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Trump May Speak at the Courthouse; Trump Surrenders Today; NYC Ramps up Security; Update in Nashville School Shooting Investigation; Ex-Chef of Staff Killed in FBI Confrontation. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 04, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:25]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today is the day a former president becomes a criminal defendant. Soon, Secret Service agents will escort Donald Trump, who is right now inside Trump Tower, to stand before a judge. Expect tight security and strict protocols to surround this historic moment as Trump and the nation soon learn the charges he will face.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Words that Russia hoped to never see. Finland joins NATO. This just happened moments ago. Why this move reshapes Europe and could influence Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, plotted for months. Chilling new detailed in that mass shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville.

These major stories and more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: You are looking at live pictures outside Trump Tower right now as we are hours away from the arrest and arraignment of former President Donald Trump, a first in America's history.

And we have new details on exactly how today's events will unfold.

CNN has just learned that the former president may speak to cameras in the hallway outside the courtroom before or after his arraignment. That's according to his attorneys.

The judge overseeing this case is not allowing cameras to broadcast the official proceedings, but still photographers will be allowed into the courtroom before the hearing begins.

We also expect to learn for the first time why prosecutors believe Donald Trump is a criminal. When the indictment is unsealed, the criminal charges facing Trump will finally be known.

Something else new today, Donald Trump has hired a new lead counsel. Criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche will take the lead for Trump's team in today's proceeding.

CNN has reporters and correspondents covering every angle of this moment.

Let's begin this hour outside the courthouse with CNN's Kara Scannell.

Kara, we just learned from Trump's team that he plans to speak potentially at some point this afternoon. What else are you learning about this?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, that's right. I mean the former president has been debating whether or not he should say something before or after the arraignment. And we're hearing that he may speak when he's passing through the court -- the courthouse hallway and entering into the courtroom just before he is arraigned. And it's possible he will speak afterwards.

Of course, everything is very much in flux. There's a lot of security concerns. You know, there are things that could change on the fly.

It is also expected that the former president, when he is being arraigned, is going to enter his not guilty plea himself. Also that same caveat, things can change because this is all a bit of a fluctuating situation. You can really see the security presence picking up around me, the media presence has grown and it will only get tighter once we get closer to the 2:00 p.m. arraignment.

We are - you know, Trump is going to be showing up today with a new criminal defense lawyer. He added Todd Blanche, of veteran of the criminal defense bar, and a former federal prosecutor, to his legal team yesterday. We expect him to be in court today and to be by Donald Trump's side.

Now, Todd Blanche is someone who has represented people in Trump's circle before. He's represented Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign adviser, in a case against the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. So, someone who is familiar to Trump's orbit in that sense.

And, of course, Trump also is represented by Susan Necheles. She's a veteran criminal defense lawyer in New York, who practices a lot in this courthouse, and she represented the Trump Organization entities when they went on trial this past fall for the tax fraud charges. Those entities were convicted.

But, you know, we're expecting this to really pick up around here as we get closer to the former president's arrival. He's expected to depart Trump Tower this afternoon and then come here to begin this historic moment.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And, Kara, as I mentioned, the judges has decided against any live broadcast of the court proceedings. What was his reasoning?

SCANNELL: Yes, Kate, so the judge issued this order late last night saying that, you know, one of the issues he had to do here was really balanced both the public interest with the rights of the defendant. And Trump's team had opposed using any live broadcast of the proceedings because they said that it would -- could potentially prejudice him in front of a potential jury down the road. But the judge saying here that while he recognized that this was a momentous occasion, that it was something that he said was unparalleled, he did think that he needed to side there with the former president in balancing those interests.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Kara, thank you so much.

John, Kara's outside the courthouse and you have much more detail on how Trump is going to be getting there today.

[09:05:03]

BERMAN: It is going to be quite a process, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Seriously. Yes.

BERMAN: So, at this moment, Donald Trump is in Trump Tower. He's expected to depart there in a couple of hours. The drive to the courthouse is about four miles, which in normal New York City traffic would take 20 to 50 minutes, or, like, 100 hours, if you know New York City traffic. But with his Secret Service detail, he should not have to deal with that.

All trials and most court activity will be halted, even before Trump gets there, because of security concerns.

Now, when Trump does arrive to the D.A.'s office, he will technically be under arrest. He'll be booked. He'll be fingerprinted. It's not clear if a mug shot will be taken because authorities are concerned it will be improperly leaked.

The arraignment is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time. Now, as we said, Trump's lawyer claims Trump will speak before and after the arraignment. It isn't clear exactly when or even if that will actually happen, but maybe here.

Then, the arraignment. During the arraignment, the indictment will be unsealed. This is the moment when the public might first learn the details of the charges. His lawyers have said Trump plans to enter a not guilty plea.

After the hearing, maybe Trump speaks. Maybe not. Then he's expected to head straight to the airport, back to Mar-a-Lago, where he is, we know, planning to speak at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time.

All right, our Shimon Prokupecz is outside the court right now.

And, Shimon, I just went through the rough schedule, but you have some more details about what goes on inside.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, this is surreal, right? We've never experienced anything like this before. I've covered many cases here. High profile trials. Nothing like this ever before. The idea that the Secret Service is involved in all of this security, they will be the ones bringing Donald Trump here. They will be the ones greeting him at the door when he arrives, taking him inside the district attorney's office, 1 Hogan Place. It's a famous place where many celebrities have come through, high profile defended who have surrendered, but certainly nothing like this before.

When you have -- literally you have Secret Service agents that are standing in the middle of the street behind me, waiting for him to arrive. They will greet him. They will take him inside where he will be met almost immediately by the staff from the district attorney's office, the investigators. There is an investigator who is going to actually be the arresting officer with the assistant district attorney.

They will go upstairs to the seventh floor where the processing will begin. That is where he will be fingerprinted. That is where his attorneys will actually learn the charges. The indictment, those paperwork -- that paperwork will be handed to them. So they will know what he is charged with before he even walks into court.

And then a short time after that, the former president will be taken to the 15th floor, where the arraignment will be. All of this done under very immense, immense security. And you could just see that all around us.

I just wanted to, John, briefly show you what's going on behind me here with all this security, the Secret Service agents, the NYPD, all up this street because this is where everything will first begin. This is where the former president will arrive.

And then I also want to show you just the cameras here. All of these cameras here waiting to get that shot of the former president arriving. So, things, obviously, are going to intensify here. Security will increase. More people will be coming out here. And, right now, everyone is just trying to keep everything safe and prepare for the next few hours.

John.

BERMAN: Like nothing we have ever seen. And, Shimon, I think you accurately point out, the details of this indictment, we don't even know what's inside. We should know in the next few hours. Great work down there, Shimon. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: Keep the peace and behave on this historic day. New York City Mayor Eric Adams issuing a direct warning to protesters. Right now, security in the city, as you just heard from Shimon, is on high alert after Trump called on his supporters to protest his arrest.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live outside Trump Tower, as security swells around lower Manhattan.

Jeff, Mayor Adams was very pointed and specifically called out Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is also a conspiracy theorist. She basically has said she was going to take to the streets. And the mayor says, look, if you're coming here, you better behave, but that the security apparatus is ready for whatever happens.

What are you seeing out there?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, we can say here at Trump Tower it is business as usual in Manhattan. People are going to work. Tourists are walking by Trump Tower, that you can see behind me here. But really the only spectacle that's been created so far is indeed a media spectacle. There's dozens and dozens of cameras from all across the world here.

[09:10:02]

But importantly, inside Trump Tower, is what the former president is doing. I'm told he's huddling with his advisers. He met with his lawyers last evening. And, of course, there is one thing above all that he wants to learn, what exactly are the criminal charges against him? What will he be facing here?

For all the bravado, for all the talk about how many millions of dollars the Trump campaign has raised, they say it's been $8 million since that indictment was handed up last week. There is a level of seriousness inside the president's orbit. That was underscored by hiring a new criminal defense lawyer yesterday, who will be at the former president's aside today. So, there's a bit of a split screen in terms of spectacle and circus, but it is being taken very seriously.

So, we should also point out, this is simply the beginning of a legal road for the former president. He, of course, is facing perhaps the closing weeks of an investigation in Georgia, where he is accused of potentially trying to meddle with top state officials to overturn the election returns. He is facing two federal investigations in Washington as well. So this is simply one of those potential investigations and legal challenges he's facing.

But, Sara, one thing that's clear, he is the front-running Republican nominee in 2024. But this will now all be completely linked to the political campaign. You cannot separate the legal from the political. So, that is what is hanging over, not only Mr. Trump, but also the Republican Party, and indeed the country.

Sara.

SIDNER: But, for now, he is using all this to fundraise. Thank you so much, Jeff Zeleny.

Let us go ahead and go to Kate.

BOLDUAN: We have much more ahead, including new details on the deadly Nashville school shooting and what police say the shooter was planning.

Plus, Disney is now fighting back against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

And a one-time top aide to former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan is now dead after a nationwide manhunt. Those details, ahead.

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[09:16:03]

BERMAN: On the radar this morning, voters in Chicago or heading to the polls to choose their new mayor. Two Democrats, Cook County Commissioner Brendon Johnson, and the city's former public schools chief, Paul Vallas, are locked in a closely watched runoff election.

A U.S. military strike in Syria has killed a senior ISIS leader. U.S. Central Command says Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri was responsible for planning ISIS attacks in Europe. Officials say no civilians were killed or injured in the strike.

And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he will meet with the president of Taiwan tomorrow in California in defiance of China. McCarthy will host a bipartisan meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Beijing has warned against the meeting, calling it a provocation and saying it will, quote, resolutely fight back.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: One hundred and fifty-two rounds fired in an attack police say had been plotted for months. These are some of the new details just coming out about the mass shooting at an elementary school in Nashville. Six people were killed, including three nine-year-old children.

Now, while the investigation continues, people will be gathering very soon to say their final goodbyes to one of the adult victims, 61-year- old Mike Hill. He was a beloved custodian at the school.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is live in Nashville with much more on this.

Isabel, what more are you hearing from investigators now?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, we have fairly significant updates from investigators who have found that the shooter, Audrey Hale, quote, acted totally alone. Now, a key piece of evidence here that has helped investigators to piece this together are the writings that Hale left behind and were recovered from the school parking lot and also from the shooter's bedroom.

What they found through assessing these writings, which they're still not done with that review process, they have found that this was not a spur of the moment attack. This was calculated. Investigators are saying that Hale planned this attack for months and even took notes from other mass shooters as well.

I spoke with Dr. Bryanna Fox. She teaches criminology at the University of South Florida. She was also a former FBI special agent who has dedicated her life to understanding how criminals think, and she says she is not surprised to hear that Hale planned this. That this, in fact, does track with the usual behavior of mass shooters.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYANNA FOX, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT FOR BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE UNIT: As they're planning it, they're actually regaining some of the control they feel like they've lost. They're gaining power over the situation. So, when they're planning it, it's actually making them feel gratified. So, they tend to plan it out for longer than people think. Sometimes weeks or months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And, Kate, more than a week since that shooting, investigators still have not found a motive behind this attack.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Isabel, the shooting has sparked renewed protests and calls for gun reforms. At the Nashville state house, there's now an effort to expel some Democratic members who took part in those rallies. What's going on there?

ROSALES: Kate, it's a messy situation. Essentially Tennessee house Republicans, they are saying about their Democratic representative colleagues, Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, that they broke chamber rules on Thursday by going out of turn with a bullhorn, approaching the podium without being called upon, while they were protesting and demanding gun reform. So now they're facing pretty serious consequences here, including potentially being expelled from the house, and they have also been stripped from their committees. This is, according to CNN affiliate WSMV, citing the speaker of the house of representatives here in Tennessee, Cameron Sexton.

So, Republicans, they have likened what happened on Thursday with these lawmakers to an insurrection. Sexton saying their actions are and will always be unacceptable.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Isabel, thank you so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: A one-time chief of staff to former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has died after a nationwide manhunt for him.

[09:20:07]

Roy McGrath was killed in a confrontation with the FBI. McGrath was facing charges related to a scheme to steal more than $276,000 from the state of Maryland. An arrest warrant was issued last month after he failed to appear for his trial in Baltimore. The manhunt ended when the FBI tracked him down to Knoxville, Tennessee.

Our CNN's Ryan Young is joining us now.

Ryan, how did this confrontation go down?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, so many questions still about this. But when you think about it, someone not showing up for court and then maybe being on the run for almost three weeks and still trying to find out details about how the FBI tracked him down to Knoxville.

Now, we're going to show you some of this video from that scene. You can see a white Escalade is sort of the center of this picture. And, of course, the FBI investigators and police their on scene are focusing on that truck because apparently that's where the shooting happened. The FBI did indicate that an agent was involved in some sort of shooting incident. But what's not clear right now is who did the shooting? Was this a sort of a suicide by cop or did he fire toward officers and then was shot? Those details are not known right now. But we do know he was indicted for trying to take $276,000 from the people of Maryland. And this happened when he was in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency there in Maryland before moving over to be a part of Larry Hogan's staff.

So, this all happened very quickly. And, of course, there's so many questions about this. We do know that he was -- worked for Hogan in 2020. He was indicted on fraud charges in October of 2021. And then, of course, there was that failure to appear. So, there's so many questions about how you went from that sort of failure to appear to three weeks on the run and then being surrounded by FBI agents before shots were being fired. That's something that we're continuing to dig into, Sara, to try to figure out exactly what happened next. But, still, like I said again, so many questions about how we ended up in that parking lot last night with this one time aid being shot and killed.

SIDNER: Is there any more details that the FBI is sharing about not just how this went down, but how they went after him. You said they haven't really told anyone all the tricks of the trade, of course.

YOUNG: Absolutely. We do know there was that failure to appear. And, of course, when you deal with federal agencies, we're not even sure if body camera was involved in this. And you know they'll do an extensive review.

But I'm sure maybe -- hey, they might have been tracking credit card receipts to find him in that location. Something that we'll have to make further phone calls on to figure out.

SIDNER: Ryan Young, thank you for all those details.

John.

BERMAN: Former President Trump due in court in just hours. The indictment will be unsealed. So, what will it say?

And the Huskies take it home. The University of Connecticut men's basketball team win their fifth national title. Pour one out for the old big east.

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[09:27:25]

BOLDUAN: In just a few hours, former President Donald Trump will leave Trump Tower and head to a New York City courthouse to be arrested and arraigned. While 45 men have served as president, Donald Trump is the first to face this. TV cameras won't be allowed inside the court, but according to his attorneys, Trump may speak before or after his arraignment. We will see. And we also still don't know exactly what charges Donald Trump is facing, but the Manhattan D.A. has been investigating Trump's alleged role in a hush money payment scheme through adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The mystery around those charges, well, they will soon be over as the indictment will be made public.

John.

BERMAN: Indeed, the mystery will soon be over. And, of course, we've been talking all about the security concerns here in New York City, with the police preparing for possible protests, adding all kinds of increased police presence.

With me now, CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller and former federal prosecutor and senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

Mr. Miller, you are more plugged in to New York City law enforcement that just about any human being on earth. We've been talking about the security -

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: I plead guilty.

BERMAN: Yes, right, guilty as charged.

We've been talking about the security concerns. So, what are we seeing? I mean are there people out on the streets now? Are there specific threats over the next few hours?

MILLER: So, as far as the big protest, the January 6th, you know, risk, none of that materialized, which was anticipated that it wouldn't materialize because what you didn't see was either the organization operating behind it to put it together -- you saw a lot of one-offs on social media -- or a call from Donald Trump to be at a certain place at a certain date at a certain time. That has not happened. Even though he's called for protests.

So, the protest pieces in the background now. There are some people down there with signs. That will be managed by the NYPD.

The threat picture is more based on what's going on in the unseen background. You've got multiple threats against the judge, against the district attorney, against the courthouse. We had several bomb scares last week. So, what they're looking at is assessing those threats. So far, nothing credible, nothing specific, but where is that lone actor? Remember, before January 6th, we saw, you know, pipe bombs in two

locations and other things. So, they've got the package down there and they're scanning. And that's what they do.

BERMAN: You know, we're talking about threats to judges and lawyers and whatnot. Elie, I was just handed this piece of paper that the Manhattan D.A. meet our team page, you know, on the webpage where they say, look at all of our lawyers?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Sure.

BERMAN: They took that down several days ago.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: One would think because of potential threats against these attorneys. What do you think that's like to be working in there right now?

[09:30:01]

HONIG: I mean it's got to be genuinely terrifying, right? I mean, John and I have both been involved in prosecuting really dangerous people, powerful people, violent criminals, people accused of murder.