Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump Heading To Florida After Historic Indictment; Loyal GOP Allies Rally Behind Trump After Indictment. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired June 12, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to our breaking coverage. You are watching former President Trump's motorcade as he makes his way from his Bedminster Golf Estate to the Newark Airport where he will ultimately then head to Miami to face charges tomorrow and arraign that. I want to bring in now CNN Correspondent Carlos Suarez.

He is actually outside of the court in Miami. Carlos, as we know, security, they're already taking precautions to try to make sure that this all goes off very safely. We know that barricades have already been put up. What else are you seeing?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's exactly right, Rahel. So, we are on the west side of the federal courthouse where it's become quite clear in the last couple of hours that law enforcement is starting to make the necessary preparations ahead of the former president's appearance in federal court here on Tuesday. The Federal Protective Service out here, they are among the group that is really in charge of making sure that this courthouse remains safe.

Earlier today, we saw them put out some yellow tape. Trying to close off a part of this courthouse. They've also put up these barricades around the perimeter of the building.

Now, the city of Miami, the Miami Police Department is expected to detail their safety and security plan at a news conference here in downtown Miami at two o'clock this afternoon. We're told that the chief of police for the city of Miami is going to give us a better sense of just how many officers they plan on having out here. The mayor of Miami is also expected to talk about just some of the preparations that they're going to have for any of these supporters of the president -- of the former president who might show up to this location.

It is still unclear at this hour exactly where all of these people might be put ahead of the president's arrival here later today. We have seen some Trump supporters out here walking around this property. They're holding up signs.

They've got their Make America Great Again hats on. The rain out here though, has pushed some of these folks out. There's not a whole lot of coverings out here. This part of downtown Miami, I will say is quite known for its security because there are a number of federal buildings here. You've got the brand-new federal courthouse building. Across the street is the old federal courthouse. The State Attorney's Office is over there as well. And then you've got the detention center here.

And so, a lot of the security that we saw going into the weekend and into today was something that you would expect considering just the number of federal buildings in this area, though it is becoming quite clear at least from what we're seeing right here on the ground, that a lot of law enforcement personnel are moving things into place. They're starting to get a lot more folks out here in anticipation of some of the crowds that we may see tomorrow, guys.

SOLOMON: Carlos Suarez, live for us in Miami. Carlos, thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, joining us now. CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller. Also with us. CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers.

John, I do understand you've got some new reporting on the expectations in Miami. What are they expecting?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So, I was talking to Manny Morales, the chief of police for the city of Miami PD. I know Manny for a long time. He used to run the Special Operations Division crime suppression.

So, he's not just the chief. He's a -- he's a hands-on leader. He said it's all hands on deck for the Miami PD. They have about 1400 cops.

Everybody who's working today and tomorrow will have some role in this, whether it's answering calls for the rest of the city or the large group that they're going to dedicate to this. But he said they're ready to surge. They have the help from Miami-Dade County. They also have 34 towns in that area where they have MO use with that where they can get them to contribute cops.

What he's talking about is you know they're prepared for a crowd. And he said you know it could be a few thousand maybe up to 5000. And he said --

BERMAN: That's -- is that big? That feels big.

[11:35:00]

MILLER: That does feel big. And that's the high-end of the number. He said you know that's what they're building towards.

Don't see it going past that. Hasn't seen any specific, credible threats. He said you know we've had this before. We've dealt with it before.

They're a city that's used to major events. So, they're very confident about, you know, getting him motorcaded from one end to the other, into the building out of the building. And when he leaves, they expect him to go back to the airport. Get on a plane for Bedminster. So, they have been preparing for this obviously, since late last week.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I have a question for you, Jennifer Rodgers. In order for Donald Trump to appear in court and have this whole arraignment, he's got to have local counsel, correct? Somebody who is upon the bar, or can add one of his attorneys if he is unable.

Because so far, we know he hasn't made that decision. That decision has not been made. If he's unable to get that attorney in Florida, does the arraignment still happen? The arrest obviously could, right?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, of course, it'll still happen. I mean, they could even just waive the requirement for the day for his attorney, Todd Blanche, to appear and do the paperwork later. So, I wouldn't worry about that as anything that will stop it from him happening.

SIDNER: That won't stop the arraignment. So, for all intensives purposes, he's got some attorneys. They will be able to go forward whether or not they have that Florida attorney that they're still struggling to get.

RODGERS: That's right.

SIDNER: OK.

SOLOMON: Jennifer, I think it might be helpful to understand one of the things that we've heard from some of the former president's supporters. But what about this person, Pence? What about that person, Biden? Does that defense or that theory that if in fact, he did do this, it wasn't just me, is that something that would even hold up in court? Is that admissible?

RODGERS: No, they won't allow that kind of defense. I mean, it's kind of like when you're in traffic court, right and you get caught for speeding, you say, but everybody else was speeding. I was just going with the flow of traffic, right?

It doesn't work there and it won't work here. You get don't get to point to other people breaking the law to say it was OK that I broke the line too.

BERMAN: John Miller, back to you on the security issues here. You mentioned that they have no specific threats there in Miami, at least according to the chief that you spoke to. What about overall chatter? What about some of the comments being made by Republicans in Congress who've said things like this is war?

MILLER: So, they're aware of that. And they're aware of the online comments, which are more vitriolic talking about you know time to start loading magazines, this is civil war, and so on. And, you know, they factor that in. But the online chatter doesn't constitute a specific credible threat that they have information on to the event.

On the other hand, there are Intel teams who are tracking people like the Proud Boys and other groups to figure out have people have been part of this order before. Are they going to play such a role in the events tomorrow? And you know they're confident they have a handle on that.

BERMAN: They have a handle on it. In terms of what kind of chatter is happening within those groups, what are they detecting -- an effort, maybe?

MILLER: I think what they're seeing is what we're seeing in the same online forums, which is there's a lot of vitriol. But there's history here --

BERMAN: Right.

MILLER: -- which is, we saw all that same chatter before the New York indictment, on the day of the New York indictment, all kinds of threats and so on, but nothing occurred. There's two kinds of things they have to factor in, which is what's going to happen with a crowd. And that's where they've invested a lot of effort.

But then there's the wild card, which of course, is always that lone wolf who is taking the chatter differently as more than chatter and may act on it. And you know, that is something you face in anything like this in the -- in the threat world.

SIDNER: All right, John Miller, Jennifer Rodgers, thank you both for being here. Stick with us. This is still happening. They're still -- the motorcade is still headed towards the Newark airport right now.

Headed to a historic moment where the former president will face federal charges. The first time it's ever happened in U.S. history. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:43:37]

SIDNER: We have seen a range of responses from Republicans to Donald Trump's indictment from silence to full-throated defense. CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill with details for us. Are you hearing anything different from lawmakers today, particularly Republicans?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that there's certainly a split-screen between the leadership that you're seeing in the House of Representatives and the leadership in the U.S. Senate. We have not heard from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell nor have we heard from the Republican whip in the Senate John Thune.

But, of course, in the House of Representatives, it's a very different story. Kevin McCarthy has repeatedly defended the president, as has Jim Jordan, a key member because he is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Still, rank-and-file members are coming to the president's defense. Here are a few of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): If he wants to storm it -- if he wants to store material in a box in a bathroom if he wants to store it in a box on a stage, he can do that. That is the -- that is just what the law and the standard is. So, again, I think this just underscores how political this whole thing is.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): President Trump will have his day in court. But espionage charges are absolutely ridiculous. Whether you like Trump or not, he did not commit espionage. He did not disseminate, leak or provide information to a foreign power or the news organization to damage this country. He is not a spy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:45:06]

FOX: And we are going to get obviously more comments coming from lawmakers as they get back to Washington, Sara. It's important to note for our viewers back home that Thursday when we got this news of the indictment and Friday, lawmakers weren't in Washington. So, it wasn't as if reporters could be running around the Capitol grabbing members, pushing them on the details of this now-unsealed indictment. That all is going to change this afternoon as lawmakers return back to Capitol Hill, Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Lauren Fox. I just want to make a point there that what Jim Jordan was saying that it's not a crime at all to take these documents is just not true. As a former president or anyone else, he can't do it at that point in time.

SOLOMON: You heard Dana push back against them in that interview yesterday.

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: He has a creative interpretation of the law there, to say the least.

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: All right, back with us. CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. Jennifer Rogers, our legal analyst here as well. John, Donald Trump on his way to the airport right now to head to Florida. Tomorrow, once he is inside that federal building, there is a kind of combination of extraordinary and mundane events that will take place, or maybe extraordinary because they're meant mundane, or vice versa in this case. Explain what will happen.

MILLER: So, once he arrives in the courthouse and he's turned over to the FBI agents who will be waiting there, they arrest him, which for an FBI agent is fairly routine. There's nothing routine about this. But the rest of the routine is what makes it extraordinary for a former president because the arrest process would include getting two fingerprint cards, getting a mug shot taken.

This is relatively new for all federal arrestees. There's a DNA swab. So, if they follow the procedure for Donald J. Trump the way they would for John Q. Smith, they're going to stick a Q-tip in his mouth and take a swab. And that's going to go into a file along with his prints and photographs.

But there's about four pages of forms that have to be filled out, including name, occupation, what kind of vehicle you drive, things that you know, they'll go through prior arrests in this case, which is also unusual. The answer is one.

SIDNER: That's right.

MILLER: You know, he's got a pending case in Manhattan. So, you know, the routine here will be anything but routine because he's under the protection of the Secret Service, and will then have to stand back and give them to the FBI agents. And then he'll be under the purview of the court until they say you're free to go pending you know, the next appearance here.

SOLOMON: John, we just got some new reporting from CNN's Shimon Prokupecz that law enforcement in Miami and I know you've been working your phones and the sources of -- your sources as well, do have concerns about some of the security outside and some of the crowds that we may see outside of the courthouse. Through all of your experience, I mean, walk me through what law enforcement is keeping track of, what they're watching, and what to do once they start to have these concerns what they might start doing.

MILLER: So, the Miami PD intelligence people are talking to the Miami Dade intelligence people who are talking to the FBI's director of intelligence.

SOLOMON: A lot of agencies.

MILLER: And they're passing this information back and forth to say who's hearing what. They're obviously looking online at social media, but they're also pinging out to their human sources. People that they've had in other cases. People whom they have relationships with as confidential informants say, keep your ear to the ground. What are you hearing? And you know what their concern is that they'll have a large number of people, but there are other concerns, are we missing something?

BERMAN: Oh, hang on one second. You're looking now again at live pictures this time of Newark Liberty Airport. You can see the motorcade. And inside one of those SUVs is the former president of the United States, Donald J. Trump arriving.

He will board his plane and they will fly to Miami where John Miller has so eloquently explained the process that will take place tomorrow where a former president of the United States will be under arrest -- under federal arrest inside of Miami courthouse where he will, in theory, if the process is followed from before be fingerprinted, DNA swabs taken. You're looking right there at the SUV. We'll wait and see what happens over the next minute or so. See if we can tell who's getting out.

SIDNER: Exactly. Also, we didn't see of Walt Nauta, the other person that is -- there's Donald J. Trump coming out of the car there -- the SUV, going up the steps. He is on his way at this point to fly to Miami -- or first from New York to Miami. We should also mention who don't we see yet --

SOLOMON: Walt Nauta.

SIDNER: -- and that is Walt Nauta.

SOLOMON: Right, which we were expecting --

SIDNER: Yes.

SOLOMON: -- to see of course Walt Nauta, his former body man, his former aide who is now in this case his co-defendant.

SIDNER: Co-conspirator.

SOLOMON: Exactly. And we have not seen him as of yet.

BERMAN: Well, look, if we get that shot back up. Generally speaking, when a principal gets to the airport by a principal a former president, or why not, they get in by themselves. They board by themselves. Get on the plane and they do their wave if they're going to do their wave.

We don't know. You can see that stairway --

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: -- in the back too.

SIDNER: Yes.

[11:50:06]

BERMAN: I mean it's possible that Walt Nauta goes up that. We just don't know.

SIDNER: He could be getting on now. It's a -- that shot is very far away but there's a lot of people now going into the plane there.

BERMAN: All right, a lot going on. Obviously, Donald Trump on board his plane. He will leave for Florida very shortly. You're watching CNN's special live coverage of this historic moment. A former president faces a federal indictment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to CNN. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL special live coverage of the former president of the United States now on board his plane where very shortly, he will take off and head to Florida.

[11:55:02]

Tomorrow, he will surrender to federal authorities. He will be under federal arrest, Donald Trump, charged the willful retention of national security documents, obstruction of justice, directing false statements to be made. A whole range. Dozens of charges there. With us now. CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers and our chief intelligence and security analyst John Miller.

John, I want to bring our audience up to speed with what we've been doing here, which is even going through the federal processing documents that in theory, Donald Trump, who will be in custody tomorrow will have to help fill out, just read us some of the questions that will have to be answered.

MILLER: Well, it's you know very extensive but it goes through basic things, any injuries or medical ailments, post-op recovery, psychiatric, emotionally disturbed, it's a checklist. But you get down to security cautions, current or former military, current or former law enforcement person, current or former intelligence officer, meaning do we have to be careful of this prisoner because you know, they might have access to secrets?

Of course, this is for people you know the -- this part of the form is for people who are going to be remanded, which we don't expect with President Trump. But it's interesting that they're going to have to check all of these boxes, kind of going down to complete the form.

SIDNER: You talked about one of the things that's going to ask, which is basically have you been arrested? That would have to be checked, yes. What about some of the other things that you were mentioning that potentially he'd have to answer like, have you --

BERMAN: Made threats to witnesses or prosecutors?

SIDNER: -- threatened witnesses or prosecutors.

MILLER: They might. You know, there's a section here, are you a gang member? Have there been threats made to witnesses, prosecutors, so on and so forth? You know, are you the leader of any organization?

SIDNER: Well.

MILLER: You know, there have been a lot of statements made that you know the question is, does that constitute a threat? But they'll get through the forum.

SIDNER: Right.

MILLER: And I don't want to make more or less of it. It's just --

BERMAN: Right.

MILLER: It's interesting reading it because to a normal federal defendant, this is all routine.

SIDNER: Right.

MILLER: When you're talking to a former president of the United States having to check all these boxes, you might have to pause on a couple of them. It's at best awkward. And you know had --

SOLOMON: So much has been so historic about all of this, John --

MILLER: Yes.

SOLOMON: -- as you -- as you point out. We don't have a lot of time left. But one thing we've all been watching very closely is, was Walt Nauta -- is Walt Nauta with the president?

Jennifer, if I could just quickly have you say the reason why there's so much attention on Walt Nauta is the question of whether could prosecutors get him to flip on Trump, which at this point, it doesn't appear that they have but certainly something they may try to revisit?

RODGERS: Yes. I think they're looking to make him into witness number one, right? These conversations that would have occurred between -- that we know occurred because they have phone records between Trump and Nauta in terms of this whole conspiracy around hiding evidence, right, moving boxes of documents, having the former president review them and pull out what he wants, and then put them in the storage room before the lawyers going to go see what's there pursuant to the subpoena. They want that testimony.

And not only that. We have to remember. Walt Nauta is the body man. He's around the president for the past however many years.

So, if you get him on board, he's not just going to the witnessed number one in this documents case, he can tell you all about what happened after the election leading up to January 6, and a whole lot more. So, he is someone they really, really want. They took a shot at him before and I think they'll take another shot at him again, for sure.

SIDNER: Until the trial comes, they'll be going for him. Thank you so much, Jennifer Rodgers. Thank you so much, John Miller, for being here with us. And again, just remember, Trump is on his way on the plane and going to be on his way to Miami. And make sure to stick around for the premiere of inside politics now with Dana Bash. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)