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Trump in Court for Closing Arguments in Defamation Trial; ICJ Says, Israel Must Take All Measures to Prevent Genocide in Gaza; Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) Says, Border Deal Dead on Arrival in Current Form. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 26, 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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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are now a couple of minutes into the closing arguments in the defamation damages trial against Donald Trump. Trump ambled into court late. Why? And how will the judge instruct the jury in this case that could cost Trump millions?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: In an unprecedented case, you could soon hear from the mother of a Michigan school shooter testifying in her own defense, facing charges as prosecutors say she could have stopped her son from killing four students at his high school.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And rising tides along the New England coast, a grim sign of what's to come, the effects of climate change on stark display.

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

Right now, closing arguments in the defamation case against Donald Trump are underway in the New York federal court. But here's some of the latest. Court started ten minutes late with the judge asking Ms. Habba, is your client intending to be here this morning? He's talking about Donald Trump.

My control room just got in my ear saying that Donald Trump also just walked out of court in the middle of closing arguments as the prosecution is up first.

Carroll is seeking more than $10 million in damages from the former president. And before the jury walked in, there's a lot going on. The judge reminded everyone that they have to stay quiet during closings, saying this, quote, there are to be no interruptions by anybody, no audible comments by anybody else. And now Trump, we know, has walked out.

Joining me now to talk more about this is former Federal Prosecutor Renato Mariotti. Renato, there's a whole lot going on in these closing arguments. I mean, you've got, Habba being asked if Donald Trump is going to show up. He shows up ten minutes late, the judge warning nobody -- everybody to not have disruptions, and then I'm just hearing in my ear that Donald Trump has walked out of court. Why is -- are closing arguments normally this eventful?

RENATO MARIOTTI, HOST, IT'S COMPLICATED PODCAST: No. But I will say that one strategy, Kate, that defense counsel use sometimes, even in criminal trials, is to try to distract the jury when the prosecution is giving their closing argument. I think that part of what's going on here is there's an attempt to create a circus, distract from the evidence, distract from all of the comments that Trump has made in the past that are coming back to haunt him here.

And so I think part of why he's arriving late and he's coming in and out is partly to keep the jury focused on him rather than the arguments that E. Jean Carroll's attorney, Robbie Kaplan and Mike.

BOLDUAN: A couple things here. He wanted the attention on him definitely yesterday for that. I mean, it was like a momentary period of time that he took the stand. What do you think he and his legal team got out of it? What do you think the impact of Donald Trump being on the stand will be?

MARIOTTI: He was being put on the stand to try to slip in some comments to say that essentially he didn't do this. It's -- you know, he didn't actually sexually assault E. Jean Carroll and so on. That is not legally relevant. The jury in a prior trial already found that he did do that. But, nonetheless, there's an attempt here to almost try to nullify the law to have the jury return a verdict that's not consistent with the verdict, for example, in the prior case. And the judge, he had no part in it. That's why I was so short, Kate. That's why the judge shut it down very quickly.

BOLDUAN: Now to today and in this moment, prosecution is up first making it that -- I don't even know if we call prosecution is up first, but, I mean, they're up first, they're making their closing argument. What is the case that they need to -- how do they bring it home?

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MARIOTTI: So, the plaintiff is going to be really focused, the E. Jean Carroll's attorney, to be really focused on Donald Trump, essentially thumbing his nose at this process. You know, he claimed he never assaulted, and sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll. You know, he made he was going after her, riling people up against her. And once it a jury found that he did so, he kept doing it again and again and again.

And I actually think that her attorney, E. Jean Carroll's attorney, is going to be really pointing to the fact that Donald Trump continues to be essentially thumbing his nose at the process throughout the trial. She's going to use what he's trying to do, you know, his attempts to introduce his own private feelings about this against him and try to turn the tables on them, and we'll see whether or not that works.

BOLDUAN: Okay. So, I'm getting a little more information about what came out -- what happened with this walkout. And, again, I was saying prosecution. I misspoke. It's plaintiffs. It says from our reporters in the room, it's not clear why Trump left the courtroom.

When Trump walked out, Kaplan was in the middle of telling the jury that Trump did not respect the prior jury verdict, quote, not even for 24 hours. This is Roberta Kaplan, by the way, not the judge, the plaintiff's attorney who was speaking there.

After Trump left, Judge Lewis Kaplan briefly interrupted Roberta Kaplan to say the record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom. It's just -- all of this playing out in real time is fascinating, Renato.

MARIOTTI: Absolutely. I mean, he really is thumbing his nose at the process. He's thumbing his nose at the judge. At one point, Kate, today, the judge even hinted that -- I'm hearing reports that he hinted that perhaps he's going to send Trump's lawyer into lockup.

You know, this is an attempt to try to create this into a circus, because Trump, I think, wants everyone, the public, the jury, to focus on the circus and the distraction, rather than what happened here, because there's really not a defense.

You know, if you find, and the jury has already found in the prior trial, that he engaged in sexual assault, the fact is he defamed E. Jean Carroll. And, essentially, what her attorneys are going for is that punitive damages are necessary to hold him accountable and to deter him from doing this again.

And so, very challenging from a legal perspective, but, of course, he's trying to turn this into a distraction rather than a legal proceeding.

BOLDUAN: And part of his campaign strategy.

To the point of the quote that you just cited, I have the reporting here from our reporters in the room. Just before the jury went in, so let's go back to the beginning of the morning again, Alina Habba, Trump's attorney, tried to make a record to refute a ruling that the defense cannot use a slide they planned in their closing presentation. Judge Kaplan cut her off and said, quote, you are on the verge of spending some time in the lockup now, sit down.

Moving forward, the jury will get the case today. I think the decision was one hour, one hour for closings. How likely do you think they will return a verdict today?

MARIOTTI: I think it's very likely they're going to return a verdict today, Kate. This has not been a long trial. And it's a very straightforward issue. If they take a long time, that's good for Trump. In other words, this is a pretty straightforward case. The issue is just purely, you know, how much in damages is she entitled to. There can be some argument about that for sure, but I really think, you know, if the jury is just looking at the facts and law, they're going to return a decision today. If this drags on for days and days, you know, the Trump team is going to be crossing their fingers and hoping for a good result. BOLDUAN: The control room just told me, Renato, that the judge just admonished the defense team once again in the courtroom. We're going to be bringing you -- bringing updates as they come, very eventful closing arguments in this civil defamation trial.

Renato Mariotti, it's great to see you. Thank you for jumping on. John?

BERMAN: Yes, it seems like this is blowing up a little bit, Kate. We're working to get as much information as we can from inside that courtroom, because, clearly something's going on there.

In addition, this morning, the United Nations top court is weighing in on South Africa's allegation that Israel broke international law and is committing genocide in Gaza.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Tel Aviv. So, what did the courts say, Nic, and what's the reaction there in Tel Aviv?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, a couple of things. I think the headline takeaway here is this was not a final ruling from this court on whether or not Israel is, as South Africa accuses it, committing genocide inside of Gaza. That ruling is going to take many years. This was an interim ruling to set some measures that would, in essence, protect the people of Gaza.

They've said that Israel must not injure civilians, must not harm them, must not harm them psychologically or physically.

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It must do everything it can to protect the lives of civilians and it must bring in more humanitarian aid.

It was interesting that the judge also said it was important that Hamas must hand over hostages immediately without conditions. That was a thing that the judge called for.

Now, what South Africa had wanted in these interim measures was to be for the court to call for a ceasefire. This is the South African foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, here, giving her verdict on how it went from South Africa's view.

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NALEDI PANDOR, SOUTH AFRICAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I believe that in exercising the order, there would have to be a ceasefire. Without it, the order doesn't actually work. I would have wanted a ceasefire.

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ROBERTSON: Now, again, the court has not made a final ruling on its view on whether or not genocide is being perpetrated against the Palestinians, but it did say it was the right forum and place to judge that, and it would continue to do that, which was a rejection of what Israel had originally asked for, for the court to throw this out. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, is describing this essentially as a victory.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Israel has an inherent right to defend itself. The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state and it was justly rejected. The charge of genocide leveled against Israel is not only false, it's outrageous, and decent people everywhere should reject it.

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ROBERTSON: Now, these rulings today are binding but not enforceable. And Prime Minister Netanyahu did say that under the rules, international law, Israel is following international law. They said Israel was already doing everything it can to protect the lives of civilians.

So, this is going to be increasing pressure, international pressure on Israel. And Israel has a written report on what it's doing in a month's time and hand it to the court.

BERMAN: All right. Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv, keep us posted. There is some more information coming out from there as well, I understand. We'll get back to you in a bit.

In the meantime, I want to bring in CNN's Alex Marquardt, our chief national security correspondent. Alex, I understand you've got some new information on the status of hostage negotiations.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, what we've learned is that the CIA director, Bill Burns, who has really been the Biden administration's point person on hostage negotiations, is going to be traveling to Europe to meet with his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts, as well as the Qatari prime minister. And these are really the main players when it comes to hostage negotiations.

So, this gives us an indication, the fact that these men are all getting together in a room, that these talks are progressing.

Burns' trip to Europe comes on the heels of the top White House official, Brett McGurk, going to Cairo and Doha, also to talk about hostage negotiations. We're told that those meetings were productive, that they were sober and serious.

But, John, all of our sources are cautioning that we are not on the cusp of a deal, that nothing appears to be imminent, even hesitating to call these talks negotiations. But the parties are at the table, and that's really important.

And what we understand, John, is both the Israelis and Hamas separately have put forward proposals that now the main mediators, U.S., Qatar and Egypt, are essentially trying to find common ground. And so there are still major sticking points. But if a deal were to be agreed to, what it would likely look like is a long pause in the fighting. We know that Israel has proposed as much as two months of a pause in the fighting.

That's the longest proposal that they've made so far in this war, that we would see those hostages released, likely in phases, first, women, children, and the elderly, followed by the IDF soldiers, both men and women, and the bodies of hostages who have been killed, and also Palestinian prisoners, who Hamas, of course, wants to see released from Israeli prisons.

But we also know, John, that there are major sticking points. Hamas wants to see an end to this war. They want to see a comprehensive deal to end this war. While Israel, for now, wants to see their hostages come home, but they want to continue their efforts to try to dismantle and destroy Hamas. John?

BERMAN: Alex Marquardt, again, generally speaking, the reason this is so captivating, I think, to people is a CIA director would be brought in as something of a closer in hostage negotiations, which means that they may think they're close. We'll see. We just don't have that much visibility on that but that's what the speculation is.

Great to see, Alex. Thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right.

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Day two of the trial for a school shooter's mother is now back underway and we're trying to find out exactly when we will hear from Jennifer Crumbley herself on the stand. Potentially, that could happen today. We have the latest from the courtroom.

Also, back in the sky, today Alaska Airlines plans to fly a 737 MAX 9 for the first time since that door panel flew off midflight. We'll have the details coming up.

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BERMAN: All right. Just in, we are hearing about a letter from House Speaker Mike Johnson explicitly warning the Senate that the emerging bipartisan border deal is, quote, dead on arrival if it reaches the House and does not have key provisions that he wants.

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CNN's Lauren Fox with the latest on Capitol Hill. Lauren, what are you hearing?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This pronouncement from Speaker Mike Johnson was made in a letter to his Republican colleagues, the House of Representatives, scheduled to return next week. And in that letter, Speaker Johnson says, and I want to read part of this to you, I wanted to provide a brief update regarding the supplemental and the border since the Senate appears unable to reach an agreement. If rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.

Now, a couple of important notes, important caveats to make here, there is no draft right now of the Senate deal on border negotiations. In fact, leaders are telling us that they expect that they could have text early next week. However, Johnson is warning here that if some of those rumors are true, that it would be dead on arrival in his chamber.

Again, the negotiators have argued that some of those leaks aren't actually accurate and that the full context of this legislation needs to be taken in whole.

But I do think that it underscores a really important moment because Johnson is returning with lawmakers on the hard right very frustrated about his leadership related to the spending negotiations. This obviously a moment where he is saying that House Republicans need to be unified behind their own border policy that they passed last year, something that's dead on arrival in the United States Senate.

He also made some news in this letter by saying that the House of Representatives will move quickly after the Homeland Security Committee moves forward with articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security secretary. And that would make Mayorkas just the second cabinet secretary in U.S. history to be impeached.

So, he's warning there that not only is the Senate border proposal potentially dead on arrival in his chamber, if it looks like some of those leaked reports, but he's also warning that they are moving quickly with efforts to try and impeach Secretary Mayorkas. John?

BERMAN: All right. Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill, thank you very much. Keep us posted. Obviously, these things are developing all morning long. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. While many Republicans, as you can see, on Capitol Hill, have been quick to line up behind Donald Trump for president, there is growing concern among some conservatives about what a third Trump run could mean for down ballot races.

Those fears now prompting conservative groups and donors to shift focus away from the presidential race and to Congress as they fight to keep the House and flip the Senate this election.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has more on this. Kristen, what are you learning about this?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. I mean, this is unsurprising, right? Because we know that Republicans' goal, in addition to taking the White House, is to, as you said, hold on to the House and flip the Senate. And there's a group of Republicans that really believes that that becomes infinitely harder if Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket.

So, now, you are starting to see some of these donors migrate towards these down ballot races, particularly if they were giving to Nikki Haley, and it seems more and more likely every day that Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee.

We have to keep in mind, there is a huge group of donors and organizations that still hold conservative values but don't support Donald Trump. And they want somewhere to put their money. And one of those groups is Americans for Prosperity.

This is the Koch group. They are currently backing Haley. They were never going to give money to Donald Trump. But now they are telling our colleagues here at CNN that they are going to pour money into flipping Democratic Senate seats, particularly in Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Now, the money is not the only part of this. The other part of this is a fear that with Trump endorsements, we would see a repeat of 2022, where, essentially, the map favored Republicans, and they did not do nearly as well as they wanted to do, some of that because Trump endorsed candidates kind of fizzled out in the general election.

Now, we are told that Donald Trump doesn't want to endorse as many people that he did in 2022. He wants to focus on his own campaign. He's obviously going to back certain lawmakers. We know that he's already backing the Senate campaign of Kari Lake in Arizona, for example, but he's going to be much more selective in that process.

I do want to give one caveat, though. Yes, that is what they are saying right now. However, Donald Trump is becoming somewhat of a kingmaker once again in the Republican Party, or at least a figurehead of the Republican Party. As people line up behind him, unclear whether or not this is going to change as he starts talking to more and more people, more and more people coming to his door asking for his support.

BOLDUAN: Yes. But as you've pointed out perfectly, his track record with down ballot races since he was elected president speaks for itself in terms of it's just losses, and that's what they're looking at and why they want to focus here.

It's good to see you, Kristen.

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Thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. We have some breaking news that have just coming into our newsroom. Israeli authorities have provided the United Nations Relief Works Agency with information that alleges the involvement of several members of its staff, that is UNRWA staff, in the October 7th Hamas terror attacks in Southern Israel.

CNN's Nic Robinson is joining us with the details. Nic, this is a very big story. UNRWA has been in Gaza for many, many years, providing many different things. This news cannot be good for that agency or for those who rely on it. Give us some details.

ROBERTSON: It's very damaging. There are about 10,000 people inside of Gaza who work for UNRWA or were working before October 7th. And these allegations that Israel has passed to UNRWA state that some of UNRWA's employees were involved in Hamas' deadly and horrific killings and brutal attacks on October the 7th of Israel. So, this is very, very damning accusation.

UNRWA has released a statement saying that they're urgently going to investigate this. They're urgently going to look at it. They've identified the staff that were involved, as far as they know so far. All of those have been suspended. They've spoken to the U.N. secretary general, who has expressed that he is horrified about this and asked that UNRWA do everything that they can to fully investigate. And it appears as well also the State Department has reacted to this now as well.

The State Department is saying they're suspending for now the age that they have been giving to UNRWA in the past. The State Department is saying from their knowledge, this report refers to 12 individuals from UNRWA who were involved in the Hamas attacks. This is very damaging for UNRWA. As the State Department goes on to

say, UNRWA provides and has provided for a long time important humanitarian support and aid for the people in Gaza. It is UNRWA that run many of the shelters where there are many tents across the whole of Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering.

But this idea, the notion that this brings forward, that UNRWA is not fully impartial as the U.N. would want it to be, that people sympathetic to Hamas are within its numbers, is something that Israel has always considered a danger, and now they have presented UNRWA with this evidence.

So, in the meantime, before this full review of UNRWA's staffing situation has been thoroughly completed, that question mark will remain. And that was something that Antony Blinken has spoken to the U.N. secretary general about yesterday and talked about the importance of this full, thorough and independent accounting review, if you will, of UNRWA's practices, that the U.N. secretary general says that he's going to call upon UNRWA to put in place.

So, this is very fast-breaking information and news. We're just beginning to digest it. But, yes, this is certainly damaging on the reputation of UNRWA at this moment.

SIDNER: Yes, and it's a crucial moment as this war has gone on for this long. And I just wanted to mention that the United States, as you mentioned, sent out a statement from the State Department saying that it is extremely troubled by the allegations.

Of course, we've also gotten word that the head of UNRWA fired staff members who were allegedly involved in the October 7th attacks. There will be investigations. There will be a lot of talk about this for many, many days to come.

Thank you so much. I know you got it as we got it, and you went through it for us. Nic Robertson there and Tel Aviv for us, thank you, we appreciate your reporting. John?

BERMAN: All right, we're getting breaking news. No, am I teasing? Okay. This morning a brand new report on inflation, what it is revealing about the U.S. economy.

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