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Judge: All Trump Court Proceedings To Be Televised, Livestreamed; Trump Asks To Sever Case From Co-Defendants Wanting Speedy Trial; Ukrainian Drones Target Moscow And Kursk Regions. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 01, 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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[11:00:44]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for remarks by President Biden this hour. That's after a better than expected August jobs report. His message for the American people while inflation and rate hike concerns still loom large.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: So we don't know exactly when Donald Trump's trial in Georgia will begin, but we now know that when it does, the world is going to be watching the proceedings live. How cameras allowed in the courtroom could impact the case.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And it's not just Friday, it is the Friday just before the long Labor Day weekend, and record travel is expected for Summer's unofficial end. I'm Kate Bolduan with Rahel Solomon and Boris Sanchez. This is CNN News Central.

SANCHEZ: Right now, we're waiting to find out if a federal judge will allow Donald Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to move his Georgia election subversion case from state to federal court, a decision that could have major implications on how this case plays out. And it comes as the former president is trying to keep his trial from starting as early as October, when some of his co-defendants are hoping to start theirs.

Court filings show his legal team is asking to sever his case from those co-defendants, one of them the architect of the fake electors plot, Kenneth Chesebro. This morning, he pleaded not guilty and waived his right to an arraignment hearing that was originally scheduled for next Wednesday. Now he wants a judge to force Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to speed up the turnover of discovery evidence ahead of his October 23rd trial date.

Trump, of course, pleaded not guilty in that case yesterday as well. CNN political correspondent Sara Murray has been following all the latest details for us. So Sara, let's start with the former President. Bring us up to speed with what he's attempting to accomplish with this latest filing.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in trying to sever his case from his various co-defendants, Trump's attorney Steven Sadow made very clear that Donald Trump has no interest in going to trial in October of this year and says that Trump will not be ready, and it would violate his fair trial rights to put him on that kind of timetable.

Now, we're also expecting at some point the Trump team is going to try to move his case to federal court. They haven't done so yet, perhaps because they're waiting to see how this whole Mark Meadows gambit plays out. But that would have a big impact in terms of the jury pool and also in terms of what we get to see because cameras are not allowed in federal court the way that they are in state court.

Now, all of this comes as Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 13 charges that he is facing in this case. It is now the fourth time Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty in a criminal case that he has faced since leaving office. And he also, as you pointed out, waived his right to an arraignment. So we will not be seeing Donald Trump in a courtroom next week, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Sara, let's talk about another recent filing, this one coming from Ray Smith, one of the co-defendants in the case. He wants to be divvied up into manageable portions, all the different co- defendants that Fani Willis is prosecuting.

MURRAY: Yes, he's essentially begging the judge for some order, for some management of this case, you know. He's pointed out that there are 19 defendants in this case, that there is this widespread racketeering case that Fani Willis has brought, that she has all of these acts that happened in Georgia, as well as acts that took place in other states. And he's asking the judge in state court to sort of split these folks up into manageable groups.

Now, he doesn't propose a way to do that, so it's sort of unclear exactly what he's asking the judge for. But you could envision a situation where there are a handful of people. We've now seen Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell who do want to do the speedy trial route. They are ready to go to trial in the next couple of months. There may be others who want to move ahead on a later schedule in state court and, of course, still others who may be moving to federal court. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Sara Murray, a lot to get through. Thank you so much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And on this very topic, Trump's legal defense in Georgia will be on display for all to see now that we have heard from the Fulton County judge overseeing the case there. The judge just ruled that all courtroom proceedings related to the election subversion case will be televised and live streamed. But there is also more. That decision would not apply to any portion of the case that's moved to federal court. And if you -- and as you well know, Donald Trump is expected to request that his entire case get moved out of Georgia and into federal court.

[11:05:16]

CNN's Oliver Darcy, he joins us now with more on this decision by the judge to have the proceedings live streamed and on T.V. How big of a deal is this, Oliver?

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: It's a huge deal, Kate. I mean, it's a huge win for court transparency advocates who have said that the public has a right to see this historic trial streamed, live and televised. You know, this is going to go down in the history books. And so allowing people to watch in real time will allow them to also see the evidence against Donald Trump in real time. It's going to be probably the most watched trial ever. I mean, it's hard to see how it's not.

And it's also, I think, the move to stream this live. It's going to help stem the flow of misinformation. I mean, when you talk about Donald Trump, you're always talking about misinformation, conspiracy theories that him and his allies peddle. Allowing the public to see it in real time will help with that, because in the absence of seeing this with your own eyes, there is a void. And in that void, that's usually where conspiracy theories and misinformation thrive.

And so, you know, streaming it live, allowing newsrooms to have videos so they can go fact check things in real time, I think will be very helpful in the efforts of conveying to the public exactly what's happening in the courtroom. Kate?

BOLDUAN: An interesting aspect of all of this. It's good to see you, Oliver. Thank you. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Donald Trump's co-defendants are facing a lengthy and expensive legal battle in the Georgia election interference case, and they say they are struggling to pay for it. The former president isn't helping them with their legal bills, and a source says they haven't asked them to, but they are having to get creative to pay for their defense.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has been following this for us. Kristen, obviously, a legal defense like this could cost a hefty sum. How are they going to pay for it?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris. That's right. And just to be clear here, former President Trump has paid the bills of many of his aides and advisors and employees, both current and former, in both the January 6th Committee investigation as well as those federal investigations.

And so much so that the Save America PAC, which has been footing these legal bills, has spent more than $41 million since 2021, that is an extraordinary fee. But obviously, when it comes to Georgia, that is not the case. And as you said, we are told that even with all these grumblings about these defendants not having their bills paid by Donald Trump, no one has formally asked him yet.

However, they are coming up with these creative ways to raise money, and one of them is crowdfunding. We know at least four of the co- defendants have started crowdfunding. That includes Jenna Ellis, one of his attorneys, John Eastman, another election attorney, Jeffrey Clark, who is that DOJ official at the center of much of this, and Cathy Latham, who is a fake elector in Georgia. The other thing we have heard is that Rudy Giuliani, his family, his son, has helped create a PAC, Political Action Committee, to help pay his legal bills. So, Donald Trump is helping a little bit with Giuliani, not necessarily footing the bill. However, he is hosting a fundraiser at his Bedminster resort next week. That is $100,000 a person, and he is considered the headliner there.

But again, these are going to be very big bills. And one of his co- defendants actually spent a week in jail because he couldn't afford an attorney. Boris?

SANCHEZ: And Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. Rahel?

SOLOMON: All right, Boris, let's continue the conversation and bring in CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers. Jennifer, good morning. Good to have you. So let's start with a lot here. Let's start with some of these motions to sever their trials from one another. If you were DA Fani Willis, what would you do?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, DA Fanny Willis doesn't want to try this many, many times. She's going to have to take these two defendants who sought speedy trial to trial in October or soon thereafter, because legally, she has to do that. But she wants to minimize the number of trials here. And if Mark Meadows wins his bid to have this case in federal court, that's a whole another trial that's going to include him and maybe others in federal court.

So she's looking to break this into as the smallest number of pieces she can. I think she's probably going to go to court and suggest a trial date for the 17 remaining defendants a few months out and then probably propose that they see how many defendants plead out between now and the months before that date approaches and try to get it into as few trials as possible. It's a very resource intensive case, takes a long time to try. So I think that's what she's going to do.

SOLOMON: Sara Murray was just talking about the request from Ray Smith's team to sort of create a more bite sized, manageable group of defendants that are being tried. But if you were trying a RICO case, I mean, walk me through some of the disadvantages of having bite sized cases as opposed to trying them in a more larger organized fashion.

[11:10:13]

RODGERS: These cases are still going to be a pretty big bite, Rahel. It's a RICO case, meaning they have to prove the existence of the enterprise, the conspiracy, and its overt acts. So they're going to be decent size no matter what you do. But this defendant is right. You can't try 19 or even 17 defendants together. A lot of them will plead out. So if I'm Fani Willis, I say, OK, judge, yes, let's set an additional trial date.

We can't do this in less than two trials, but let's not cut it down too much now, because a lot of these defendants will plead out, and we hopefully will end up with a group that can go to trial without breaking it into five or six trials now. That's what I would propose. But all parties are interested in breaking this down in some fashion. There is going to have to be a severance here. The question is, how many severances at this stage of the game?

SOLOMON: Yes. Jennifer, as you know, Kenneth Chesebro, one of the defendants who sought that speedy trial, and DA Fani Willis saying, OK, I'll match you. I got your speedy trial, but also saying that at least the team for Kenneth Chesebro is saying that Fani Willis hasn't released her discovery to the defense team. She's not ready yet. If you're ready to go to trial but not ready to release discovery, walk me through some of the reasons why that would be.

RODGERS: Well, this is a big case. There are a lot of defendants. There's a lot of evidence. It just takes time to get that organized. But she's got to get moving. I mean, they have to be ready for trial, this defendant and Sidney Powell also, I'm surprised they've pushed for this. It seems to me it's going to be very hard for them to get ready for this, even if they had the discoveries we sit here today.

So even though it's a big lift, she's got to put as many people as it takes on the project of getting these two defendants who are going to trial in October, their discovery right away. They really do need that to have a chance at a fair trial. So I think she'll push to get it done.

SOLOMON: Yes. Another major motion we're watching, of course, is what happens with Mark Meadows. I mean, does he have his motion requested to move to federal court? You say he actually has the best case or the best chance of the defendants of moving this to federal court. If, in fact, this is approved, does that necessarily mean that others might be successful as well?

RODGERS: Well, he does have the best shot. So even if he stays in federal court, it's not a given that others will succeed as well. But they'll at least have a chance. I think if his bid to get into federal court is denied, no one else will get into federal court. He really does have the strongest case as a former federal official who really was following orders from his boss at least a lot of the time. So it's kind of a gateway thing.

If he loses, I think everyone else will lose. If he wins, some might get in. And that, remember, is not just better for them in terms of the defenses they can raise and the likelihood of winning in federal court. That's a whole another trial that Fani Willis and her team are then going to have to do. So logistically, it's a headache as well as meaning they have a greater chance of success if they do get into federal court.

SOLOMON: And then I guess just to put a button on it, I mean, if that was in fact approved, his trial would not be televised like what we are likely to now see in Georgia.

RODGERS: Yes. And that's not so important to the prosecutors. I mean, they have to go about their business no matter whether their cameras in the courtroom or not. But it would be a big blow for the rest of us, right, and for transparency. I think people need to see these cases, need to see this evidence. We're voting for the presidency on a man who has tried to steal the last election, at least his prosecutors alleged and they plan to show. So it's really important we see that evidence. The move into federal court, of course, there still would be defendants in state court and some of that evidence would come out there, but it really would be a big blow for people to be able to see what happened here.

SOLOMON: Jennifer Rodgers great to have your expertise and insight. Thank you. Kate?

BOLDUAN: We are standing by right now to hear from President Biden from the White House. He's going to offer up his take on the state of the U.S. economy following this morning's new monthly jobs report. We will take you there live when he begins.

[11:14:08]

Plus, Ukraine stepping up drone attacks against Russia and now reporting that their forces are edging closer to Russia's front line. The state of Ukraine's counter offensive is next. We'll be back.

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BOLDUAN: Ukraine stepping up its drone attacks on Russia today, hitting both Moscow and the Kursk region in western Russia. And take a look at this new aerial image that we have coming in. It shows at least two aircraft damaged after a drone attack on a Russian air base earlier this week. Russia says that it won't comment on claims by Ukraine that the attack was launched from inside Russia.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in Kyiv. She's joining us now. And Christiane, you were able to speak with Ukraine's foreign minister about the counteroffensive. How does he describe it?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, he says it's going according to, you know, progress and it's going pretty well given all the constraints. And particularly the fact, and let's face it, that so many of the major necessary weapons systems were delivered too late for this counteroffensive. That is what I'm hearing from not only local commanders, but also American generals, NATO generals, others formers, obviously.

And so he was also saying that it's really unfair. He actually said, the armchair warriors, the, you know, Monday morning quarterbackers who are busy grumbling in public about the pace of this offensive are, quote, spitting in the eye of Ukrainian soldiers who are sacrificing their lives to win back territory and for their existence.

[11:20:19]

And he also said they should shut up, those were his words, and see how they would do any better coming to liberate territory with no air cover, with none of the major stuff who actually need in this battle to actually progress. Clearly they have a lot of weaponry from the west, but they always need more if they're going to punch through in the pace that everybody expects. So this is what he told me. He said it's going according to plan so far.

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DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: If Ukraine was failing, I would probably be the first one to speak the truth. But we are not failing. We are moving forward. We liberated thousands of square kilometers of our land through minefields with no air coverage.

How does it feel when you come back from your mission and you take back your phone, you open it and you start reading all these smart people saying how slow you are and that you are not doing well enough. You just lost two of your bodies. You were almost killed. You crawled 1 kilometer your belly demining the field. You sacrificed yourself. You took the damned Russian trench in a fierce fight. And then you read someone saying, oh guys, you are too slow.

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AMANPOUR: So you can hear the anger and the anguish in those comments. Kuleba, the foreign minister's just come back from meeting with European counterparts. And also what's happening is the major military drones, which you alluded to at the beginning, that are going in far into Russian territory.

Now, the intelligence service here, the Defense Intelligence Service, have said that this happened, I assume by saboteurs or like-minded people from inside Russia. And he said their aim is to take the fight to Russia and to try to tie Russia up in this whole drone, you know, offensive that's going on. So there's a lot happening in this fight right now. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. And Christiane, I wanted to ask you about kind of the increase in drone attacks and activity because right along the lines of, well, I guess what you called those, you know, Monday morning quarterbacking about the counter offensive, there has been some questioning from American intelligence officials, American military members questioning the focus on the use of drone attacks kind of in a similar fashion. What more were you hearing about why the focus is there?

AMANPOUR: Well, the focus is there from what we gather, because it's cheap and it's effective. I was at a training center, I'm not allowed to say where in Ukraine this week, and I saw civilians being recruited. I mean, I'm talking about film writers, screen writers, directors, you know, teachers, men and women being recruited to convert and repurpose civilian drones, stuff you can buy off a store shelf and to send them into the battle because they are really cheap, and they can be very effective if they're properly weaponized.

They can, you know, carry arms IE bombs up to about 2 kilograms, and that can take out a tank, as we saw in video they showed us, can take out troop carriers, can, you know, make damage on troops who are actually in trenches. So these are important weapons to be used now, and they're being used as much as possible in as big and broad a swath of the 600 miles front line. It's tough work.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Yes. And remembering that 600 miles front line is an important part of talking about all of this that they're up against. It's great to see you, Christiane. Thank you for being there. Thank you so much. Rahel?

SOLOMON: All right, Kate. Still ahead for us, $50 million, that is what the Super PAC backing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is asking for in an urgent plea to donors. What clues does this give us about the state of his campaign?

[11:24:03]

Also, Senator Mitch McConnell cleared to keep working. That's after a second freezing episode while speaking to reporters what the Senate position has to say about his health. We'll be right back.

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SANCHEZ: The Capitol physician has cleared Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to continue working after the 81-year-old froze while speaking with reporters. Wednesday's incident was the second time he froze that way in barely a month. But even with medical clearance, questions are swirling about the longtime Republican leader's political future, forcing him to reach out to allies and donors alike to assure them that he can still do the job. CNN's Melanie Zanona joins us now live from Washington. So, Melanie, take us through what the physician said about McConnell.

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Yes. So the Capitol physician said he consulted with both Mitch McConnell and his neurology team and determined that he was medically clear and OK to go back to work. And he also said that lightheadedness, which is something that McConnell's team attributed to his freezing episode, is actually rather common among people who have suffered concussions, like Mitch McConnell did earlier this year.

[11:29:49]

But other than that, it doesn't reveal a whole lot of information. I think the notable thing here, Boris, is that Mitch McConnell's team released this statement to begin with, because after his first freezing episode, they wouldn't even say whether he saw a doctor or got any medical treatment.