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Trump Fundraising Off Arrest, Mug Shot After Booking; DA Prospects Oct. 23 Trial For Trump, 18 Co-Defendants; Cheseboro Asks For Speedy Trial; Judge Sets Oct. 23; Two Remaining Defendants Have Until Noon To Surrender. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 25, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Taking a little bit of a break. We have earned it.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: See you after Labor Day. CNN new Central is now.

[09:00:20]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The shot heard round the world, mug shot, that is. It is even -- it even has Donald Trump doing something he hasn't done in almost three years.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The final two co-defendants in this case have now less than three hours to surrender. Both tied to intimidating election workers. Overnight, five others turn themselves in.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The number of missing and fire scorched Maui has fallen significantly. Now officials are turning some of their attention to what started the fires. A new lawsuit is targeting Hawaii's Electric Company. I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: This morning a photo that has become the greatest political Rorschach test in history, the mug shot of a former president. "Dramatically unprecedented" says the New York Times, "A sinister apparition" over on MSNBC, "A masterclass in capitalizing on one's super villain era" on Business Insider, and "yet another extraordinary moment for Trump" reports Reuters. Indeed Donald Trump use this photo almost from the moment the flash bulb went off, it is part of a new fundraising e-mail. He even posted it on Twitter or X or whatever it is, which is no small thing. This is his first post since he was banned from the platform after the insurrection.

The Biden campaign since its own fundraising pitch overnight, titled apropos of nothing, and then said, I think today's a great day to give to my campaign. Now, they did not use the photo per se, but it was clearly hanging over everything. In fact, it's now seems more clear than ever, that this photo of inmate P01135809, the best lyric from Bliss Muse (ph), by the way, this photo will maybe literally but definitely figuratively be the centerpiece of the 2024 presidential campaign. For Trump, the legal battle is the campaign.

Trump is listed as 6'3", 215 pounds on the booking sheet. All of us who can dunk a basketball can see that the next big legal and campaign decision will be about the timing of all these cases against him, especially that now that one of his 18 co-defendants in Georgia is scheduled for trial in October, that is single digit weeks away. CNN's Zach Cohen is live outside the courthouse this morning.

You know, the action is not over there yet, not even close, Zach?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: No, John, it's been kind of a whirlwind 24 hours here in Atlanta. But you know, we saw a parade of witnesses -- or a parade of defendants and their lawyers here at the courthouse yesterday and then eventually surrendering before Donald Trump came down at the Fulton County jail down the street.

Now, look, we still have a lot of moving pieces in play here. And looking ahead, you know, the legal challenges for the district attorney, Fani Willis, as she tries to prosecute all 19 of these people, including the former president at the same time, are already starting to pop up. You mentioned that the trial date for one of these defendants, Ken Chesebro, who was a lawyer helping Trump at the time, that was set tentatively by a judge yesterday. But the judge made clear that that only applies to Chesebro and not the other 18 defendants who, again, Fani Willis said that she wants to try all together. So, we are starting to see maybe some cracks developing or at least complications developing in that effort to try them all together.

Now, we also know that there's several defendants that are trying to get this case moved to federal court, and among them is former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. He's arguing that, look, I was operating as a federal government employee at that time, I should, you know, the federal government -- or sorry, the Federal Court should throw this case out. Because of it, Fani Willis does not buy that argument. And she's arguing, no, you were a central player in this broader conspiracy to overturn the election, and therefore this case should stay in Atlanta.

So, we're already starting to see the legal challenges and the complications pop up with a sprawling RICO case like this. But you know, yesterday's action leading into more action looking ahead.

BERMAN: All right, Zachary Cohen, great to see you again. Yes, Trump did surrender. We see the mug shot. That's Mark Meadows right there. But we know for sure that next week comes some big legal moments as well, our thanks to you for that.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And also this morning, Donald Trump is already trying to capitalize on being the first person that -- a first that no one strives to be, which is the first U.S. president sitting or former to have their mug shot taken. The former president pushing out a fundraising appeal with his mug shot attached very quickly. Here's what he told reporters after he left the jail.

[09:05:08] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: What is taking place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. And everybody knows that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us from New Jersey this morning near Trump's Bedminster golf resort person.

Kristen, what else are we hearing from Donald Trump about all this now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, let's talk about that mug shot really fast, because I've talked to a number of advisors yesterday when they were still trying to figure out if he was going to actually have that mug shot taken, and many of them did not want that to happen. But once it became clear that they were in fact going to take a mug shot of the former president, they tried to shift the media narrative around it and use it to their advantage. We know that they had multiple conversations about how exactly he should pose for that mug shot. And they came up with this idea that you should not smile and instead look quote, unquote, "defiant." That is not surprising at all, as the former president cares very much about his image. And in fact, after he took this mug shot, after he looked, quote, unquote, "defiant," they put it out, as you said, into fundraisers.

They also posted it on Twitter or X formerly known as Twitter. This was a big deal. If you remember for months, there was speculation of whether or not former President Trump would ever get back on the platform. This was them trying to take control of the media narrative of the fact that he was the first president or former president to have his mug shot taken. And that is what Donald Trump's team likes to do.

Now, just to be clear, the president himself or former president is not happy about these arrests. He was not happy being processed. Take a listen to what he said yesterday after he went to the jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Terrible experience. I came in I was treated very nicely, but it is what it is. I took a mug shot, which I never heard the words mug shot that wasn't -- didn't teach me that at the Wharton School of Finance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, I'm sure that they did teach him mug shot at some point and he did know that word before yesterday, but it is clear from his voice and from people I've talked to who are close to him that he is exhausted by this, he is agitated by these cases. This is not something that he wants to spend his time doing. As we have reported, he wants to be running for president, he wants to be campaigning out there and talking about his poll numbers. But I do want to stress one thing and we talked about this a lot, that even with this fourth arrest, even with all of these looming charges, as of now he still is the front runner in the GOP primary field.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And only because I did not go to the Wharton School of Finance, do I know what mug shot -- a mug shot is. It's good to see you Kristen. Thank you so much. Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Joining us now to discuss is former Georgia State Senator Jen Jordan, and former Federal Prosecutor and CNN Legal Analyst, Elliot Williams. Thank you both for being here.

Elliot, I'm going to start with you. Kenneth Cheseboro has demanded a speedy trial, which was of course his legal right to do so. But Fani Willis has said, OK, we're going to do this in October, she set -- try to set that for the day. What significance here in this case being tried first?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure. You know, Cheseboro going first means that he waits may well get a trial before everybody else. But the mere fact that one defendant's trial is scheduled doesn't compel the court to be ready for all the other defendants. And here's why. Every defendant, no matter who they are, has a right to prepare for trial and be ready to -- you know, to be able to get ready for trial.

By forcing some of the other folks to trial, you could actually be jeopardizing some of their constitutional rights. And here's where you start to see cases or at least relationships between defendants' fray where they might have worked together or at least have been accused of working together on a criminal enterprise but they all have very different interests and different lawyers and different needs and some of them are going to start to break off. And I think Cheseboro won't be the first that you will see taking a position slightly different than the rest of the folks who were charged.

SIDNER: OK, I want to go over to you now, Jen. Look, politically speaking, when you look at this, there are -- there's the ex-head of the GOP in Georgia, you've got several Republicans, obviously you have the former president, who's Republican, is this having any kind of Fallout? Or are they just rallying around the troops when it comes to the Republicans in Georgia?

JEN JORDAN, (D) FORMER GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: There's no fallout. And one of the unindicted co-conspirators, number eight, is the current Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, Burt Jones. And, you know, all you have to do is go to X or Twitter or whatever you call it, and you can see sitting state senators, House representatives that are serving in Georgia that are actually going to social media and trying to attack Fani Willis, calling for a special session, saying they want to disbar her, which they don't even have the power to do. So it's one of those things where, you know, I've heard that this could be a pivot point for Republicans, especially in our state. But instead of taking advantage that and really thinking about the seriousness of the allegations in stepping back and taking a breath, they're actually going all in and following the former president's lead.

[09:10:09]

SIDNER: Except for, you see, people like Brad Raffensperger, who has really stood up. Is he facing consequences of that?

JORDAN: Well, what's interesting about Raffensperger is that if you talk to political types who looked at the number, really the only reason that he made it out of his primary was because 1,000s of Democrats actually voted in the Republican primary for reference burger. And they also did it with respect to the Governor Kemp, too. They got major kudos, you know, plus one credit for standing up to Trump. And that was how Raffensperger was able to get out of the Republican primary and then ultimately win by really one of the highest margins in the state.

SIDNER: All right, I'm going to go back to you, Elliot, to talk about some of the defenses that we are starting to hear come out of -- some of these 19 defendants, one of which Shawn Steel, who is one of the fake electors in Georgia is basically blaming Donald Trump for his actions, saying he was acting at the direction of the president. I have heard this before and many of the other trials, including the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys who were all convicted, but is this a defense that is workable here?

WILLIAMS: It's workable, but you're going to have to establish that you did not have the criminal intent in your mind to commit the offense, and we're acting specifically at someone's direction. Prosecutors will not have a very hard time, I think, establishing that each defendant number one was aware of the actions they were taking and number two was aware that the actions they were taking were incorrect. This idea that, well, I was, you know, just a simple country lawyer, I didn't quite know what I was doing and someone was directing me, sure it could work. But the weight of the evidence -- the -- all this evidence that has been presented against them sort of seems to debunk that. So, they can try it. It's defensive see from defendants quite often. But here, at least based on what's alleged, it doesn't look like that that works.

JORDAN: What's interesting about Shawn Steel is that he's a sitting state senator right now. And so, what's --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

JORDAN: -- going to happen with him is that there's this whole process now that has to happen with respect to the governor to make a determination whether he can continue to serve or not. And in terms of these filings in him pointing the finger at Trump too, you have to wonder if he's already given up on his political career anyway since he represents a deep red district.

SIDNER: That's a really interesting point, because if he goes after Trump to defend himself --

JORDAN: That's right.

SIDNER: -- the people that put him in office may not like that, because you're saying they're really rallying around Donald Trump and others. That is a really interesting point.

I do want to talk about the significance of this day, yesterday, where you have a former president going into a state jail, being having his picture taken, the picture is now out, and they are all fundraising off of it. Both he and the Biden administration, they are looking at this as a fundraising event. But tell me about the significance. You were in office, you were put there, so is he, the significance of all this is happening in America and how you sort of see it from your perspective?

JORDAN: I mean, it's jarring, I'll have to say. And I know some of the news reports have talked about how Trump and his advisers talked about what kind of facial expression he should make. You know, what should the picture look like? I mean, it's just ridiculous, right? Like, the idea that you are getting booked for serious conspiracy charges to overturn a presidential election and your main concern are the optics around it, because of your political campaign or whatever, it's just really sad.

And I think it speaks volumes in terms of where we are, there has to be a course correction in our country, politically on the ground, just so that we can survive as a democracy.

SIDNER: Those are really stark words that I thank you for saying them. Jen Jordan, thank you so much. And Elliot, always a pleasure to see you. Appreciate you.

WILLIAMS: Thanks.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: Right. New this morning, don't blame us, the Kremlin dismisses speculation that it was behind the plane crash believed to have killed the man who led the failed mutiny against Russia's military. And Maui, the government is suing Hawaii electric accusing the company of causing the devastating and deadly wildfires. And the controversial kiss that up ended a world championship, is an apology enough?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:44]

BOLDUAN: New this morning, the Kremlin is promising a full investigation saying all necessary examinations will take place to determine whether Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed in that fiery plane crash this week. But just as quickly, they're denying any involvement in the crash. Putin also is now offering his first comments on the presumed death of his one-time ally, calling Prigozhin a talented man who made serious mistakes in life. CNN's Matthew Chance is live in St. Petersburg with much more.

Matthew, what more are you learning?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, I mean, we're here at this makeshift memorial in St. Petersburg right outside the headquarters of Wagner in the city from where they ran all their operations. It's also the home city of both Yevgeny Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin is where the two men met in the 1990s. And there's all these flowers that have been laid. As people of the city come out and they pay their respects to Yevgeny Prigozhin even though it's not absolutely confirmed officially that he was on board that plane, he was on the passenger manifest, but they haven't done the proper genetic tests yet, the forensic test to make sure he was actually one of the bodies that have been recovered, but nevertheless, people are treating him and talking about him in the past tense. And this photograph here, the last known picture I think of Yevgeny Prigozhin saying in this -- in Russian, in this hell he was the best, and there's a picture of him there in what -- he was said to be in Africa.

[09:20:11]

Flowers as well patches that people put on the side of their Wagner uniforms. And a lot of the people that are coming out at the moment are Wagner members, people who respected Yevgeny Prigozhin as their commander, as they call them. Also family members of Wagner fighters as well who, you know, have got, you know, a very strong loyalty to the organization despite the fact that Wagner stage the biggest challenge to Vladimir Putin's authority in 23 years.

This is something I want to show you. It's a sledge hammer, really heavy, sledgehammer with Wagner written on it, a potent symbol, this tool, of the violence the organization used, because it was with a hammer like this that infamously Wagner executed someone it regarded as a traitor, they videoed it.

And that video image, that footage really consolidated the image of Wagner as utterly violent, utterly cruel, and an organization that would do anything to, you know, what they believe fight for their motherland, fight for Russia.

And that's one of the reasons why, along with the, you know, the two raids that Yevgeny Prigozhin launched against the military establishment in Russia, saying it was incompetence, saying it was waging the war in Ukraine very poorly, without proper resources and being corrupt. It struck a chord with many Russians.

And it's why we're seeing people come out now in St. Petersburg, but also in Moscow, and other cities around Russia to pay their respects. And so, you know, he's -- he seems -- he's not confirmed as dead yet, officially, but I mean, everyone sort of believes that he is.

And the question is really, you know, has he become a martyr? Will encourage further -- will his death encourage further opposition to the authorities? Or will this become just another forgotten chapter in the very turbulent recent history of Russia?

BOLDUAN: Matthew Chance in St. Petersburg. Thank you so much for being there, Matthew.

And John, it's so strange to see such delicate things as like a memorial with flowers and even a teddy bear there for a man known for such violence and cruelty like Yevgeny Prigozhin completely separate from an investigation going on of what happened in that crash.

BERMAN: How about that sledgehammer?

BOLDUAN: Right?

BERMAN: And how amazing is it, I have to say to have Matthew Chance right there. Such a wonderful report.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Such an important perspective right now.

Now Pentagon officials believe Prigozhin was likely killed in that plane crash, but say there was no indication it was a missile that down the plane. Among the possibilities, U.S. officials are still evaluating an onboard explosive device. Our Oren Liebermann is at the Pentagon. You know, missile onboard explosive device, you know, distinction, maybe without a difference there, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: There is nothing that has been ruled out yet fully in terms of what may have caused this crash, except at this point, according to officials, we've spoken with a surface to air missile. And it's because you see that open question that it touches on something Matthew Chance spoke about, and that's the Russian investigation, having spoken with several officials here, there is healthy skepticism of that investigation, as the U.S. intelligence community looks at all the available information and tries to come to their own conclusion and they have reached at least based on early assessments and early indications some conclusions.

First, in terms of what took down this private jet, an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft, perhaps one of the obvious answers would have been a surface to air missile, especially so close to Moscow where there are air defenses. But officials we've spoken with say there was no indication of a missile launch at the time of the crash, not a surface to air missile or an air to air missile. As you pointed out, John, DoD confirming just yesterday they do believe Prigozhin killed in that crash. The U.K. also saying it looks likely, and so converging on that conclusion.

BERMAN: And as you say, healthy skepticism on the Russian investigation itself. That might be the understatement of the century. Any other scenarios being looked at here besides onboard explosive?

LIEBERMANN: That's one of the big ones. Whether it was onboard explosive device or an onboard explosion, those two are still viable possibilities that are being looked at based on early assessments and early indications. Again, the intelligence community going through all the data and information and intelligence they have to try to figure this one out. But it's obvious to say that it's difficult without having boots on the ground in Russia.

One of the other things being looked at, we've reported that the last couple minutes of the flight, the last little bit showed erratic changes in altitude, climbs, dissents above and below the 28,000 that the jet was cruising at right before it crashed, does that indicate something happened on board also a possibility being looked at.

BERMAN: All right, Oren Liebermann, thank you so much for your reporting. Appreciate it as always.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, despite adding an arrest to his criminal record, Donald Trump is still leading the pack when it comes to Republican presidential candidate. But can that support be enough to win the general election in November 2024? We'll dig into that coming up.

[09:25:09]

Also, a Florida elementary school principal and teacher are placed on administrative leave after conducting an assembly for only black students on low standardized test scores. How the parents of the students are responding this morning. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Time is ticking for Trump's co-defendants after former President Donald Trump was processed and released in Georgia. Yesterday there were three more Co-defendants who surrendered. Among them, Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department official indicted after trying to overturn the election.