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Trump Civil Defamation Trial Adjourns for Day Duet to Sick Juror; Trump, Haley Battle for NH Voters in First in the Nation Primary. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 22, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:01:32]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with breaking news for you. The E. Jean Carroll defamation trial was just adjourned for the entire day here in New York. CNN's chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid is joining us now. Paula, what happened? Donald Trump is there. He is not in New Hampshire where the primaries about to start in the next 24 hours. What's going on in court?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: All right, so I'm only reading live updates from our colleague, Sara, who are inside the courtroom. And they say that the judge sent home a juror who felt sick on their way to court this morning, so court is going to be adjourned for the day. Now, the judge also said that Alina Habba and one of her associates, so it's former President Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, tested negative for COVID.

But she tested because she said that she had dinner with her parents three days ago and now they have COVID. Now, Habba also said she has a fever and isn't feeling well. But so far she has not tested positive. Now our reporter inside the court says she does not appear to be wearing a mask. She's also sitting right next to her client, former President Trump.

Now, the judge did give them an option to proceed with just eight jurors. But E. Jean Carroll's lawyer said that would be fine. But the Trump team said that they wanted an adjournment for the day. So it appears that there will be no testimony today. They're sending the jury home. And again, the big anticipation today was will former President Trump take the stand.

Now, Sara, this is a damages trial. It just relates to possible money that E. Jean Carroll could be paid for defamatory statements that Trump has made about her. So Trump's value, his utility as a witness is very narrow. And the judge has already put restrictions on what he would be able to say if he took the stand.

Now, as we've seen, though, most of the rules that apply in this federal courtroom, Trump just has not abided by. He has been disruptive when E. Jean Carroll was testifying. The judge or reprimanded him from that -- for that, and then again reprimanded him the second time suggesting that he could be thrown out of court.

We've also seen his lawyer, Sara, Alina Habba, not following some of the basic rules of federal evidence. And again, that we're getting into it with the judge once he says look, that's not how you introduce a piece of evidence. They then sort of take these dramas that in many ways, Sara, feel manufactured because these are the rules that apply to everyone in a federal courtroom in a federal case, and then they go and they suggest that this entire process has been unfair.

And, you know, look, intelligent minds have disagreed about whether they think Trump will take the stand here, but getting on the stand could provide another opportunity for him to reach voters and engage in this routine getting in disputes with the judge.

So certainly not going to happen today because court is adjourned. It's unclear when court will be back in session because again, there are some COVID concerns apparently inside this courtroom, as well as a juror who didn't feel well, though it's unspecified exactly what that juror was dealing with.

SIDNER: Yes, I just wanted to reiterate, you said that his attorney, her parents had COVID, tested positive.

REID: Yes.

SIDNER: She has tested negative but she has had a fever. And then you have a juror on top of that who was feeling ill so the judge decided that this was not the day to have court. We will be checking in with you and checking in often to see what happens next, but for the day, this case is over and adjourned. Paula Reid, thank you so much. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that's a twist, joined now by former Manhattan prosecutor Jeremy Saland and CNN senior legal analyst and former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig. Elie, let me start with you. You are one of the attorneys for Donald Trump. You are presented with the opportunity to have this go on today with a sick juror, you say no.

[10:05:03]

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Here's why. There are nine jurors on this jury. You need a unanimous verdict against you. In order to proceed today, they would be proceeding with less than nine jurors with eight jurors, seven jurors, whatever, however many are sick, you would take out. You have to have at least six in a civil case. If I'm Donald Trump, I want as many jurors as possible because more jurors means more people who could come back in my favor.

If one person is in Trump's favor, you're not going to have a verdict, you're going to have a hung jury. And so if I'm Trump's lawyer, just doing the math, more jurors, more chances for me to get a hung jury. So I would say, your honor, let's take the day off. Let's try to get everyone back healthy. We'll come back tomorrow.

BERMAN: Jeremy, you know, how does it feel to be an attorney in a courtroom like this situation? You got all week to plan. You've been, you know, typing up your notes, preparing your speech, all of a sudden, it's like, wa-wa.

JEREMY SALAND, FORMER MANHATTAN PROSECUTOR: It's deflating. But if they're prepared, which no doubt that they are, meaning E. Jean Carroll's attorneys, absolutely, they're ready to go, whether it's today, tomorrow or the next day. And they're preparing, sure not that Trump is going to testify whether Trump testifies, we know it's certainly not happening today. I don't expect that he will. But crazier things have happened. We know Trump has said he will in the past. And he doesn't. We know Trump said that Mexico is going to pay for the wall and they didn't.

So Trump does and says things that do not come to fruition. And he will use, as Paula said in the past, and recently, this is his ability to share with his potential constituents and his primary voters, I've been wrong. Look at what's happening to me.

BERMAN: Well, this was one of his final campaign stuff for the New Hampshire primary tomorrow and the possibility of him on the stand causing some kind of explosion hours before people showed up to vote, you've got to believe that that may have been what they were after?

HONIG: Yes, I mean, I think look, I think we're clear on the fact that any effort by Donald Trump to testify in this case is largely maybe entirely driven by politics. I mean, legally speaking, there's no reason for Donald Trump to take the stand. All he's allowed to testify about here is E. Jean Carroll's damages. What would Donald Trump know about what happened to E. Jean Carroll's reputation or career?

I mean, it's almost entirely irrelevant. And the judge realizes that. That's why Judge Kaplan has said, I'm not going to prevent you from taking the stand. But if you do, there's very little you can testify about. So I think Donald Trump has been approaching this whole trial and to varying extents, the other ones as a political opportunity.

BERMAN: How active will Judge Kaplan be during Donald Trump's testimony?

SALAND: Well, we use this term before, tight leash, tight rope, there's no doubt that this is not Judge Engoron and not to put down on Judge Engoron. But this will be and is a different trial at a federal court. And I expect unequivocally that that leash is going to be tight and short. Does that mean that Judge Kaplan would hold Donald Trump in contempt summarily, because he does something there right in front of the court? Maybe not, but there will be a warning or two and if it continues, we could see something happened whether that's a fine or something else.

BERMAN: All right, Jeremy, Elie, standby for a second. Listen in if you will. I want to go back to Paula Reid. She's got some more information, more reporting what's going on inside the courtroom. Paula?

REID: So John, again, I'm reading updates from our colleagues who are inside the court because we have no cameras so our colleagues are reporting live. They said that Trump's attorney, Alina Habba, just said that Trump does plan to testify, but that he can't be in court tomorrow, because of the New Hampshire primary. She said that he would testify Wednesday.

Now the judge said he's not going to decide this right now. But something that we've seen previously in this case is that Judge Kaplan has not been willing to adjourn court or move things around because of Trump's schedule. We saw Alina Habba try this last week, with the funeral for Trump's mother-in-law last Thursday. Habba ask for an adjournment on that day so that Trump could attend the funeral and not miss a day of court.

And the judge did not allow that. The judge said, look, you have a right to be represented here, either by counsel or in person. No one's interfering with that. If you want to go to the funeral, go to the funeral, but I'm not going to move court round. Now, interestingly, Kaplan said to Habba, he said circumstances may result in you getting what you asked for maybe not.

Now it appears that he said, they have people have been exposed to COVID. It's possible that this whole thing might have to be delayed until Wednesday anyway. But what we've seen so far is that Kaplan has not been terribly accommodating of the scheduling requests. I will also note that Trump did not attend a single minute of the defamation and sex abuse case back in the spring.

But now that we are in the height of campaign season, he has been showing up quite a bit. Now, we don't have any other, it looks like Trump and E. Jean Carroll are both adjured because the judge sent home a sick juror.

BERMAN: All right, Paula Reid. That was a lot. Thank you very much for that.

Back with Jeremy Saland and Elie Honig. So Elie, the judge saying, I'm not going to guarantee that you -- if you want to testify, you don't have to do it tomorrow, even if the New Hampshire primaries tomorrow, but you might get what you want because there's a sick juror.

HONIG: Yes. So judges do have a lot of discretion when it comes to scheduling and adjustments. And candidly, by the way, if there's a death in the family, most judges would adjourn for a party and say go to the funeral come back the next day. Judge Kaplan was not willing to do that last week because he said you have the option. You're a party. It's a civil case. Criminal case defendant has to be there but he said civil case you can choose to be here or not be here.

[10:10:10]

But if you're testifying, you do have to be there physically, right? So it's a little bit of a different calculation here for Judge Kaplan. It sounds to me based on what Paula said that the judge who I know I've appeared in front of a bunch of times is leaning, given that we're talking about the defendants ability to testify and potential just practical issues about who's sick with what. So that I think is the more likely scenario but Judge Kaplan does not have to do that.

BERMAN: But your day job, you wouldn't be able to get out of it if your day job were, you know, a janitor, right? Donald Trump's day job right now is running for president. In theory, that shouldn't be enough to have them reschedule the court calendar.

SALAND: Anybody who says Donald Trump is being treated differently than another American citizen is absolutely correct. But likely for the wrong reason, meaning he's getting an advantage and a benefit that many of us would never even consider from a judge will receive. He's absolutely getting that wide range to do what he needs to do to pursue his politics, more so than any of us would ever have that opportunity.

BERMAN: All right, Jeremy Saland, Elie Honig, thanks for being here for all this activity or not activity. Really appreciate it. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to show you now live pictures out of New Hampshire. Nikki Haley will soon be right there meeting with voters less than 24 hours before the polls open in this critical primary contest. Now with Ron DeSantis out of the race, how does it change things for Haley and Trump in New Hampshire?

And new attacks in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Iranian-backed militias claiming responsibility for one attack that injured Americans at an Iraqi airbase. We got new details.

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[10:16:15]

SIDNER: Right now, Nikki Haley is about to take the stage at a campaign event in New Hampshire where in less than 24 hours, voters will decide if she has any chance of beating Donald Trump. After just one nominating contest, the once crowded GOP field has narrowed to a head to head matchup between Donald Trump and his former Ambassador Haley. Ron DeSantis called it quits over the weekend, suspending his campaign and putting his backing behind Donald Trump. Omar Jimenez is joining us now from Manchester, New Hampshire where it is cold but they're used to it there. Give us a lowdown on what's going on this morning.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, the sun's out. It's gotten a little bit better. So but yes, this morning it was really, really cold. I mean, look, this is what Nikki Haley wanted. After Iowa, she declared this a two person race despite DeSantis still being in at that point. Now it is truly a reality. And this announcement came as a surprise to many people. And we're standing here because as you can see behind me, the Super PAC supporting DeSantis still has their bus here in New Hampshire. And it really is a remnant of what was.

The engine is running. So maybe it too, will leave town shortly here. But look, moving forward. Nikki Haley has this two person race that we wanted. The question is, what will she do with it? Because of course, the odds are stacked against her. She has been having a flurry of campaign events across this state. She has been campaigning here for 11 months or so. And she hasn't been shy about mentioning it in her campaign events.

And in recent days, she has trained her attention that more directly on the former president, not just on the current one, as well. And obviously it leaves a lot of people questioning what is going to happen next over this entire primary process with some already questioning is this primary over. Take a listen to what Nikki Haley said this morning on that topic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know the political class wants to say that this race is over. And I know the political class is saying everybody needs to get behind Trump. This is not a coronation. You don't do coronations. A democracy is about giving people options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And that goes right in theme of what she has said over the past 24 hours that she is a fighter. She intends to fight through this primary process as long as she can. But her campaign is already starting to temper expectations in the state saying a strong second place finish here would still be considered a victory for them. Sara?

SIDNER: And we know, Omar, that she is supposed to be speaking in the next few minutes. And when she does, we will bring that to you live. Appreciate you. Stay warm. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Keeping an eye on that event that Nikki Haley is going to be speaking at any moment. Now joining us also right now is Lanhee Chen, former public policy director for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and Sarah Matthews, she was a former deputy press secretary in Donald Trump's White House. Good to see you both. We're going to keep an eye on that campaign event for Nikki Haley in New Hampshire. And while we do, Lanhee, from your experience, how much of a challenge? How hard is it to close the gap that we see between Haley and Trump in New Hampshire?

LANHEE CHEN, FORMER PUBLIC POLICY DIRECTOR FOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, you know, the big issue, Kate, is that the New Hampshire because you're appealing to Republicans, but as it's been covered extensively on the network, your independent voters. And so the challenge and the close is really how do you have a message that appeals to both? How do you have a message that both talks to people who, for example, may have voted for Donald Trump four years ago or eight years ago, but yet maybe considering an alternative?

And at the same time, appeal to those sorts of folks who are not Republicans who really may in fact be voting in some ways to stop Donald Trump. So you've got to figure out how to have a message that appeals to all those folks. And the polling as we've seen has been a little bit all over the map. I mean we know Nikki Haley's got some ground and makeup. But I do think she has an opportunity if she can have that overarching message.

[10:20:13]

BOLDUAN: Yes. Sarah, I want to play something for you. Because Donald Trump this weekend, he confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, during a campaign event repeatedly saying Nikki Haley when he clearly was trying to talk about Nancy Pelosi, I'll play it and we'll get to it. This is gets to Nikki Haley's jumping all over this, as she says it gets to his mental acuity -- his mental fitness, if you will. Listen to this.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And the press never reports the crowds, you know. By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6th. You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know, they -- did you know, they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything? Deleted and destroyed all of it, all of it. Because of lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don't want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Sarah, you see that and you hear what?

SARAH MATTHEWS, FORMER DEPUTY PRESS SECY. IN TRUMP WH: Honestly, the thing is, this is not a unique circumstance. This isn't the first time that Trump has kind of seemed confused on the campaign trail, and had a gaffe like this. He said something before recently about him running against Obama. And obviously that never happened. And so this is not unique. And it is a little bit concerning.

And I do think that Nikki Haley was right to call this out. I kind of wish that she had brought up these attacks sooner questioning Trump's mental acuity because this is something obviously we've seen her and other Republicans like Trump go after Biden for. But obviously Trump is, you know, not that much younger than Biden. He's definitely no spring chicken. And so I think it's fair to question his mental acuity in when you have these kinds of moments like this, where he definitely seemed very confused.

BOLDUAN: Lanhee, I want to play something very different for you from New Hampshire's Governor Chris Sununu. He's endorsed and campaigned very hard for Nikki Haley. And he was on CNBC this morning. This gets to a little bit of setting expectations ahead of tomorrow. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): She had a strong finish tonight. We want -- the real goal is just to keep building on that so she can take more momentum into her home state of South Carolina, where they'll be three or four weeks or something like that, between New Hampshire and South Carolina State where as a former governor, she's won. New Hampshire has never been a must win state for Nikki Haley. No one has ever said that. She just needs to show a lot of success and momentum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Lanhee, he says that and you hear what?

CHEN: Well, you know, obviously, this is all about expectations. Anytime you're talking about where a candidate finishes, you know, you don't want to set an expectation that's too high because obviously, if she doesn't meet that the pressure on her to get out is going to be enormous. It'll be enormous, probably regardless. But I think she's doubled her vote share in New Hampshire over the last couple of weeks, first of all.

And second of all, South Carolina is her home state. Now, if she cannot compete in South Carolina, you know, then it is I think game over. But the reality is between now and then there is a certain amount of time when I think she wants to stay in the game. And I do think a second place a strong second place finish in New Hampshire will give her that. I think that's certainly true.

BOLDUAN: I was just saying there's some new reporting from the Haley campaign spokesperson saying that Nikki Haley's campaign raised $500,000. And it's growing from grassroots donors online in less than -- in the less than 24 hours following Ron DeSantis getting out in and suspending his campaign. And Sarah, he drops out he immediately endorses Donald Trump. Trump saying on "Fox" this morning, it's highly unlikely he's going to pick Ron DeSantis for his running mate in light of all of this. How are these endorsements and this kind of support, how does -- how is it viewed within Trump world and from Donald Trump, I'm curious?

MATTHEWS: I think that Trump knows that people are going to fall in line and endorse him ultimately, because they either, A, are hoping that they'll get picked for a V.P. or cabinet position. Or B, they just know that politically, they kind of have too. I mean, with Ron DeSantis, for example, you know, Trump mocked and belittled him for over the last year. And Ron DeSantis, still fell in line and is kissing the ring, because I think he's looking ahead to 2028. He's thinking, OK, well, this didn't pan out. But if I want to have a political career moving forward, all signs are pointing toward Trump being the Republican nominee. And so I need to endorse him.

And then you have other folks like Tim Scott doing the same and Vivek Ramaswamy. And I think that they have high aspirations and are hoping to maybe be picked in a potential Trump cabinet. And so it's not very surprising to see them fall in line. But it is disappointing for someone like me, who's a Republican who actually wants Republicans to win. And if we would have nominated Nikki Haley obviously she still could perform well in New Hampshire and I'm hoping she can pull off a miracle there.

[10:25:10]

But if we nominated someone like her, she beats Joe Biden in one poll by a whopping 17 points. And that was a poll conducted by Trump's own pollster. So I wish that these folks would be endorsing her because then we would actually have a shot at beating Biden in the general, but it would be a nail biter if we nominate someone like Trump, who I think is also a threat to our democracy.

BOLDUAN: Sarah Matthews, Lanhee Chen Great to see you guys. We're keeping an eye on the live event happening in New Hampshire right now where Nikki Haley will be taking to -- take into the stage any moment for one of her final campaign events. John?

BERMAN: All right, attacks in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, fears growing of a spiraling conflict in the Middle East.

And growing backlash against a baby clothing brand after it denied a mother's request to work remotely while her baby was in the NICU.

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