencer, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
We're just learning of dozens of people under arrest for large-scale protests that shutdown the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. And that was not the only city were demonstrators popped up. That story is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:37:29]
TAPPER: And we're back with breaking news. Day one of Donald Trump's criminal hush money cover up trial in New York City is in the books. We are waiting for the former president to walk out. Court has just adjourned for the day after beginning jury selection.
More than 50 jurors have already been dismissed. They told the court that they could not be impartial. The court will resume at 9:30 Eastern tomorrow morning.
While we're waiting for Mr. Trump to walk out and our law and justice lead the armorer on the set of the film, "Rust" was today sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Hannah Gutierrez Reed was found guilty last month of involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 on-set shooting death of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer for the film. Hutchins was killed by a live round fired from a prop gun, held at that moment by actor and producer Alec Baldwin. Baldwin has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter. He is due to you go to trial in July.
Turning to our national lead, in San Francisco, arrests have been made today after dozens of protestors block traffic on the busy Golden Gate Bridge.
CNN's Veronica Miracle is tracking this story for us.
And, Veronica, were these -- these were pro-Palestinian protesters. Who were they?
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake. They're protesting what's happening in Gaza. One of out five major cities impacted across the U.S. though.
This protest here appear to have the most significant impact on traffic. It started at 8:00 a.m., didn't wrap up until about 12:30, 28 people were arrested here on the Golden Gate Bridge, including six who had changed themselves to each other and had stopped in front of a block of cars that were also part of that protest. They were holding signs that said stop the world for Gaza.
But this wasn't the only impact here in the Bay Area. There's also continues to be an impact over on the I-880 in Oakland where the southbound lanes is closed and protesters there had brought in barrels onto the roadway and chain themselves to those barrels. Organizers say they are part of a worldwide collective that one wants to have solidarity with Palestine. They also are fighting for U.S. taxpayer dollars to not go to Israel.
And this was again like I said, not the only area impacted. There were also traffic and protests in Chicago at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, where an access road was built blocked. And so protest or -- excuse me, travelers rather, were seeing having to walk their luggage into the airport.
[16:40:01]
There were also protests in Miami and New York -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Veronica Miracle in San Francisco for us, thank you so much.
Court has just adjourned in the first day of the New York hush money cover up case down. Trump might be stuck in a courtroom for the next two months critical, time for his 2024 campaign. How that might play for him politically, we'll take a look at that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: We're going to bring you Donald Trump speaking right now after his first day of trail.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As you know my son is graduating from high school, and looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation. My son has worked very, very hard. He's a great student and I'm very proud of the fact that he did so well.
He was looking forward for years to have a graduation with his mother and father there. It looks like the judge isn't going to allow me to escape this scam.
It's a scam. If you read all of the legal pundits or the legal scholars today, there's not one that I've seen that said, this is a case it should be brought or tried. It's a scam. It's a political witch hunt. It continues, and it continues forever. And we're not going to be given a fair trial. It's a very, very sad thing.
In addition, as you know, next Thursday, before the United States Supreme Court, an urgent hearing on immunity and this is something that we've been waiting for a long time. And the judge, of course, is not going to allow us.
He's a very conflicted judge and he's not going to allow us to go to that. He won't allow me to leave here for a half a day go to D.C. and go before the United States Supreme Court, because he thinks he's superior, I guess than the Supreme Court.
But we got a real problem with this judge, we got a real problem with a lot of things having to deal with this trial, including the D.A. because you go right outside and people that are being mugged and killed all day long and he's sitting here all day with about 10 or 12 prosecutors over nothing, over nothing. Over what people say shouldn't be a trial.
So I just want to thank you very much, but that I can go to my son's graduation but then I can't go to the United States Supreme Court, and I'm not in Georgia or Florida or North Carolina, campaigning like I should be.
It's perfect for the radical left Democrats. That's exactly what they want. This is about the election interference. It's all it's about.
Thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: All right. Donald Trump speaking after his first day of trial as the New York attorney general begins the prosecution in the hush money cover up case.
Let's go back to CNN's Paula Reid. She's outside the courthouse in New York.
And, Paula, where is the line there with Mr. Trump possibly violating his gag order with comments assailing the prosecution. Did he stay on the correct side of it because he went after the attorney general, he went after the I'm sorry, the district attorney and he went after the judge, but he didn't go after the people. I think he had been banned from criticizing, called publicly.
Is that right?
REID: Yeah. The acoustics in that hallway are not great, but he is allowed to attack the district attorney Alvin Bragg, or even the judge overseeing the case. So he does appear to us stayed within the bounds of his expanded gag order.
But, Jake, he's clearly expressing his frustration with the fact that he is a criminal defendant and required to be in court during jury selection and throughout these proceedings. At the tail end of today's proceedings, his attorneys asked the judge about whether he might be able to get a waiver. Specifically, they mentioned the Supreme Court argument next week on Thursday, where the question of presidential immunity will go before the justices and they asked if he would be able to attend that argument, and the judge said, look, you don't have any right or requirements to attend a Supreme Court argument.
So, the former president expressing frustration about that. He also said repeatedly that he would not be able to attend his son's graduation.
[16:45:05]
Now, there are no cameras inside the court. We're relying on these great updates that we are getting from our colleagues inside the courtroom. But there was no mention in these live updates where were getting about any discussion of his graduation. But the judge did infer that he would not be terribly liberal when it came to granting him waivers from having to attend court day in and day out
TAPPER: All right. Paula Reid, thanks so much.
Let's get a fact check on what we heard from Donald Trump, just then.
Here's CNN's Tom Forman.
Tom, what jumped out at you? TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what jumps out is that he keeps
going back again and again, the end to this idea that somehow all these legal scholars agree that this is not a good case. It is fair to say there are plenty of conservative legal scholars who are taking Trumps side in this. There are some on the progressive and liberal side.
But far from all of them. Many, many other legal scholars who said no, this is a serious charge. It is a serious case. And as much as he tries to say its all about politics and yes, Alvin Bragg is a Democrat, this case has been building for a long time. The original evidence was actually being in collected long, long ago.
And the notion that this is somehow tied is he often does, the Biden administration just no evidence at all of this. What this looks like is a serious legal case moving forward that could have big political ramifications but that doesn't necessarily make it a political case. And all the legal scholars don't agree on that -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Tom Foreman, thanks so much.
Some of the characters outside the courtroom today get at the political divide Trump's trials create. We saw supporters all in for Trump with big Trump flags and MAGA hats. On the other side, the signs read, election interference is a crime and convict Trump already. One group went through the effort to make a large parade style banner reading no one is above the law.
Let's bring in the panel.
And, Nayyera, let me start with. I want to get you and Shermichael to weigh in on this, this idea that Donald's -- what Donald Trump did was election interference. That's what District Attorney Alvin Bragg says. He says that because the hush money payments allegedly were paid to keep that information from voters in October 2016?
How credible do you find that, the idea that that's election interference?
NAYYERA HAQ, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CABINET AFFAIRS, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: I think there's a fascinating play here that the legal side is making the prosecution is making, and they're leaning into the public conversation in a way that typically you won't see prosecutors do because it is part of the idea that Trump has 88 charges against him, the allegations are all out there. Trials are happening in different venues at different times and connecting these dots in this way is a messaging device. It's trying to get people to understand how Trump has been consistent and is corruption in different places throughout his career.
But people are not looking at the hush money as election interference. It does not seem or feel like the same thing as trying to call a secretary of state and turn votes over change, how they go. This is going to be a challenge I think for the D.A. that he's tried to connect in a messaging way, what really should be a strict legal pursuit. TAPPER: When I hear election interference, I think of what now you're just said, the idea of telling a secretary of state to not count votes or to count extra votes, or even more nefariously, some foreign actor trying to change voting machines. I don't necessarily think, and this is not meant as a criticism of District Attorney Bragg, but I don't think of election interference in the way that he is trying to make this case seem.
What do you think?
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, Jake, I don't think you're alone. I think most Americans will probably agree and if you look at the polling data that just came out on this particular case out of the four, its the least where most people are really worried about whether or not they would or wouldn't vote for the former president. And when you continue to hear Trump articulate this message that this is election interference prince are attempting to stop me from defeating President Biden.
There -- there are some credibility to that in the minds of many Republicans. You look at Manhattan, almost 80 percent of the residents there voted for President Biden over Trump. You look at the fact that Alvin Bragg made very presumptive statements about Trump's guilt when he was running for office. That's very questionable. Then you had the "Newsweek" article that came out earlier this morning that said he raised almost $900,000 since indicting Trump.
So, from a political perspective --
TAPPER: The district attorney.
SINGLETON: District Attorney Bragg.
So you look at these instances and you say, well, wait a minute here, there is a political angle to this when they're honestly shouldn't be.
TAPPER: Yeah and let me go to you, Ayesha, a new poll last registered voters about Trumps criminal cases. And if they see the charges is very serious, the federal January 6 case ranked first with 58 percent is what Shermichael was just talking about. It's compared to 54 percent for the Georgia election subversion case. Then the classified documents case has 50 percent.
The New York hush money cover up case ranked last, only 36 percent viewed the charges as serious. What do you make of it all?
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST, NPR'S WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY: Well, I think that we've got to step back a little bit because, you know, you're looking at a former president who is now running for president again, who is facing multiple charges just in multiple jurisdictions.
[16:50:09]
So we have to like put some gravity on that and I think when you ask people, they may say, look, the hush money thing doesn't see as serious as, you know, interfering with the election and calling Georgia officials and try and get them to change votes. But this is still someone who's running for president and it seems pretty serious that he could be convicted by a jury of his peers.
TAPPER: Yeah. That -- that seems to be a big deal. And so I think that it all goes together, even if people don't look at this individual case and think that it's the biggest deal. I think when you look at it all together, those people, not his base, but those people who are iffy on Trump. This reminds them of why they have issues with him. This reminds them of the circus that comes with them, and the very certainly being charged with criminal felony, but serious for anybody. I mean, much less than one running for president.
TAPPER: Gloria?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think I think the poll numbers have it about right. I mean, it's not about overturning an election. It's about falsifying business documents. That's what this case really comes down to.
When you call it a hush money case, you know, you get into the whole notion of, you know, an affair with a porn star and all that. And people are like dismissive of that because that cake has been baked already when it comes to Donald Trump.
The other charges, and I think rightly so are more national security charges and they're about overturning an election. So I think the poll numbers are right. This doesn't mean that this case is not serious. Falsifying business documents are serious.
And when you go back and look at the context of all of this has happened right after the "Access Hollywood" tape. The campaign was in a panic today, were worried about losing women voters and if this Stormy Daniels case had come out, they thought or the Karen McDougal affair had come out. They thought it could have cost him the election.
Yeah. So they have to tell a story here and make it important and make it about a man who was afraid of losing the presidency.
TAPPER: Here's Donald Trump today as day one of his trial got underway. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is political persecution. This is a persecution like never before. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. It's an assault on America.
And that's why I'm very proud to be here. This is an assault on our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So this trial could go six to eight weeks that keeps Trump tied up in a courtroom almost every day until possibly early June.
Now, yes, he could campaign in the evenings and on the weekend but doesn't even need to go campaign given the fact that this is going to be really focused on in the news media for understandable reasons, it's unprecedented.
HAQ: Well, listen, and he -- and he gets to make have his say in front of millions of people without actually having to spend the money on a campaign rally. So he's going to take every opportunity to get in front of cameras and take that to lean in to what he wants to say.
But this isn't about persuasion for Donald Trump. This is about repeating the same thing over and over that he is politically persecuted and reminding his voters that there was a system that they can blame.
Ironically, Trump started his campaign in Manhattan. This is where he is now being charged. This is the city where he wanted to be a golden titan and now, Alvin Bragg is taking him down specifically on the fact that his business has not held up to public scrutiny.
BORGER: Can we just be honest that Donald Trump never really liked being out on the campaign trail and handshaking people?
TAPPER: Oh, he loves those rallies though.
BORGER: He loves the rallies. He loves the rallies, but A, they're very expensive and they can't afford them now. But he's not -- you know, he's not somebody who's going to go out and mix it up in the crowd. He didn't do a lot of town halls at all where he mixed it up with voters.
You know, he likes to jet in and jet out. And that's what hell be able to continue to do at least once or twice a week. So whether it will impact that that much, I really don't -- I really don't think so.
TAPPER: So the White House says President Biden and his campaign are going to stay quiet. They're not going to weigh in on this unprecedented day for Trump. What do you think of that? Is that smart strategy? Are they missing an opportunity to like point out the fact like Donald Trump is being tried in a criminal court.
RASCOE: Well, they don't need to. They know that there's going to be a lot of coverage of it. They know that he's going to get out there and for the people that they are trying to convince this is not going to look good for Donald Trump.
So I think they feel like, and they feel like they can what they can do is have Biden look very presidential. He's out there working for the people doing so with the economy and all of this. And Donald Trump is in court for criminal charges.
So I think they're going to try to play up that split screen wherever they can.
TAPPER: Okay. We'll see the panel back in the next hour.
Day one in Donald Trump's hush money cover up trial. Now in the books, just how much is this case weighing on him? Three people who have worked closely with Trump are going to join us next, including one of his former lawyers and a defense attorney who was on his show, "The Apprentice" and knows the judge and the district attorney, some unique perspectives coming up.
Stay with us
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[16:59:25]
TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
In this hour, a critical meeting at the Capitol as House Speaker Mike Johnson is weighing his next move in the wake of the weekend attack from Iran. Will Speaker Johnson isolates support for Israel for an aid package without attaching new aid for Ukraine? That's what hard line conservatives want him to do. What will he do?
Plus, hours away from what could be one of the biggest moments for professional women's basketball and superstar standout, Caitlin Clark.
And leading this hour, Donald Trump's motorcade on the move after a whirlwind of developments as the first day of the New York hush money cover-up case comes to a close. At least 50 jurors interviewed today, which is more than half were already excused. They said they could not be fair and impartial.
