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Hilary Now A Major Category 4 Storm; Maui County Mayor: 45 Percent Of Burned Area Has Been Searched; FEMA Running Out Of Money As Hurricane Season Ramps Up; Trump Team Seeks 2026 Trial Date In Federal Election Subversion Case; Alleged Trump Co-Conspirator Followed Alex Jones On Jan. 6. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:14]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So when should Donald Trump go on trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election? Forget this year, forget next year, forget the year after that. His lawyers pushed for a trial in 2026. How will the judge respond?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Three decades behind bars. That is what prosecutors are now asking for against the Proud Boys leader. It would be the longest sentence by far coming from the January 6 attack. And the other leaders of the far-right extremist group could also be facing decades in prison. What the prosecutors call the vanguard of political violence in this country.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Calls for the Justice Department to intervene in the attempted murder case against two white men who are accused of shooting at a black FedEx driver who was just doing his job. A Mississippi judge says he had no choice but to declare a mistrial. The reason all boils down to a police officer who's accused of breaking court rules.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan, this is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: A major category 4 hurricane has parts of the U.S. bracing for a rare threat not seen in decades. Hurricane Hilary currently has 145 mile per hour winds as it inches toward California. And while the storm will likely weaken just before it strikes the state, the rain and wind could stood be deadly.

More than a year's worth of rain is possible in just one day for some areas, and that could trigger some dangerous flash flooding. Bulldozers have been moving sand on beaches with wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour possible. This could become the first tropical storm to hit the area in 84 years.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the very latest for us. Derek, where's the storm? Where is it headed and when?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, look, John, this storm exploded overnight. It's really a category 4 monster just off the coast of Mexico right now. But just because you see a category 4 storm now, doesn't mean that that's what we will experience when it reaches the southwestern United States. Very important.

But as the situation comes with tropical storms, we typically get a surge of moisture and it will really be the rainfall threat that I am mostly concerned about across the southwestern U.S. We'll break down the details here.

Look at the projected path from the National Hurricane Center. A weakening hurricane as it approaches the Baja Peninsula. Let's take it further out in time from Sunday evening through Monday, tropical storm force conditions possible in extreme southern sections of California, including San Diego.

And then look at this, the remnants moving into the western half of the U.S., the flood threat cannot be diminished here. We have a rare level four of four from Sunday to Monday morning for the interior of Southern California. Weather Prediction Center does not issue that lightly. We have a moderate risk, including an Diego Northward into Las Vegas.

The potential for mudslides and landslides exists. So let's compare this to a previous event. Why do you need to care? This happened in Death Valley in 2022 with a less significant storm. It produced 1.46 inches of rain. On average, Death Valley receives a little over 2 inches of rain in the entire year.

With this particular system, we're predicting anywhere from 3 to 4 inches of rain. So as John so aptly said in the opening statement of the show, we could receive over a year's worth of rain just in a couple of days. This storm will encounter cooler waters as it approaches the southwestern U.S. if it stays more offshore, more coastal concerns in terms of coastal erosion and large waves.

If it stays inland, that brings the rain threat a little further inland as well. John, so much to cover with this storm.

BERMAN: Yes, it really is. Again worth noting that storms like this very rarely hit where this one is headed right towards San Diego --

VAN DAM: Correct.

BERMAN: -- or maybe a little bit inland for them. So people need to pay very close attention to it. Even as the storm weakens, it is still very, very threatening. Derek, thank you very much. Kate?

VAN DAM: Right.

BOLDUAN: Wild to see it like that. In Hawaii, the ATF is now joining the investigation into the cause of the deadly Maui fires. The death toll remains at 111 but more than 1,000 people are possibly still missing. Only a handful of the people who were killed have been publicly identified. They include 79-year-old Alfredo Galinato. His family says that they believe that he died trying to protect the family home that he built. We are also learning of some deaths among children. Seven-year-old Tony Takafua, his mother and his grandparents are among those killed. They died while trying to escape. Relatives say that their remains were found inside a burned out car near their home.

[09:05:09]

And as the recovery effort continues, the island's emergency management chief has just resigned. He faced early criticism for the initial response as the disaster was unfolding. And separately now, Hawaii's water management agency is also facing scrutiny.

CNN has learned a state official may have delayed giving permission to use extra water to fight the flames. And all of these questions are leaving some residents frustrated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLA SABLE TACDERAN, MAUI RESIDENT: Right now the Maui community is helping the Maui community. And I'm really -- and it's really affected me because where's the President? He decides to come here this week, to come here next week. I mean, like where -- aren't we Americans too? Like, we're part of the United States, but why are we getting put in the back pocket? Why are we being ignored?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The mayor of Maui County tells CNN that as of this morning, 45 percent of the burn zone has been searched. So they are making progress every day, but it is a slow daunting task.

CNN's Bill Weir is on Maui with the latest.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Here on Maui, as that fatality count ticks up a little bit at a time, day by day, it's the number of missing that weighs so heavy on the hearts of people here and really around the world watching this story.

Over 1,000 missing according to the governor's last statement on that. And given the fact that a lot of the power is backup on the island, a lot of the communication is back up, you'd think we would have heard from those folks by now. And what's especially grievous is when you think about how many children were home that day.

I'm hearing again and again from kids there was no school when the fire hit. A lot of young ones were with their grandparents or someone else while the parents worked. So you can imagine the agony in those families if they haven't found their children.

I spoke actually to a veteran Urban Search and Rescue officer from FEMA in Hawaii, from the Houston area and he says of the some 90 disasters he's addressed in his career, this is unlike anything else.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEPHEN BJUNE, FEMA URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE, PIO OFFICER: What's been really powerful is the fact that there's a number of local firefighter in PD that have lost their homes, lost their everything, and they're out there working side by side with us.

WEIR: Yes.

BJUNE: So this is something very personal for us because this could easily have been our community. And so to be able to help them and to see them working in their own destroyed community is really powerful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEIR: He told me how they're searching sort of square foot by square foot with these dogs that are trained to detect human remains, even down to cremated ashes. And they want to be reverential and standing alongside of them, a lot of cases. Our Maui Fire and Police Department faculty who have lost their loved ones as well and are digging through that ash trying to find anything to put some people's minds at ease right now.

The winds are kicking back up again. Nothing as strong as the firestorm, tropical gusts that we saw last week, but a concern for the hotspots still in the upcountry coolifier. There are two Chinook helicopters according to the National Guard, ready to go to put those out if they should flare up. But so many concerns still playing out here, so much trauma.

Bill Weir, CNN, Maui.

SIDNER: All right, FEMA, it turns out, is running out of disaster relief money weeks before the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. From catastrophic flooding, fires, as you saw, they are in tornado outbreaks to crippling winter storms. It's already been a record breaking year with 15 weather-related disasters that each cost about &1 billion.

Now, the relief fund could run dry by the end of August, maybe even sooner. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is live at the White House. This is a dire warning. We're watching what's happening in Maui where FEMA has people on the ground. We're watching this massive hurricane that could be coming up and hit the Southwest. What more are you learning about this? What are they going to do?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Sara, there is growing concern within the agency about what happens next because they are seeing their funds with the potential of being completely depleted by mid to late August. And of course, as we have seen in Maui and elsewhere, disasters are getting worse and FEMA is going to them to help with the recovery.

But without funds, it makes it just more difficult. Now the FEMA administrator spoke to White House reporters this week during a briefing where she noted that there are still enough funds for that initial response to Maui, but without additional funding, they would put recovery into next year. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: We have enough funding to support the ongoing response efforts because we take events like this into consideration. But it would delay -- if we don't have additional funding, it would delay some of the recovery projects and push them into next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:10:14]

ALVAREZ: Now, the White House is aware of this. They're monitoring this, and in their supplemental request to Congress, they asked for $12 billion for disaster funds. But of course, that goes to Congress and require their approval. And this is one part of a broader funding request which may already face an uphill battle in Congress.

But a FEMA official that I spoke with told me, if they run out of these disaster relief funds, it just makes it more difficult for them to prepare for disasters, because oftentimes these are funds that are used for people and for things to get to places where they anticipate there could be a hurricane, there could be a tornado, so that they're ready for that recovery.

Without those funds, it just pushes everything on the back end. And that is the concern. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes. And yesterday we talked to the spokeswoman for the White House who said they've already spent $2 million in Hawaii alone just at the beginning of the disaster. This is really concerning. I know you'll be all over this.

Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much there for us from the White House. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, he's accused of being the architect of the 2020 fake electors plot. He's also one of the 18 people charged in the Georgia indictment. And a new CNN exclusive of where Kenneth Chesebro was on January 6.

And in Georgia today, many of the candidates not named Donald Trump are gathering to make their pitch just before the first Republican debate. Presidential candidate Will Hurd will be joining us ahead.

Also ahead, the very wet and snowy winter is now showing to have brought some relief to drought-stricken Colorado River. Why then are experts warning that the concerns for that critical waterway are still nowhere near over? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:00]

BOLDUAN: Lawyers for Donald Trump are pushing to delay his federal trial over the 2020 election for more than two years. They're requesting now that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan reject the special counsel's proposed trial date of this coming January. They say holding the trial then would deny Trump and counsel a fair ability to prepare. Instead, they say a more appropriate start would be April of 2026.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is following this for us, as always. She's joining us now. Katelyn, what is the reasoning that they lay out for -- that the start time should be April 2026?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Kate, they don't say exactly why they're picking that date in particular. That's a very long time from now. But they have a lot of complaints about why they need time between the date that Donald Trump is charged and the date he goes to trial.

Typically, defendants who are fighting charges want to go to trial very fast so that they can have the opportunity to clear their name. But that is not the approach here at all from Trump's team. They want this April 2026, three years from now because they say they have so much information to go through that they're going to need to prepare for trial.

It doesn't exactly work in the way that they're saying where they -- are saying they want to read every single document as if it's a novel, like "War and Peace". That's not really how it works. But they are saying that they have a lot of material that they're going to have to go through. They also have to juggle this with other cases.

We'll see exactly what the judge does. The Justice Department obviously wants this to be much earlier than that, in January of next year. And then, speaking of other cases related to Donald Trump, there is already one of his co-defendants in Georgia, Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department official.

He's already pushing back as well to a proposed trial date there from prosecutors saying they've asked for March of next year for a trial and that that is a little bit too soon for them to even make the ask. He hasn't even been arrested yet. None of those defendants, including Trump, have been arrested yet. And so, there is a question there about what's going to happen with that trial date as well.

Clearly, as Jeffrey Clark raises in his filing, there may be a race on of which prosecutor gets to try Donald Trump first. And we'll just have to wait and see how the court proceedings play out in the next couple of days. Kate?

BOLDUAN: That's exactly right. It's great to see you, Katelyn. Thank you. John?

BERMAN: All right, this morning we have exclusive new reporting on one of the alleged architects of the Trump 2020 fake electors plot, Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, and where he was on January 6. Remember, Chesebro was one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the federal election case. He's charged in the Georgia case.

And now CNN has identified Chesebro on video following around conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

With me now, CNN Senior Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz, on the video.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: On the video, big question. What was he doing there, right? Not only is he working behind the scenes, and now we know allegedly that he's the architect of this whole scheme to introduce fake electors, but now we see him actually on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6.

And what we've also discovered is that he is interviewed by the committee, the January 6 committee, by members of Congress, and he talks about -- they talk about this sort of idea about creating chaos and his whole idea behind that in terms of trying to slow down the voting, the process of certifying the election.

And so it's really interesting now to go back and find this video which was all dug up by our Kfile team, Andrew Kaczynski and I'm stacked, really just interesting to see him there. The other thing really is is that he was a lawyer for the Trump campaign working behind the scenes and now we see him there on the grounds with Alex Jones, who was really the leading voice behind Stop the Steal there on the grounds of the Capitol.

[09:20:08]

You know, we know he's facing a number of charges in Georgia, but he's also -- we've identified him as a unindicted co-conspirator in the special counsel case out of Washington, D.C. He's expected to surrender by the end of next week in Georgia.

We spoke to his attorney, gave us a statement saying that they're going to allow this to sort of play out in court. They don't want to comment right now. They want the legal process to play out, and they declined to issue any sort of statement. But, you know, this is certainly very concerning and troubling and raises a lot of questions about exactly what he was doing there that day.

BERMAN: To be queer, we have no evidence he actually --

PROKUPECZ: No.

BERMAN: -- entered the building itself.

PROKUPECZ: No. There's no evidence he was engaged in any kind of violence, that he went inside. This was all going on outside. But he's videotaping, he's recording on his phone. You see him there recording Alex Jones and why was he doing that.

BERMAN: All right, Shimon Prokupecz, thank you very much for that. Sara? Sara?

SIDNER: Yes. Hello, John. Hello, Shimon. Good to see you this morning. While Kenneth Chesebro is charged co-conspirator in the Georgia case, the indictment also details 30 unindicted and unnamed co-conspirators. CNN has identified some of them by piecing together details included in the indictment. Among them, Trump political adviser Boris Epshteyn, former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik, and Georgia's Republican Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones.

With us now, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tom Dupree. Let's start with this new CNN exclusive information about Kenneth Chesebro. He has been charged in this case with seven different counts in Trump's 2020 election tampering case in Georgia. Could this new information showing that he was on Capitol grounds during the January 6 Capitol attack have or make a difference in the case against him or Donald Trump?

TOM DUPREE, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, it could make a difference if they can show that he had some sort of active participation in the events of January 6. In other words, if he was there, he was helping coordinate and that sort of thing, which it sounds like we may not quite have yet.

But look, I mean, there's no question that it certainly places him more at the center of events. It obviously makes it difficult for him to argue that he was an innocent bystander or just a mere witness to the events that occurred if he was actually there following people around, hanging out with Alex Jones and that sort of thing. It's not the place that you want to be caught, viewed, seeing, doing on January 6.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, I was there in D.C. in November when Alex Jones was riling people up long before January 6, so it'll be interesting to follow that line of questioning. Now, there is a huge number of co- conspirators, as we mentioned, 30, that are not charged, not named. Why did the Georgia DA decide to put them in there, but not name them and not charge them at this point?

DUPREE: Well, if you'd put them in there, then you would have had something like 50 or 55 defendants, which would be even more unwieldy. Look, it's common, reasonably common in these types of sprawling criminal indictments to include a lot of unnamed, unindicted co- conspirators.

Here we have, you know, nearly 30, and it's a big group, and there's been a lot of just interesting guessing, trying to figure out, well, who is, you know, unindicted co-conspirator, number one, number two, and so on. And I think you can get a pretty good sense of who these people are based on the factual allegations that surround them.

But regardless, these people are going to play a key role at trial. They, at least, according to the indictment, were part of the conspiracy, even if they are not formally charged. And so they would presumably have a lot to say about the events and a lot to say about the evidence that led to these underlying charges.

SIDNER: So they could either be flipped, they could become witnesses, or potentially, if the DA decided, they could eventually be charged, that is potentially. But right now, they're unnamed, uncharged co- conspirators. Donald Trump's legal team has requested a trial date in the -- to 2026 in the federal case that is supposed to take place in D.C. over the 2020 election fraud. And the prosecutors want this to happen far earlier, of January of 2024. What's the judge to do in this kind of case?

DUPREE: Split the difference. Look, I think both sides are being overly ambitious. I totally understand why the prosecutors are pushing for a fast trial, and I totally understand why the Trump team is pushing to delay things.

I think what the judge here needs to do is take each side's proposal with a grain of salt, look at the schedule, and then just make realistic assessments about how long it will take to get up to speed and to prepare for a trial. And also, how on earth you manage this particular proceeding with the three other criminal proceedings involving the former president.

I mean, it's like you're managing an airport and you got a lot of planes and you got one runway, and you have to figure out some sort of staging or ordering approach because you can't have everything happening at once. So it's a tall order for the district court, but I'm sure she'll manage it.

[09:25:09]

SIDNER: Tom Dupree, thank you so much for all of that. There is so many things to talk about.

All right, over to you, John.

BERMAN: All right. At best, a distraction. That is how some U.S. officials view Ukraine's recent focus on Crimea. And new developments regarding dozens of police cases handled by five former Memphis officers charged with the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, Republican presidential candidates are gathering in Georgia, attending a two-day event called The Gathering. Today and tomorrow, six Republicans.