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Trump Defiant after Arraignment; Judge Orders No Communication between Trump and Walt Nauta; Ukraine Claims Advances in Zaporizhzhya Region. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 14, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This is called election interference and yet another attempt to rig and steal a presidential election. More importantly, it's a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or Communist nation.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN's Alayna Treene is just outside Trump's golf club in New Jersey, where he made those

untruthful statements.

What can you tell us?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Good morning, Sara. That's right. I am here just near where Donald Trump still is after his speech last night and holding a private fund-raiser.

And I do want to focus on the fund-raising aspect of that event. Donald Trump and his team are viewing this indictment largely through the lens of his re-election campaign and they think that his charges -- or these charges, at least in the short term, will have a political boost but also a fund-raising boost for his reelection campaign.

And shortly after Donald Trump left yesterday, his team fired off a campaign email.

It read, quote, "I'm writing you this email as I fly back from the Miami federal courthouse where I was arraigned as an innocent man by the corrupt Biden administration."

Now I think one thing, Donald Trump's relationship with some of these donors at the club last night, he is hoping to hold onto these wealthy donors that he had during his 2016 campaign.

But some sources are telling my colleague, Kristen Holmes, and I that there are some concerns that some of these wealthy donors could defect. And we have seen some of these defections already from some of these donors. But the worry is that if these indictments continue to mount, they

could see more of that. But I should also point out that Donald Trump's team maintains that he still gets his best fund-raising from the small dollar donors, the same thing that we saw when he was president, and that they do expect him to bring in a lot of money, not just from that event last night but in the days immediately after following the announcement of that indictment, Sara.

SIDNER: All right and we should also mention that, yesterday, it turns out, or, excuse me, today is Donald Trump's 77th birthday as well. I understand that you have learned he was not in a mood to celebrate. Appreciate your live reporting there from Bridgewater, New Jersey -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Sara, thank you so much.

So legally speaking, what is next for the indicted former president, who did sit through the 50-minute court session yesterday?

CNN's Katelyn Polantz watched it all from inside the courtroom and joins us now.

So we know what he can and can't -- or should or shouldn't do, I should say.

How difficult would it be for him to toe that line?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Great question, John. Now Donald Trump is in the criminal justice system. He's been arrested and he has restrictions placed upon him.

So there's going to be a lot of attention paid to that going forward. I want to go over a couple of things that happen in the near future. Right now, over the next two weeks, Walt Nauta, his co-defendant, still needs to enter a plea, just like Donald Trump did yesterday when his attorney stood up and said he was not guilty.

He has not done that. So he will do that. That has to happen to kick off the case.

And after that, prosecutors will be providing a list, both to Trump and his legal team as well as Walt Nauta and his lawyers, with a list of people that they cannot discuss the details of the case with, people that could be potential witnesses.

And also they can't talk to one another about the details of this case.

And then there's also the path to trial, right?

Prosecutors will be turning over evidence to the criminal defense team so that they can get ready, so they will get to see everything the Justice Department has collected to charge this case, take it through the grand jury.

But that is a really significant thing that Donald Trump is now under a court order that he can't talk to people about this case and also that his words publicly, if he's talking about the case publicly or to law enforcement officials, it can be used against him in the court of law.

And even last night when he was at Bedminster, giving his speech, he had said that he had every right to keep documents under the Presidential Records Act. That's going to be a legal argument that his team is likely to make during this path to trial.

But it's also something that could come up in the case if the Justice Department wants to use his own words, saying, yes, he did know he had these documents. He says, even after he's charged and in court and arrested, they were his documents to keep -- John.

BERMAN: Again, it could be used in a trial itself. He's got to watch what he says now politically, because it will have a very real, legal impact. Katelyn Polantz, terrific having you here thank goodness. Thank you very much.

SIDNER: Thank you, John.

Trump has pleaded, of course, not guilty to 37 federal charges alleging he broke the law by keeping and hiding classified documents --

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SIDNER: -- from federal authorities while at Mar-a-Lago. Here's what's next for the former president.

We heard special counsel Jack Smith say the government is seeking a speedy trial. But a defendant can waive that right and ask for more time. If this does go to trial, it could be months before it begins.

That's because, while federal law forces federal government to bring a case to trial within 70 days, that deadline, can of course, be extended. Then there's the process known as discovery, when prosecutors have turn over their evidence to the defense.

Both sides will have to work out a timeline for that. There may also be more court hearings to set deadlines and agreements on how the evidence should be handled. There's also the possibility that Trump's team files pre-trial motions that could ask the judge to simply dismiss the case or to keep certain evidence from being used at trial.

It is unclear at this point if or when Trump will be due back in court. But his co-defendant and his close aide, Walt Nauta, is set to be arraigned on June 27th. Rahel.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: With us now, Michael Zeldin and Dan Horwitz, former assistant district attorney for the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Dan, Jack Smith wants to seek a speedy trial. But we are talking about classified documents.

Realistically, how quickly will this thing move?

DAN HORWITZ, FORMER ASSISTANT DA, MANHATTAN: It's not going to move quickly. First of all, Defense Lawyering 101 and it doesn't matter whether your client is the former President of the United States. You want to slow things down, number one.

Number two, you're right. Discovery will involve the disclosure of highly classified, highly confidential documents.

And the people who need to review those documents, the president's lawyers, his co-defendant's lawyers and ultimately a jury, they are all going to have to go through security clearances by the government to make sure that they are able to review those documents.

And that's going to take some time because these kinds of security clearances are of the highest nature. So this is going to add time on the clock.

SOLOMON: Michael, I want to bring you into the conversation. Of course, you have a defendant who is the former president.

But if you are trying to figure out, this is coming amongst primary season, is this something the judge would take into consideration in terms of being accommodating for scheduling when the defendant is campaigning?

MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, that's a great question. It depends on the judge. The judge controls this case. And if it's Aileen Cannon, she can set a speedy trial calendar and really push this to completion as soon as possible.

With what Dan said, which is correct also, but if she wants to, she can stretch it out and as they get closer and closer to the election, she can say we can hold this over until after the election.

So the judge controls the calendar and that determines how the case will proceed and what the strategies of the prosecution's team and the defense team will be.

SOLOMON: Michael, to that end, the judge, Aileen Cannon, some have said she should recuse herself because of past decisions coming under scrutiny.

Do you agree?

ZELDIN: If I were Judge Cannon, I would voluntarily recuse myself. I don't think she needs this 2.5 years into her judgeship, having been reversed resoundingly by 11th Circuit.

If I were her I'd want nothing to do with this case. But if she decides she wants to take it and redeem herself, if you will, I don't think there are legal grounds to recuse her. I know people think there are but I'm not one who agrees with that.

SOLOMON: Dan, I want to bring you in.

Do you agree with that?

Some have made the counter argument, saying she may be the best person to try this case because of those past decisions. She will be on her best behavior and if Trump is convicted under a Trump appointee, it gives an era of credibility to the process.

HORWITZ: I think that's right and I think for someone who is a young judge, who has to be thinking about her reputation, because she'll be presumably on the bench for a long time, federal judgeships are a lifetime appointment.

She's got to be thinking about how the public is going to view her and what kind of confidence the public is going to have in the justice system.

But I do agree with Michael that, legally, there are no grounds for her to recuse herself. One interesting thing that happened in the New York case yesterday is that there was a decision by an ethics advisory panel for judges.

And they found that Judge Merchan in the New York case will not need to recuse himself. So that will give cover to all those people who say Judge Cannon does not need to recuse herself. But I agree with Michael.

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HORWITZ: She does not need to recuse herself.

SOLOMON: We heard that Trump and Walt Nauta, his aide, now co- defendant, said they plan to continue to work together. They plan to continue to travel together.

In light of that ruling yesterday, that they cannot talk about the case directly, I mean, how much more challenging does this now become?

HORWITZ: It becomes challenging but let's pull back. This is a criminal case. And when you have more than one defendant in the case, that happens all of the time. You have people who work together in a company, who have been charged in a white collar case.

Judges typically give an order, saying, if you work together, you can talk about baseball. You can talk about the weather. You can talk about your job but you cannot talk about this case.

This does raise some complications, though, for, how do you enforce this rule?

What's going to happen when you have a defendant like Donald Trump, who loves to talk?

He loves to talk publicly. He almost can't help himself talking.

Is he going to say something about conversations he had with Nauta?

And what will Judge Cannon do if that happens? I think that's a more pressing question of what will happen.

SOLOMON: Michael, that question about what would the judge do if, in fact, they don't comply with this order, what are your thoughts?

ZELDIN: Well, one thing, to be clear, they can't speak to each other directly. They can speak to each other through lawyers. So they can have a joint defense agreement that allows them to share legal strategy.

This all tells you that Trump's first order of business is get a lawyer. He does not have good trial lawyers on his case yet.

Once he gets them, then they and Nauta, once he gets a lawyer, can begin to figure out how they're going to communicate with one another without violating the judge's order and still be able to move forward with a joint defense strategy.

SOLOMON: Yes. As we know, Walt Nauta expected back in a courtroom June 27th for his arraignment. So much to watch. Michael Zeldin and Dan Horovitz, thanks for the time.

BERMAN: Key data shows inflation is cooling and what new numbers mean for the Fed's rate hike decision, which comes very shortly.

And then taking back part of its territory, where the Ukrainian military is making advances this morning.

A turn in the fatal -- in the fatal shooting on the "Rust" set. New allegations against the weapons supervisor and the condition prosecutors say she was in when she loaded a live round into a prop gun.

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SIDNER: A live look at the markets right now after new data shows a key inflation gauge once again fell sharply in May.

The producer price index showing wholesale inflation cooled once again, this time hitting below a pre-pandemic average at 1.1 percent. The new data coming out ahead of another big decision we're expecting from the Fed on interest rates.

Luckily to break it all down, we have CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Christine, more good news, good news, dare I say?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This number behind you was a normal number. When we have just a normal number and it's big news, it shows you just how this inflation problem has been just gripping the public for the past year or so.

So 1.1 percent and that's pre-pandemic levels. And this is producer price index. This is factory-level inflation so that should sift down the road into consumer inflation. And we had a decent consumer number yesterday.

But this PPI, if you look at the line chart and you can see we have clearly peaked. Last summer it was 9.1 percent for CPI and almost 12 percent for PPI. And now you're talking about 1.1 percent, that is remarkable. Those, the PPI and CPI numbers, clearly show you that the Fed's massive tightening in the economy is starting to cool the inflation story a little bit.

SIDNER: You really see it there because that is from just before the mid-2020. You see what happens when the economy went to hell in a handbasket, for lack of a better word. Speaking of a little bit of worry.

ROMANS: Yes?

SIDNER: Do you think the Fed as they'll come out today around 2:00 will decide, hey, we don't need to raise interest rates anymore?

ROMANS: Again, the Fed not doing anything will be the big story, because the Fed has been raising interest rates one after the other for 10 months now to try to cool down the economy and cool down that inflation.

We expect a big chunk of market participants, excuse me, easy for me to say, 95 percent of the market is showing, think that there will be no rate hike.

And the question is what do they do next month?

Do they continue this pause or do they continue to jack up interest rates?

You're seeing some strength in the housing market and the stock market has been strong and there are other parts of the economy that people feel are signaling that the Fed's work is not done. It still needs to kind of tap on the brakes to make sure this economy doesn't overheat again.

SIDNER: For borrowers, that's annoying.

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ROMANS: -- they have raised interest rates -- borrowers have paid more and more and more every single rate meeting. They won't this time.

SIDNER: All right, Christine Romans, we'll wait and see. Thank you very much -- John.

BERMAN: This morning, Ukraine is claiming to have gained partial success as its counteroffensive enters its early stages. Over the past day, Ukrainian troops say they've made advances toward Bakhmut here in the far east of the country.

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BERMAN: And then broadly speaking in the Zaporizhzhya region there is significant fighting on the ground in villages in and around this southern occupied territory.

With us now, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton.

Great to see you, Colonel. Let me push in here, because this is -- you can just make out where the Ukrainians have started to take back a sliver of this territory that's been held by the Russians for more than a year.

Why do you think this appears to be the focus right now of the counteroffensive?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, John, I think one of the key things about this is that they're going for the Sea of Azov. And if they can make their way down to the Sea of Azov, that will cut the land bridge between the Donbas region and the Russian-occupied parts of the Donbas region and Russian-occupied Crimea.

Once they do that, the Ukrainians will not only have that path to the Sea of Azov but they will have broken off a large hold that the Russians have had since February of 2022 on this area. And that means a significant at least tactical victory for them if they can achieve it.

BERMAN: You're talking about getting down to here the Sea of Azov. That means getting through a lot of Russian occupied territory to get there.

Insofar as we know, we don't know a lot right now, how would you describe the nature of the fighting?

Is this full-on infantry lines going after each other?

Or is it more of a probing operation right now?

LEIGHTON: Right now it seems to be more of a probing operation. There are parts where the fighting is really intense. But what you're dealing with is a reconnaissance in force, plus probing operations. That would indicate to me that the Ukrainians are trying to assess the weaknesses of the Russian lines.

And where they find them, they're exploiting them. The Russians are fighting back in certain areas. For example, around the village of Thenikonobosilka (ph), they are reportedly using helicopters to go after Ukrainians in that area.

But their ability to actually prosecute that is, I think, questionable at this point. But on the Ukrainian side, what they have to worry about is increased Russian defenses as they go further south toward Melitopol and Berdyansk and those particular areas.

BERMAN: Everyone acknowledges, both sides, that there are losses in the counteroffensive and certainly the Russians in their defensive operations. These are Leopard tanks that have been provided to Ukraine over the last several months.

One might expect that they have lost some of these in the process.

If Ukraine loses something as valuable as this, can they get resupplied in time?

LEIGHTON: The "in time" part will be a bit of a question. Theoretically, yes; the problem, John, that they're going to have is to make sure that those supply chains actually work for them.

There are sufficient numbers of Leopard tanks where they could be resupplied but they need to be ready to go. They have to be combat ready and operationally ready for the Ukrainians to use them right away. It can be done but the Germans and others will have to step up to the plate to make that happen.

BERMAN: As we talk about the counteroffensive, trying to get to the Sea of Azov, if they don't get there by the end of the summer, what do you think that means?

LEIGHTON: It will put the Ukrainians in a weakened position in that sense in terms of what happens next and how much territory they actually get to control.

But I think the Ukrainians will, at the very least, have sent a big message that they are capable not only of defending their territory but of recapturing some of the territory the Russians have occupied.

And no matter how this turns out, the odds are pretty much in Ukraine's favor to at least regain some of the territory that they lost.

BERMAN: Colonel Cedric Leighton, great to have you on. Thank you so much.

SOLOMON: Just hours after he was arraigned on federal charges, former president Trump made a slew of false and misleading claims in a speech at his Bedminster resort. We'll fact check.

And in response to the indictment, Republicans senator J.D. Vance is threatening political retaliation, vowing to block President Biden's judicial nominations indefinitely. We'll be right back.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) BERMAN: For the first time more than two decades, Bud Light is no

longer the top selling beer in the U.S. Mexican lager Modelo Especial was the top seller here last month. Bud Light has faced recent backlash from right-wing media following (INAUDIBLE).

Plus there was also a shift to their preference to Mexican beer as it spirits away from domestic brews.

Parents in one California town are sounding off after the local school board rejected a state-backed social studies curriculum and fired the district's superintendent in the process.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The audience will be cleared. (INAUDIBLE). That's your first point.

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BERMAN (voice-over): That was the reaction after Temecula Valley, the school board voted to fire the superintendent, Jodi McClay, even as parents and supporters chanted her name.

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