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Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg Faces Sentencing for Lying Under Oath; Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Law from 1864 Banning Nearly All Abortions; Hamas Indicating It Cannot Find 40 Israeli Hostages Central to Current Ceasefire Talks. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2024 - 08:00   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: President Biden just told Univision about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quote, "I think what he is doing is a mistake. I don't agree with his approach." What do you think that Netanyahu is doing that is a mistake.

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: Well, I think where I completely agree with President Biden is we need a pause in the fighting, and he is quite rightly pressing Netanyahu, as I've done many times, let's have a pause. I suggest it for Ramadan, but let's have a pause so we can get the aid in and get the hostages out. And I think that's absolutely crucial. That's long been Britain's position. Let's have a pause and then use that to try and build momentum for a genuine, sustainable ceasefire where we get Hamas leaders out of Gaza, we dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, and we don't go back fighting. We want to see an end to this bloodshed.

But we do have to support Israel's right to self-defense and right to live in a future without a Hamas-run state right next to it as a very important part of the picture.

BERMAN: Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron, we appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

CAMERON: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: We have got new developments on a key ally to Donald Trump. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Heading back to prison, this time for lying under oath. Today, Donald Trump's former CFO will learn how much time he will spend behind bars.

A law written before Arizona was even a state, a law all written before women could even vote. A Civil War era abortion law will soon take effect now in Arizona. The governor calls it a stain on the state. What she's planning to do about it now.

And congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's gaining support in her effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson. Why then are some of her Republican colleagues throwing up their hands in disgust?

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: This morning, we are standing by for the sentencing of one a doll Trump's most loyal allies. Allen Weisselberg, the former CFO for the Trump Organization, faces five months in jail on perjury charges. He's already served time at Rikers in New York for taxes evasion. This time Weisselberg admitted to lying under oath to prosecutors about the value of Trump's triplex at Trump Tower. This is all related to Trump's civil fraud trial.

But Weisselberg is also a central well figure in Trump's hush money criminal trial court filing show. Court filings show he was involved in the payment to Stormy Daniels and the reimbursement of Michael Cohen. As now he is not expected to testify for either side in that case, and that trial is expected to start on Monday.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is with us on this sentencing today for a guy who has literally serve time for Donald Trump.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: He has indeed, and prosecutors are now going to be recommending a jail sentence of up to five months in jail for Alan Weisselberg. That's what his sentence was the last time he can through a guilty plea related to some of his business dealings. Before it was tax fraud. This time, it is perjury. He pleaded guilty previously to two felony counts of lying during a deposition where he was under oath. He was speaking to the New York attorney general's office in that deposition about the values of Trump's properties. He was asked about when he knew and when he are conversations with Donald Trump about the size of a triplex apartment Trump had, and he lied at that time.

There was a discussion that the New York attorney general's office unveiled where Alan Weisselberg knew that the triplex apartment was 10,000 square feet instead of the 30,000 square feet that they were telling banks and other financial institutions so that they could inflate the value of the Trump Organization assets. So that's what this is about today, the sentencing.

The big picture here, though, is that while prosecutors have been able to secure to convictions of Alan Weisselberg, the CFO, the former CFO of Trump Org, he is not someone that has flipped on Donald Trump in any substantive way. He's not going to be expected to testify at this upcoming hush money case against Donald Trump in criminal court. He did testify at the civil fraud trial against Trump, but at that time he made it the same false statements that he is pleading guilty to today.

BERMAN: Interesting, serving time, but a dead end as far as prosecutions go at this point.

Katelyn, there was also a development in the federal Mar-a-Lago documents case involving witnesses. What happened there?

POLANTZ: In that case, we are starting to see Judge Aileen Cannon take steps forward to make rulings. There are so many things that had been before her that she just hadn't broken the logjam on.

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And now one of those things she decided finally, after a lot of consideration, arguments, multiple rounds of briefings in court, she decided that witness names will be redacted in some of the court filings where Donald Trump's team is arguing for things before the trial, expanding the prosecution team, some other motions that they've filed.

So there is going to be a little bit more transparency in this case because those filings because we weren't seeing in a lot of context. There will be redactions so that witness names will be protected. Obviously, John in this Mar-a-Lago documents case, several witnesses are people we've never really heard of in the public domain before. They're low-level workers at Mar-a-Lago. So their names are going to be anonymized in court papers. They're going to be referred to by pseudonyms going forward.

But finally, at least in the big picture of this case, we're getting at least one ruling from Judge Aileen Cannon. Still again, no trial date, though, which we have been saying since the beginning of March.

BERMAN: Indeed. All right, watching that, still waiting as it were. Katelyn Polantz, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So abortion was already a central issue for voters this November, and then Arizona happened. The state Supreme Court there dusting off a 100-year-old abortion ban. There's a new effort to get abortion on the ballot in Arizona in light of this, and an initiative securing reproductive rights could be on the ballot in 11 states this election, including Florida. That is where Donald Trump will be campaigning today, as well as campaigning in Georgia.

CNN's Alayna Treene has much more. She's joining us now. Quite the timing on this. Donald Trump declares his stance, if you will, on abortion, and then Arizona.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Its truly remarkable, the timing of this, Kate. I know one of our colleagues was saying, did it come with confetti for the Democrats? This is really something that I think is a prime example of how what Donald Trump was trying to do with that abortion statement on Monday when he said that he believes it should be left to the states. He wanted to try and make it a non- issue ahead of the election. This is what Trump's campaign advisers tell me is going to be Donald Trump's position on abortion in the lead up to November.

However, it still is giving Democrats a lot of fodder to blame him for these very strict abortion laws. And I think the timing of it, this coming the day after he made that statement, just really shows you how hard this is going to be for Donald Trump's team to navigate.

However, when I talked to his campaign yesterday, when I spoke with his advisers, they insisted that they believed that this is still the right move forward, even though Donald Trump had been repeatedly pressured in recent months and really over the past year now to embrace a national ban, many people trying to get him to back a 15- week abortion ban. He obviously chose not to do so because, mainly, I think the politics of it. You saw him both publicly and privately argue that this is about winning elections. He said as much this morning actually when he was attacking his former vice president, Mike Pence, for criticizing him on his statement.

And so I do just want to quickly read for you how the Trump campaign responded, at least publicly, to the Arizona ruling. His spokesperson said, quote, "President Trump could not have been more clear. These are decisions for people of each state to make." So clearly, Kate, they are not backing away from this.

And then you did mention his fundraising blitz this week. Yes, he is going to be in Georgia today as well as Florida and Georgia. He's actually being joined by former senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. And they have a very high price for to attend that fundraiser, several thousands of dollars, some hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend that fundraiser today. And then tonight he'll be in Florida also trying to raise money.

And look, this is what we have seen Donald Trump really focus on ever since he one on Super Tuesday. He's really trying to narrow that fundraising and gap with President Joe Biden's campaign. And he still has a long way to go, but these fundraisers are his effort to try and get as much money he can in the bank as he begins his general election campaign in earnest.

BOLDUAN: Yes, definitely he's trying to focus to this for sure. It's good to see you, Alayna, thank you. John?

BERMAN: We do have some breaking news. Hamas now indicating it does not have and cannot find the 40 Israeli hostages that would be central to the ceasefire talks. Israel has requested the return of 40 hostages. Hamas says, they can't find 40. This is an important development. We will give you the latest on that.

And this morning, people trapped in flash floods set off by severe storms.

Also, a Boeing whistleblower claims the company took shortcuts on two jets, and the shortcuts could be catastrophic.

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BERMAN: All right, this morning, a civil war-era abortion law in Arizona is on hold, but very much central to the national debate over abortion right now. The Supreme Court in the state of Arizona allowed for this law to go through that bans nearly all abortions in the state. As we said, this dates from the 1800s. It is a very, very old law. It will go into effect unless a lower court somehow overturns it. But if it is upheld, it would join 14 states with similar measures.

[08:15:00] CNN's Natasha Chen is all over this, a near total ban in this state,

Natasha.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. This is a huge impact on Arizonans and it has ripple effects throughout the country as you're seeing on that map there. The reason there is a 14-day stay is for the parties involved to bring up any additional issues if they want to debate that, but really everyone in the sphere of providing abortion services and the state is prepared that in about two weeks, this is going to take effect.

Now, this means that nearly all abortions are banned except for the case of needing to save the life of the mother. And it can hold a prison sentence of between two to five years for the provider of that abortion.

And keep in mind, there was a 2022 state law that was passed. It was a 15-week abortion ban and that is why the Supreme Court in Arizona needed to harmonize, so to speak, between these two conflicting laws.

And so yesterday, this ruling was saying that the state has to adhere to this older one. This was very emotional for a lot of people taking this news in, including a state senator, Eva Burch, who explained during a press conference yesterday that she herself got an abortion just a few weeks ago because she found out that her embryo was not going to be viable, that it was going to result in a painful, messy miscarriage. And she got the procedure to avoid that pain. Here is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE SEN. EVA BURCH (D-AZ): Somebody gave me a procedure so that I wouldn't have to experience another miscarriage -- the pain, the mess, the discomfort and now were talking about whether or not we should put that doctor in jail.

This is outrageous that we would even dignify the consideration of this type of ban, a ban drafted when women had no say, when Arizona was not a state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: There is a group now gathering signatures in hopes of putting something on the November ballot that would enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution.

That group says they have enough signatures at this point, they have until July 3rd to collect enough verified signatures. If they do, that goes to the November ballot and you can imagine how that might affect the presidential election and their Senate election -- John.

BERMAN: All right, a lot of questions about what happens next in Arizona. What happens to women in Arizona who want that kind of procedure. It will be fascinating and painful for a lot of people to watch. Natasha, thank you very much -- Kate. BOLDUAN: We are following breaking news, a potentially huge blow to

ceasefire negotiations. Hamas is now indicating it cannot find 40 of the Israeli hostages. We are going to have more details on what they are saying according to sources.

Also this, the Lord Jesus himself could not manage this conference. That's one way that House Republicans are now describing the battle within Republican Party in the House over the House Speaker, and whether he can keep his job.

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BOLDUAN: So the breaking news just in, Hamas now says it cannot identify and locate 40 of the Israel hostages needed for the first round of a ceasefire deal as part of negotiations. Hamas telling this to international mediators which include Qatar and Egypt according to sources.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem as we are learning more about what this exactly means, Nic. What are you picking up?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, as has been discussed and the sort of broad outlines of the hostage negotiations that it will be done in three phase, and the first phase there has been discussed for several months now, is that Hamas would hand over the children, the women, all the women, and the elderly men.

And by the counting that CNN has and apparently Hamas is coming to a similar conclusion, they have only two children, the Bibas brothers, Ariel and Kfir, very young. Their mother is also believed still to be held. There are 13 women that are still held. They would have been due to be released as well, and 11 men in the age range of 65 to 85, that by our reckoning, it comes up with a figure of 26.

So this is a potential and real stumbling block in the negotiations because what isn't clear is Hamas being unwilling or is it just unable to come forward with 40 names? Could it suggest other people, perhaps men of a slightly younger age. It was also supposed to include people who are sick perhaps some of those others remaining on the list there who are also sick and could be released.

What we do know is that the majority of the hundred or so hostages that Hamas still has are men, many of them from the IDF, others sort of military age, of reservist, age.

ROBERTSON: So this is something that could really make moving forward with a ceasefire around the hostage negotiation difficult and this is something President Biden told Univision over the weekend, he wants that ceasefire.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think what he is doing

is a mistake. I don't agree with his -- I think it is outrageous that those four -- first three vehicles were hit by drones and taken out on a highway where it wasn't like -- it was along the shore, it wasn't like there was a convoy moving et cetera.

So I would -- what I am calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire allow for the next six to eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So what Biden was saying there at the beginning was of course, that he was critical of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approach and it is that approach that has determined where were at today and where there is a standoff over the release of the hostages, something President Biden really wants to see happen.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and all of this and with what Hamas is now apparently indicating, raising fears once again, that maybe more of the hostages are dead.

Nic, thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, we are standing by for brand new data on inflation. Minutes from now, what some are calling the most important economic release of the year.

And a new investigation into Boeing after a whistleblower claims that the company took shortcuts that could cause plane to break apart midflight.

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