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Former Trump Lawyer John Eastman Agrees To $100K Bond; Ex- Fulton County Poll Watcher Scott Hall Agrees To $10K Bond; California Hit With Tropical Storm Hilary, Historic Rain, Floods, Mudslides & A Quake. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 21, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:31:37]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Let's get back to this hour's breaking news. John Eastman, Donald Trump's former attorney, has just reached a bond agreement with the Fulton County district attorney, $100,000.

Eastman faces multiple criminal charges for his alleged role in helping Trump try to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Remember, he's one of 19 defendants facing charges, including the former president himself.

CNN chief legal analyst, Laura Coates, is back with us now.

So, Laura, $100,000 bond. How do you read this?

LAURA COATES, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, looking at the documents right now, remember, he is charged with multiple counts. And they're very serious. From RICO to conspiracy and beyond.

This is actually quite typical to have bond. A real way to think about this is listen, I'm going to allow you not to be in prison or in jail awaiting your trial but you've got to give me some sort of guarantee that you're actually going to show back up and I can trust you.

And the trust comes in the form of a monetary payment, hence the $100,000.

So he will go to a bail bondsman who will ask you for 10 percent of the ultimate charge. If you do not pay that, of course, you can be a fugitive. You can have a warrant in defense of a bounty, obviously, not lethal, on one's head to have you return to court.

This indication to give this sort of bond means a judge said you don't pose a threat to society, a public safety risk. and perhaps even a flight risk because I believe this $100,000 is going to guarantee you're going to show back up for your trial date.

I will note, though, in this, he has to report to pretrial every 30 days, meaning you're passing a drug test, you're checking in with somebody every so often. And perhaps the most important thing here, Boris, is that he cannot communicate in any way either through intimidation or otherwise to a co-defendant, 19 people, essentially.

Or to a witness in this case, which means that, at some point, you're going to hear from Fani Willis's team to say who are the witnesses that could be in this case.

This happened in the Jack Smith case as well down in Mar-a-Lago, the co-defendants of Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira.

But here it's more people involved. And how are you able to sort of thread the needle not to communicate, not to intimidate ought to be an easy concept, of course.

SANCHEZ: Well --

COATES: But not so much these days.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about that. Because if we anticipate that former President Trump's bond agreement is somewhat similar to John Eastman's, it may get complicated.

Given that the former president doesn't bite his tongue when it comes to talking about witnesses, like former lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, on social media.

COATES: He has more than toed that line. He's probably crossed it a number of times. Hence the concern of the judge in Washington, D.C., Chutkan, on the request of Jack Smith. This is a different case, though, and will be treated differently.

But you're right. Unlike the other issues, we had the valet, Walt Nauta, or someone close to his residence in Mar-a-Lago, this includes people he may have correspondence with.

You have Giuliani, you have Sidney Powell. You've got Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff, obviously.

Not too aware at this point of what their actual relationship is at this point in time. People thought he was going to be a cooperator in the other matters.

SANCHEZ: Right.

COATES: But having been named here is the key.

Ultimately, though, this court will look to make sure that the matters of justice are not fatally undermined by somebody saying, listen, it would be a shame if -- it's a nice house you've got here, it would be a shame if anything happened to it.

Or I want you not to testify against me. Or on Twitter or Truth Social. Any way of making someone feel intimidated enough. What that threshold looks like can be different for every defendant.

[14:35:05]

A generalized statement on Truth Social about an issue with the justice system or a complaint about a prosecutor or a complaint about him feeling railroaded, these are all things that might not rise to the level.

However, a specified threat, a specified statement that would make somebody less likely to feel compelled or interested in testifying, that's a serious one.

SANCHEZ: Laura, I also want to take a step back and talk about John Eastman generally.

He was at one point a very well-respected constitutional lawyer, and now he has a $100,000 bond agreement with Fani Willis and the California state bar is trying to disbar him.

Talk about the developments in his professional career.

COATES: Remember who he is. He is known as sort of the architect of the pressure campaign against Vice President Pence.

Based on what he believed or he said he initially believed was a surefire way to actually have an elector scheme that would say your role can be more than ceremonial, you can actually say no, we're not going to do this.

Now, his lawyer in his disbarment proceeding said this is a matter of scholarly debate. I'm not sure which classroom we're having this debate, of course, Boris.

Because it's very clear that the role of the vice president is not to be anything more than ceremonial. You have members of Congress right now trying to have that law changed or rewritten to make sure that it's all the more clear.

But he is suggesting that he was simply trying to opine on these matters and not trying to do anything that was untoward, that was illegal or in any way would undermine justice.

However, he also is the person, according to at least one person, Mr. Jacobs, who said he believed that he would lose this argument in front of the Supreme Court 9-0. Remember that famous statement. 9-0.

Except he thought, because he was the clerk of Clarence Thomas once, maybe he could lean on him in some way.

At the end of the day, though, the most important thing to think about, because of that disbarment proceeding you mentioned, on January 6th in front of Congress, he did not testify. He pled the Fifth multiple times. We saw it played over and over again.

In the disbarment, though, he took the stand. He testified. Which means that everything he said there can now come in into future things, including this very proceeding.

SANCHEZ: Fascinating stuff.

Laura Coates, thanks so much for the analysis. Thanks for sticking around, too.

COATES: Where am I going to go?

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A wet and muddy mess in California. We are live from one of the hardest-hit areas that's now cleaning up from rain and flooding after a historic tropical storm.

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[14:41:54]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: More news out of Fulton County, Georgia. Another surrender agreement for one of the defendants.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has been covering.

Katelyn, who is it and what's the deal?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, this is the second term agreement that we have learned of today, and we now see on paper.

This is for a man named Scott Graham Hall, who is accused of working with Sidney Powell and others to try and access these vote tabulating machines in Coffee County, Georgia, part of this racketeering case.

Scott Graham Hall's bond is set at $10,000. And actually, he's a bail bondsman himself. So we now have those terms for this agreement here at the Fulton County courthouse.

There are negotiations clearly taking place this afternoon. There's a lot of law enforcement activity. We just saw some additional lawyers head into the courthouse.

Ken Cheseboro's lawyer was walking in, very likely to do his version of the negotiations for his client.

Ken Cheseboro was one of those people who was working with other lawyers around Trump trying to set out as architects of this fake electors plan, the use of fake electors for Donald Trump in battleground states across the country.

And then we also have a bail term set for John Eastman. These are going to be coming in one by one for each of these defendants. Very likely today. Could go into the future days.

But all of these terms, these defendants are going to want to have set because it allows the judge to sign off on how these people can be released as they await trial.

So that whenever they go to the jail to turn themselves in, to be arrested, to be processed they don't have to sit there for a long time. They can be processed. And then they can be released.

But there will be a question of how long all of them, including Donald Trump, will be in that jail and exactly what Donald Trump's release terms might be.

SCIUTTO: Can we learn anything from these early deals for Eastman and Hall that relate to the president's case, or is that dealt with entirely differently?

For instance, on the question of mug shots and fingerprints, for instance. Does this particular co-defendant have to be subjected to that in the way that the president, the former president might not be?

POLANTZ: Yes, we haven't actually learned how that process is going to play out. This is something that's being done by the prosecutors and the court is signing off on it.

The people who do the processing, the mug shots, the fingerprinting, the searches over at the jail, that's the sheriff's office. So another entity entirely.

So what we're seeing here right now, it's just a one-page set of terms.

But releasing these people for these charges on these substantial amounts of bond, that is something that is notable. Not everyone who's charged as a co-defendant of Donald Trump is being given a bond, at least in federal court.

Trump has zero dollars so far for his bond in the two federal cases that he faces.

Now, the other thing that's notable in these arrangements is it appears that these people are getting a provision where they're not able to communicate about this case, or the facts of it, with other witnesses or other defendants.

[14:44:58]

Something really to watch because these are legal circles, people who know each other quite closely, who've worked together. And that is a provision that the prosecutors do appear to want to put in place as they await trial.

SCIUTTO: And do they abide by those restrictions?

Katelyn Polantz, at the Fulton County courthouse, thanks so much.

And we'll be right back.

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SANCHEZ: A lot of breaking news out of Fulton County this afternoon.

So let's get you there right now with CNN's Katelyn Polantz.

Katelyn, catch us up.

POLANTZ: Well, Boris, there's a heightened sense that something is happening right here, now, at the Fulton County courthouse complex.

[14:50:02]

That's because negotiations are taking place this afternoon very clearly among these 19 defendants.

Their lawyers talking to the prosecutors here in Fulton County, the office of district attorney, Fani Willis, to set the terms of bail for each one of the defendants in his case around Donald Trump and the 2020 election.

We're just getting those agreements. Just a few of them so far.

We have the agreement of lawyer, John Eastman, one of the top lawyers who was assisting Trump after the election, one of the architects of that plan to try to block the transfer of power in Congress on January 6th. John Eastman will have a $100,000 bond agreement.

Another defendant here, Scott Graham Hall, he has a $10,000 agreement. He's accused of working with others to try and access tabulating machines in a rural county in Georgia, Coffee County, working with Sidney Powell and others.

So we're going to be seeing agreements like this come in this afternoon.

We don't have Donald Trump's yet. We believe his lawyers will be negotiating, if they aren't already, with the district attorney and they will set a bond term for the former president.

In his federal cases, he's had to post zero dollars bond. So we are waiting to see if this is a little bit different.

In one aspect, it will be different in that all of these defendants, they aren't just arrested before their appearance before a judge, inside a very quiet federal courthouse.

They actually have to go over to the very busy jail here in Fulton County to be arrested and processed. Something that could take a little time but very likely at the end of the week.

SANCHEZ: Plenty of developments there.

Katelyn Polantz, keep us posted on what you are learning. Thanks so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Right now, millions of people out west are dealing with significant storm damage. The mud and debris that was left in Tropical Cyclone, post-Tropical Cyclone Hilary's wake has trapped some California residents inside their homes. When you look at some video we have from a clean-up crew in San

Bernardino, there is a mud slide, you can see, that just has slathered the streets and the sidewalks there.

This is a storm far from over. And 60 million people under flood watches still at this hour from southern California all the way to Idaho.

We have CNN's Stephanie Elam live for us in Cathedral City, which is near Palm Springs.

Tell us what you're seeing, Steph.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, I was thinking, people come to the desert for spa treatments and get those nice mud baths perhaps. This is not what they were looking for.

We're seeing the water starting to recede but that thick, kind of juicy mud, is still all over the roads. You can see that it is still down in the distance.

It has cut off some access to the Interstate 10 freeway here because there are still big trucks and cars blocking the road.

We did just confirm that some of the roads are being reopened. But the three major roads into Palm Springs are still closed. So some ways in because you can get in from other ways. But it is still a big mess here.

We did just see the owner of the small black car here, that is right in front of the white car, he was not driving. He was home. His car floated away. That's how it ended up here. It floated several hundred feet from where it was.

He just told us -- he didn't want to go on camera to give an interview. But he came by to take pictures of his car. Completely totaled. That's how I'm assuming the white car got here, too. You see the mud is up to halfway in the wheels.

The other car, though, Brianna, the black one, she's been sitting there for five hours. That's because she drove past a roadblock into the mud and got stuck. Exactly what they don't want you to do.

KEILAR: Yes, take note. That is a cautionary tale. We talked to you a couple hours ago, she was there then, she is still there.

Stephanie Elam, thank you so much for that report.

I'm joined by Brian Ferguson. He is the deputy director of crisis communication for California's Office of Emergency Services.

Brian, thank you so much for joining us.

We're seeing these pictures. Give us a sense of what you are dealing with right now. BRIAN FERGUSON, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CRISIS COMMUNICATION, CALIFORNIA

OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES: It's been a long busy night for us. Certainly, the worst of the storm has passed for most of our state.

There are many areas still seeing the secondary impacts of the water coming down from the hills and mountains. We're looking very closely at that for the rest of the day today.

No loss of life so far. Very minimal impact to residences. Those are good indictors to us at this point.

A lot of steps happened on the front end of this disaster to put first responders in place early to get people out of the communities that are most impacted.

And while there's certainly going to be a long clean-up effort underway, we're pretty pleased with where we are right now. And a lot of that goes into the preemptive work that happened in advance of this storm.

KEILAR: The preparation certainly sounding the alarm for people expecting this.

[14:55:00]

What are the ongoing risks that people should be aware of? You mentioned some of the secondary water still coming down.

FERGUSON: Yes, so this storm continues to make its way northward throughout our state. There is additional watches and warnings in place for northern California today.

We're keeping a very close eye on the burn scars. Places that wildfires have gone through in recent years. Any amount of water on these burn scars could lead to mud and debris flows, as you've seen.

And we want California to remember the role they play to keep themselves and their loved ones safe, as you identify, not driving around roadways. If told to evacuate, doing so early, and heeding the advice of first responders.

So far, so good. If we can get out of this without a loss of life, we'll feel very lucky. And that work will continue through the day into the night in California.

KEILAR: This historic storm is one of the few things that you all are dealing with there in California. Wildfires, snowfall this winter broke a 40-year record.

Do you have the resources to continue dealing with these record- breaking events?

FERGUSON: Certainly, this is a highly unusual event. The first cyclone we've had like this in close to 75 years.

We've been lucky under Gavin Newsom to make really big investments in this so we have some of the best resources for first responders any place in the country. Really sophisticated stuff that we think states can pick up on and take lessons from what we've learned here in recent years.

Our governor, if he could, he would be out clearing the road himself. That's how committed he is.

We have the resources at the state level. And we're also in almost constant communication with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

If there is federal assistance or resources that need to be brought in, we'll make that connection and bring those additional resources to help the folks get through this.

KEILAR: All right, Brian, thank you so much for joining us. We do appreciate it. And we wish you luck as you all are dealing with what mostly is a lot of clean-up. Thank you for being with us.

FERGUSON: Thank you so much.

KEILAR: And we are following a lot of breaking news so stay with us here at CNN NEWS CENTRAL.