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Former President Donald Trump to Arrested and Arraigned; To Face Federal Charges, Trump Turns Himself In Today; Pete Buttigieg Will Visit I-95 Collapsed Section to Assess the Damage; Interview with University of Miami Criminal Law Professor Scott Sundby. Aired 10:30- 11a ET

Aired June 13, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, we now know which attorneys are expected to represent Donald Trump during his court appearance in a few hours. We also know that Trump had dinner last night with his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, at his Doral Resort.

So, what else do we know about what is going on behind the scenes? No one knows more than out very own Kaitlan Collins who is at the courthouse in Miami. Kaitlan, why don't you give us a sense of what you are learning this morning and what the latest is from inside Trump world.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, those two attorneys that you showed, Todd Blanche and Chris Kise have now entered their formal notices that they will, yes, indeed be the two attorneys representing the former president in court today when he comes here for this arraignment in just a matter of hours from now. That was not the plan based on what I was told as of last week even.

Yes, Todd Blanche was expected to take the helm of this case. He is going to be the one leading it, that's notable given he's only been on Trump's legal team since about early April. Chris Kise though is the former solicitor general of the State of Florida. He was brought on to Trump's legal team just to handle these documents case last fall, but was pretty quickly sideline and hasn't really played a major role in it since. He will, however, be in that courtroom today after the former president failed to add a new attorney to his team yet. He has been trying to do so. He was on the phone all day yesterday.

You can see here to the right what the scene looks like, outside the courthouse, I should note, guys. There is a gathering of the protesters here, also a few counter-protesters that just walked by before we came on air. We'll see how that changes before 3:00 p.m. What we know is as we are seeing the scene though, John, we may not actually see Trump himself walk inside to the courthouse today with those two attorneys that I was mentioning.

[10:35:00] And a real question is what that legal team will look like going forward, because it's not clear to me right now that Chris Kise is staying on this case and will be one of the attorneys who takes it to trial. It seems like he is someone who is filling a place here today going into court as they are trying to nail down another Florida attorney. And of course, John, that came after the two people who had been litigating this case resigned abruptly last week after they heard that Trump was trying to add another attorney to the team.

One of those attorneys, Benedict Kuehne, Ben Kuehne was spotted at Trump National Doral yesterday, whether or not that means he's getting the job is still not clear. That legal team is still very much in flux right now, John. But it does speak to what the former president is going to be facing as he comes here today to issue and utter those two words, not guilty. He still is going to have, of course, a very long stretch ahead of him as that team is working on the legal strategy. And meanwhile, his Republican allies are working on with the political strategy of what all of this is going to look like. John.

BERMAN: Kaitlan, we have this camera that's looking at the ground shots, around the courthouse, a little bit from where you are. There seemed to be three distinct groups. There are people protesting in support of Trump, there are a few counter-protesters protesting against Trump, and then the biggest group right now seems to be the media. Let's be honest right now, there's about three to four cameras for every protester that's there. But, you know, things can change. What's the vibe where you are?

COLLINS: Things can change, and I think that's really important. And what you've heard from our colleague, Shimon, is they've been monitoring this as he has said, you know, based on what he's seen at any other event, much less someone, something as highly charged as this, there is usually a lot more security when it comes to actual barricades and whatnot. We're not really seeing that here yet, and we are seeing more people arrive. It was quite calm this morning. But I think the question is, you know, it's 10:30 a.m. here right now. What does it look like by 3:00 when Trump is expected to show up.

And so, it's been pretty calm so far. We'll see if that changes or whatnot. Of course, it is a lot of the former president's supporters here who are criticizing his indictment. The one holding that poster there saying, Trump indictment celebration tour, they just walked by us. So, I do think that's a question of what that looks like as it does change. Right now, it is more members of the media, but we're obviously keeping an eye on it, as is, obviously, the security here and the secret service that's going to be coming with Trump as he makes his appearance this afternoon.

BERMAN: Yes, things could very well change as we get closer to 3:00 p.m. Kaitlan Collins, out thanks to you. Keep us posted.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Now, as Former President Trump turns himself in on federal charges there today in Miami, he's also facing several other legal battles. CNN's Sara Murray is with us now to give us an up on those cases. Can you first just lay out how many battles that he's facing and could be facing?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Donald Trump said the other day that he gets indicted like every two months. And, you know, he's not necessarily wrong, he's got a lot of legal scrutiny hanging over his head. I mean, there are a couple of things have already been decided, right? So, when you think of that E. Jean Carroll civil case, Donald Trump was already found liable for sexual abuse, as well as for defamation. In the hush money case in New York, he's already been charged with 34 felony counts, he's pleaded not guilty in that case.

But there are these two big criminal investigations that are still looming. One of them is this sprawling investigation in Georgia into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election there with his allies. We expect the D.A. there to make announcements on whether anyone is going to be facing charges in August. And the other one is the Jack Smith's other investigation, the January 6th investigation. We don't know what the timing could for charges in that case, but we know there's a very active grand jury. They're meeting today. They were meeting last week, hearing from witnesses. So, we're still waiting to see what that case brings.

SIDNER: It's interesting because when you look at the two potential cases, those two cases are that a lot of people feel are the most impactful cases, the case in Georgia and the potential case from Jack Smith on January 6th.

I do want to ask you if you're hearing anything about Donald Trump maybe using this in front of the judge to say, look, I've got all these things. I cannot juggle all this at once. And then his political opponents and his own team saying, hey, look, we've got this campaign going, and we've got this. There's a distraction there, and someone tried to use that as well?

MURRAY: I think you're definitely going to see these timing arguments for Donald Trump, because the reality is that his campaign calendar is colliding with the court calendar. And in all of the cases, you do get the right to prepare for trial. You do need time to prepare for trial. That's true in New York, it's going to be true in these classified documents case. It's going to be true if he is to be charged in Georgia or the January 6th case. I think the question is, you know, when you go before a judge, how amendable are they to take into account your campaign schedule?

SIDNER: That is a thing we have seen. Someone bring up writing a book before, that did not fly.

MURRAY: It did not.

SIDNER: And the campaign may not fly as well. But the other cases might, and so that's something we all have to think about, right?

MURRAY: Right.

SIDNER: All right. Sara Murray, thank you so much for coming on.

Rahel.

[10:40:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right. Sara, thank you.

And still ahead for us, the latest on that Philadelphia bridge collapse. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg expected to visit the site today, that's next.

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BERMAN: Very shortly, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit the collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia. A tanker truck caught fire after crashing into a wall which caused part of the highway above it to cave in. State officials say, full repairs could take months.

CNN's Danny Freeman is there. Danny, what do you expect today?

[10:45:00]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we are expecting a few different things today. First off, we're expecting Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to arrive really any minute to survey the scene behind us. And we're going to be asking him questions about how long these repairs will take.

But before I get to that, I really want to illustrate some of the things that we learned late yesterday afternoon about how all of this happened. Basically, state officials told us that way back on Sunday morning, a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline was heading northbound on I-95. It tried to take that off ramp, it lost control, crash landed on site, ignited, raptured, and that's what caused this fire that ultimately caused this northbound portion of I-95 to collapse. We also learned yesterday that the southbound lanes are no longer structurally safe, and they have to be demolished as well. That's been the sound that we've been hearing all days.

These heavy machineries puncturing holes, basically, in those southbound lanes to demolish them. But, of course, the sad news that we received yesterday is initially there were no reported injuries at this incident, but then we learned from Pennsylvania State Police that one person was recovered from the wreckage yesterday. At this point, we're not reporting the name because we're waiting on the Philadelphia medical examiner to confirm that I.D.

Now, to get back to that question though, John, about timeline, we're hoping to hear from Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg in a few minutes to get that -- a little more clarity on the timeline. Governor -- Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro though said it could take months to clean this all up. John.

BERMAN: It is a mess. All right. Danny Freeman, great to see you. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: Still ahead, if the federal criminal case against Former President Trump goes to trial, getting an impartial jury on this monumental case might be a bit difficult. We'll discuss, next.

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[10:50:00]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. Now, if the case against Former President Donald Trump actually goes to trial, the court would, of course, have to find a jury to hear the case. But that could be a big challenge given the massive amount of attention on this case, and, of course, its immediate political impact. So, how will the court select 12 jurors who can decide the case based on the facts presented at trial?

Joining me now is Scott Sundby, he's a criminal law professor at the University of Miami who studies jury. Scott, great to have your insight on a day like today. To be clear, we are not at the jury selection phase of any potential trial, just putting that out there. That said, there is a lot of attention on what a potential jury could look like. What are some questions, do you think, lawyers here would be asking to try to figure out who would be a good potential juror?

SCOTT SUNDBY, CRIMINAL LAW PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: So, in terms of lawyer's perspective, what they're really going to be trying to figure out, Rahel, is the potential juror's world view. Because what we've learned through our studies of juries and decision-making is, sort of, how we view the world is also how we derive the facts. And so, they are going to be trying to get insights as to how potential jurors are going to view. Is the government engaged in weaponization of the charges? Do people think that President Trump can do whatever he wants in terms of the declassification. Sort of, their general views of the whole process is going to drive how they are going to view the facts which are actually going to hear at trial.

SIDNER: Their world view, I hear you say, Scott, what about their political views? What about their political leanings? How they voted?

SUNDBY: So, more and more, our political views seemed to lined up with our world view. I'm not sure that was always true. And one thing that we have to keep in mind is that this is a federal trial, and federal judges tend to be much more strict in terms of what they allow the attorneys to ask potential jurors.

And so, it's going to be really interesting and challenging for the judge to, sort of, determine what questions they will allow to go forward. I'm not sure that a judge would allow a juror to be asked who they voted for, because a vote doesn't necessarily mean you can't hear the case fairly. What might be quite relevant is where individuals get their views, what blogs they listen to -- read, what podcasts they listen to.

You might remember in the trial with Jean Carroll, which was a civil trial but still a federal jury, came out after the trial had started that one of the jurors actually listened to what we might call a right-wing blog, and there was a big tussle as to whether that meant he should have been disqualified.

That's often done through questionnaires, although a lot of judges don't like the questionnaires, but this strikes me as the type of case where getting a lot of information upfront on those types of activities by the potential jurors makes sense.

SOLOMON: Scott, we don't have a lot of time here, but talk to me about the need and the challenge for both sides, really, to find jurors, potential jurors, who can be fair with so much attention on this case and political implications of this case.

SUNDBY: And this is why whoever handles this case as the judge has to be remarkable skilled, because they are going to have to deal with a jury pool that unless you find somebody who's been lost in the everglades for the last two years is inevitably going to have heard about the case.

[10:55:00]

And that doesn't disqualify you from serving on the case. What you have to be able to do is say that you can set whatever you have heard aside and listen to the evidence and base you decision on the evidence. But, of course, that is a real challenge to try and see whether or a potential juror can do that. Sorry.

SOLOMON: No. I mean, listen --

SUNDBY: Rahel.

SOLOMON: -- we could talk about this for another hour. Scott Sundby, professor, great to have your insight today. As we said, we are not at that phase of any potential trial, but fascinating nonetheless. Professor, thank you for the time today.

SIDNER: And thank you for joining us on this history-making day. The "CNN News Central", our special coverage of the federal indictment of Donald Trump continues with our Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett, that's next.

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