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Georgia DA Willis Back on the Stand Today. Aired 8:50-8:59a ET

Aired February 16, 2024 - 08:50   ET

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

[08:50:52]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to a special edition of CNN NEWS CENTRAL. I'm John Berman in New York. Kate and Sara are out.

Huge news this morning on several fronts.

Global outrage and shock at the death of jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny, and questions about what it means for the world order. Yaroslav Trofimov of "The Wall Street Journal" writes, quote, "Putin clearly feels that the wind is in his sails as the United States appears on the verge of abandoning Ukraine and possibly Europe, and he has no backlash to fear anymore."

Now, we just heard from Vice President Kamala Harris, and we are waiting hear from President Biden from the White House.

Also, any minute now we could get a ruling in the New York civil fraud trial against Donald Trump. A judge has already found him liable for fraud. The ruling, which we are told could come today at any time, could strip Trump of control of his business empire and cost him hundreds of millions of dollars.

And in Fulton County, Georgia, courtroom cameras just turned back on, with the prosecutor who brought felony charges against Donald Trump ready to take the stand. You're looking at live pictures right there from inside the court. DA Fani Willis is fighting to keep her case amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Now, if yesterday is any indication of what we can expect to see, it will be explosive.

CNN's Laura Coates live outside the Fulton County Courthouse this morning.

Laura, what are we expecting?

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: We are expecting additional (ph) testimony today from the DA, Fani Willis. Now remember yesterday, she appeared in the courtroom. Everyone was shocked to see that she was not only there, but willing, ready, and able to testify. And testify she did. If anyone was under an impression that she was somehow a shrinking violet or a wallflower, they are sadly mistaken and recognized this morning what these co-defendants might be up against if this trial continues and she is not disqualified. It is a very heavy bar and a very heavy lift to try to disqualify any

prosecutor from a case. It all rests on conflict of interest. Was the conflict of interest in this case a financial benefit derived from her relationship with one of her lead prosecutor? Is that enough to then undermine the opportunity for a defendant, in this case more than a dozen, to get a fair trial, including a former president. Well, she made very clear that those co-defendants, John, are the ones who are on trial, not her, no matter how hard they tried.

Listen to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Been intrusive into people's personal lives. You're confused. You think I'm on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I'm not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: And she absolutely is not on trial, but she is fighting to remain the prosecutor in this case. Disqualification would not just be for her if the judge were to find that. It would be for the entire team. And then a prosecuting office will be from the outside that would then choose her successor. It could be an appointment. It could be an assignment for someone who doesn't want to take the case. It is a lot to deal with.

This has been indicted by a grand jury. No small feat over many, many, many, many months. If she were to be disqualified and her entire team, that would mean that this case could be delayed and we would have no start date in the near future, if ever, because they're not tied to her prior decisions.

But today's testimony will bring her back on the stand. And don't forget, there is a witness who is still under subpoena. That is the former friend of Fani Willis, the former DA employee, the only one to date who has made a connection or has said that their romantic relationship began before either Nathan Wade say it did or Fani Willis said it did, which they both say happened after he was already hired.

Now that witness was not pressed for details on what she knew. She claimed to have seen them kissing and hugging or being affectionate and romantic. There was inadequate follow-up by the attorneys trying to elicit that testimony from her.

[08:55:01]

They did not ask for specificity. They did not ask for corroboration. They did not provide any. That might be a very big moment for this judge, who will ultimately decide this case.

Now, what not to expect today. I would doubt we're going to actually get a ruling from the bench today from this judge. He will likely take it under advisement, the consequences and the weight of this is so extraordinary that he certainly feels this weight. Although he has, in the past, ruled from the bench.

But in summation, John, when you think about this extraordinary moment in history, in time, can you imagine any universe whatsoever, let alone planet earth, where special counsel Jack Smith would be subjected to this line of questioning? I think not.

BERMAN: No. And I just want to point out, it may not even be finished today.

COATES: No.

BERMAN: They may still have more witnesses that they need to hear from next week with Fani Willis on the stand this morning and more witnesses being called later. This could easily bleed over until Monday and Tuesday.

Laura, please stay with us.

With me now, Michael Moore, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, and Elie Honig. An esteemed armada of the best legal analysts on earth here.

Elie, I want to start with you.

Laura did a great job laying out what happened yesterday.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: Explosive yesterday in the Fulton County courthouse. DA Fani Willis gets back on the stand. The defense lawyers - and I know it's confusing here -- is it's the defense lawyers, in a way, doing the prosecuting and the DA's office doing the defending of Fani Willis here. But the defense lawyers for the various people charged with trying to overturn the Georgia election, what more do they need to get out of the DA this morning?

HONIG: Look, this is put up or shut up time for the defendants, for Donald Trump and his co-defendants who have challenged Fani Willis. They made explosive allegations. It seemed there was something to them. I think Nathan Wade's testimony was questionable.

But to this point, in my view, that defendants have not delivered what they've said they'd deliver. First of all, there is an open question about when this relationship started. Thus far, the status quo as we head into today is, both participants in the relationship, Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, say it started after Nathan Wade was hired. There's one witness, that Laura alluded to, who gave sort of general, fuzzy testimony that she heard that it started earlier. That's not going to be enough. They need more to carry that burden.

And then in the financial piece, and this is really the crux of the conflict of interest issue, they have shown only that there was some loose intermingling of finances and that cash was paid, but we don't have specifics as to amounts, and they need to really drill down. If they don't deliver today, I think this motion's going to fail.

BERMAN: Karen. KAREN FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I completely agree. I mean, what they need to really prove is that there's a disqualifying conflict of interest between Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, and that she somehow financially benefited and that was her motivation for hiring him. And instead of talking about legitimate questions about the finances, they could have talked about, what were the financial controls in the office? Who decided to hire him? Who approved? And all of the things that could potentially show that there was an improper motive for hiring him. One that could potentially enrich her.

But instead of having those financial details, it devolved into a salacious, really felt really icky personal details about a relationship that in some ways had no bearing, I think, on the actual legal standard that has to be proven in court.

BERMAN: Our representative from Georgia, Michael Moore here, what did you think?

MICHAEL MOORE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, I agree with everything that's been said. I really think what happened is, the defense attorney sort of fell into the sex trap. And so we began talking about sex instead of money. And the conflict here has never been about who they date or who they see, it's about where the money's going and is she receiving some benefit because of this prosecution.

It's going to be important, though, that they narrowed down and try to pinpoint when the relationship started. And the reason is, if there's some proof that - and the judge believes it -- that they have lied, being Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis, that they've lied to the court in their filings, that's a different ballgame. And that changes the story a little bit as well. And the judge has some discretion about what he chooses to do at that point and, frankly, might cause some trouble outside of this case.

BERMAN: So, dishonesty in this process itself, not before, could be enough possibly to get them disqualified.

MOORE: It's always the coverup, right?

BERMAN: Again, so everyone here, Laura, seems to think we might see more focused questioning from the defense attorneys today. And everyone's filing into the courtroom right now. What you will see is a whole bunch of defense lawyers for the more than 15 defendants in the Georgia election fraud trial. They all have lawyers there. Many of them are asking questions of Fani Willis and others. And then you have the DA's office serving, in a way, as Fani Willis' team here.

Laura, my question to you down there, it was chaos yesterday. It was explosive. Does the chaos and explosiveness in and of itself, would that make Judge Scott McAfee say, you know what, this is such a mess. We've just got to take a step back. Is that a possibility?

COATES: Well, he tried to yesterday. And keep in mind, that chaos you describe was a room full of lawyers.

[09:00:02] They were lawyers. But for one witness on the stand, who should be very well-versed in what it means to have decorum in the courtroom. But this tells you just how much.