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Soon: Trump's Historic Criminal Trial Begins In New York City; 40 Million Under Severe Storm Threat In Central And Eastern U.S.; Israeli War Cabinet Meeting About Iranian Attack. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 15, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:32]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Officials in Oklahoma are about to give an update on the case of two missing women. Officials are working to determine whether two bodies found yesterday are those of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. The women -- they were on their way to pick up their children when they disappeared late last month.

Now, four people were arrested Saturday and charged with murder. The relationship between the suspects and the victims is currently unknown.

The Hollywood armorer convicted after the deadly shooting on the "Rust" movie set will face sentencing today. Prosecutors are asking for Hanna Gutierrez-Reed to get the maximum penalty of 18 months behind bars. They say she has shown no sign of remorse after the death of the film's cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. And Gutierrez-Reed's lawyers say she should be released on probation.

There are also new court documents, though, revealing Gutierrez-Reed complained about the jurors who found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter in recorded phone calls from jail. She called those jurors "idiots" and "a-holes."

American golfer Scottie Scheffler is a Masters champion again, playing an amazing back nine to win his second green jacket. And it wasn't the only thing on his mind, though. His wife is super-pregnant -- that's a technical term coming from someone who has been super-pregnant -- with their first child. And he said he would have left the tournament at a moment's notice had she gone into labor. She didn't, and he clearly capitalized on the extra innings, to mix sports metaphors.

This makes Scheffler the 18th player to win the Masters more than once and the first since Bubba Watson in 2014. Tiger Woods finished in last place -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Congratulations to Scottie Scheffler for that.

So this morning, the first-ever criminal trial of a former president begins. Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money scheme.

With us now, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Jennifer Rodgers. Counselor, you say there are three major things we need to watch over the course of this trial. The first one starts in hours, and that's jury selection.

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yeah, it's always important. It's super important here where you have a defendant that everyone in that jury room knows and likely, has strong opinions about. So both sides are going to be really focused on this.

But it's particularly fraught for prosecutors because, of course, prosecutors need unanimity, right? They need all 12 jurors to find him guilty in order to convict. And so, they have to be able to exclude every single person who is unfairly pro-Trump, right? Whereas, the Trump folks only have to exclude some people.

So it's really, really important and the case may be won or lost right here in jury selection.

BERMAN: And you think the Trump team will be looking at the jury not just beginning today but all through the trial.

RODGERS: I do, you know, because they're going to be looking for problems with jurors. Things that maybe they didn't disclose during voir dire. They might try to get rid of a juror even in the middle of trial and certainly, after trial if it doesn't go their way. They'll be looking for jurors who maybe weren't honest during voir dire. They'll be scrubbing social media and all those things to try to make motions to overturn the verdict if it doesn't go their way.

BERMAN: People are going to be paying very close attention today and the next several days as this goes on for the types of questions that are asked and the types of answers these jurors give. We'll, of course, be all over that.

In the meantime, after the jury is seated, we hear from witnesses. The most important witness in this case is probably Michael Cohen. I say most important but also probably most fraught.

RODGERS: Yeah, he's central to this case. He's the one, of course, who reimbursed Stormy Daniels -- who paid Stormy Daniels and then got reimbursed by the former president. He gives central testimony about what Trump actually knew was happening. So he is the central figure.

[07:35:00]

Now, he is corroborated, prosecutors say, by documents and other witnesses. So he's not the whole ballgame but he's really the most important piece.

He is also famously at odds with Trump, right? They despise each other, you could say. Michael Cohen makes no secret of that, so he's got obvious bias.

And he's lied. He's admitted to lying under oath. So there's all these issues at play. And my real question for Michael Cohen is can he keep his cool under what will be really, really aggressive cross-examination?

BERMAN: Well, talk about that. How does the prosecution try and keep him disciplined and how will the defense try to throw him?

RODGERS: Well, you prep him, right? You meet with him over and over. You tell him what to expect. You go through mock cross-examinations where you really, really prod at him and hope that after all of that prep and going through all of that so many times he can accomplish that on the stand.

BERMAN: And the defense?

RODGERS: Well, they're going to go after him with everything they have. They'll call him a liar. They'll go through his testimony and why he was lying. He even recently said that when he pleaded guilty in front of a judge -- which, of course, is under oath -- that he really didn't think he was guilty of those offenses.

So he's been giving them more and more fodder and they're going to use all of it.

BERMAN: And, of course, the prosecution will try to get out in front of every one of those specific allegations.

Donald Trump, himself -- he has, once again -- every time there's a case involving Trump, he muses I may testify. I want to testify. He's saying it again now.

How high would the stakes be for him and what goes into that decision?

RODGERS: Well, as soon as a defendant testifies, everything else kind of fades away, right? That becomes the key thing. And that's what they have to think about here. It would be really risky for him to testify and there's no way he's going to do it if they don't get a really good ruling from the judge on what prosecutors can and can't go into on cross-examination.

Of course, they can ask about the incident at hand. Of course, they can go into anything that was the subject of direct examination. But normally, you're also able to prosecute using -- or to cross-examine using impeachment evidence, and that includes questions about reputation for dishonesty.

No one has a stronger reputation for dishonesty than the former president. I mean, 30,000 false statements during his presidency, according to the media. All sorts of court cases in which he's been found liable for lying and fraud.

So there's so much ammunition there that if they don't get the judge to say that some of that is off the table, I don't think he'll testify at all.

BERMAN: All right, it all begins very shortly. Jury selection today. Will Donald Trump speak on the way to the courthouse? Could we learn more? We're going to watch it all.

Thanks so much for being with us, Jen.

RODGERS: Thanks.

BERMAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, and CNN's special live coverage of the trial starts, by the way, at 9:00 a.m. right here on CNN and streaming on MAX.

All right. Today, more than 40 million people in the central and eastern parts of the United States are facing severe storm threats that could have damaging winds, hail, flooding, and the possibility, once again, of tornadoes.

CNN's meteorologist Derek Van Dam has been tracking all of these storms for us. This has been a pretty rough start to the week when you look across the radar.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Sara, yeah. This is a very interesting setup because we've been watching the dynamics here at play. It's -- the majority of your Monday is not going to be under the threat of severe weather. It's really this afternoon and evening, once we start to take advantage of all the dynamics -- the heating from the sun.

You can see the timeframe here right at the top portion of your screen. Probably after the sun sets this evening at roughly 7:30-8:00 across portions of Kansas and into Nebraska, South Dakota, and even as far south as the Oklahoma and Texas border. This is the area that we've highlighted for the chance of severe weather. Very large hail, a few tornadoes, and strong, gusty winds.

And the Storm Prediction Center has highlighted this area, in particular, as the greatest threat. That is a level three of five. That is an enhanced risk.

And you see that hash that we've put over top of that? We've overlayed these two locations, including southern Oklahoma and into central Texas. This is the area where we have the greatest probability of large hail, two inches or greater. That's baseball-size hail falling from the sky. That's a real threat.

And again, it's the hail that is the larger threat today even though there is still a tornadic threat possible across the Plains. You can see that here -- about a five percent probability. Not as great as what we anticipated over the weekend, so some good news in this.

But the severe weather threat will advance eastward for tomorrow. And then we've got to keep a close eye to the sky across central Iowa. This is an area that has an enhanced risk already set up for tomorrow afternoon.

To make matters worse, behind all of this activity is very windy weather that will take advantage of dry conditions on the ground. And that is why we have a critical fire threat across the Texas Panhandle, portions of eastern Texas, and into New Mexico. Remember, the state's largest wildfire ever occurring just within the past couple of months across this area. So we do not like to see this type of setup for critical fire weather, but there it is for the day today as it taps into dry conditions and windy, windy weather.

Sara, I'm going to send it back to you in the studio.

SIDNER: And you have just about all of it. You've got the potential of major fires, hail, flooding, and potential tornadoes. People will be having to pay attention to what's happening in their weather in their area.

[07:40:00]

Thank you so much, Derek Van Dam. Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So right now, Israel's war cabinet is meeting and promising to exact a price from Iran after this weekend's attack. We'll have an update on that.

Park rangers are now asking for the public's help to identify these men. They're wanted for destroying ancient rock formations at Lake Mead.

We'll be right back.

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SIDNER: We're standing by right now to see Donald Trump head out of Trump Tower on his way to becoming the first former president ever on criminal trial. Jury selection begins this very morning.

[07:45:00]

He issued a rambling social media post overnight. In summary, he is clearly very unhappy that he's facing charges of falsifying documents to cover a relationship with an adult film actress.

This trial could last somewhere around six weeks. And this morning, we're getting new reporting on how Donald Trump intends to campaign during that time.

Joining me now, Sarah Matthews, former White House deputy press secretary for Donald Trump. And, CNN senior political commentator, Van Jones. Thank you both for coming in on this historic morning.

Van, first, can you just speak to the nature of what we are about to witness in this country -- a former president heading to a felony trial?

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You know -- I mean, we use the term unprecedented over and over and over again with this president, but this is truly unprecedented. This is not, like, a bizarre tweet or some weird thing he said or did, or some lie. This is a criminal proceeding against a former President of the United States. I don't think you had a former president get a traffic ticket that I can remember in my lifetime. So this is a big deal.

This is not the case that is about the attack on the Capitol. It's not about the stolen documents. It is about his pattern and practice of lying and stealing and trying to bend the rules to his benefit, paying off somebody to make sure that he didn't have to pay -- to be held accountable seven years ago. He's going to be held accountable now.

SIDNER: Sarah, I'm curious about -- because Van just bringing this up. This is the first criminal trial that is coming forward -- this hush money case about falsifying documents.

What do you make of this being the first one? And does it, in any way, play in Trump's favor?

SARAH MATTHEWS, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESWOMAN, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: I do think it does play in Trump's favor. Look, this was also the first indictment to be handed down to him and I think that kind of set the tone then for further indictments.

This one -- while I believe that there is evidence to justify it, it did seem like the prosecutor in this case is maybe stretching the charges a bit. These are misdemeanors that he's elevating to be felonies and the legal theory there is a little shaky for it. And I think that serves to help Trump.

And I think the other cases that he's facing and the charges are much more serious, and so I would have liked to see those come first. Who knows if we'll even get trials for those ones before Election Day?

And so, this being the first case to go to court, I think does kind of make it -- it helps Trump to his advantage because I think it furthers his narrative of this being politically motivated.

And I'm not saying that justice shouldn't be served here. Obviously, if the facts warrant it and they make a strong case, then he should be convicted. But I just do think that out of all of the cases he's facing this seems to be the weakest one.

SIDNER: There is a gag order in place. I just want to give you a sense of what Trump told a crowd of his supporters in Pennsylvania this weekend about the trial. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On Monday, in New York City, I will be forced to sit fully gagged -- I'm not allowed to talk. Do you believe it? They want to take away my constitutional right to talk. I have a crooked judge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So, he's not fully gagged. He can talk -- obviously, he's talking there -- but he just can't talk about the family members of those who are in the court and/or the witnesses as well.

Sarah, to you. Do you expect Donald Trump to simply use this as a campaign stop every single day since there are cameras there every day and he has to be in court every single day of this trial?

MATTHEWS: Yeah. Obviously, this isn't an ideal situation for someone running for president. He's going to be off the trail for about two months. I believe it's Wednesdays and the weekends are the only days he won't be required to appear in court. So Team Trump is definitely going to use this to their advantage as much as they can and try to use the media coverage to get as much exposure.

While this trial is not going to be televised, he'll obviously be holding press conferences before and after. But then, you do run into the issue of is he going to be heated after court proceedings and maybe violate his gag order. And so, if I'm his lawyers, I probably don't want him to be holding press conferences as much. But if I'm his political team, I would. And so, that's the issue that he's going to run into with trying to campaign from a courtroom.

SIDNER: Van, how do you see this playing out? Because so many polls sort of show people as they're watching this. Some of them say some Trump supporters might fall off if he's convicted. But how do you see this playing out politically?

JONES: Well, you know, his game is the system is trying to put me on trial. I'm going to put the system on trial. I'm going to attack everything and everybody and I'm going to try and make myself be a victim. He's weird, man. He's playing this -- like, this pity party game -- and so, trying to get pity on the way to the -- back to the presidency.

And depending on how you see this, this is either some attempt -- to your point. maybe too late and maybe not the right one, but just some attempt to have some accountability.

[07:50:00]

If anybody watching this show had done .1 percent of the stuff that Donald Trump is being charged with -- 90-plus -- 80-plus felony counts, you'd be under the bed crying. You wouldn't be trying to get the top job in the world -- you'd be just trying to hold onto your house and your family.

And so, the idea that this guy has done so much stuff and gets no accountability at all -- for a lot of people it doesn't sit well. So they're glad to see some accountability. Other people see it differently. They see it as he's being picked on by the system.

And so, you'll see Trump make the case for himself. I think the rest of -- the rest of the judicial system and the rest of normal America needs to just keep this in the four corners of did he commit this crime? Did he lie about it? Did he pay hush money? Did he do it and was it lawful? And if it's lawful, he should be held accountable just like anybody else. SIDNER: Yeah. Van, I want to stick with you here and talk to you about what's happening with the Biden administration and President Biden and Israel. You know, Americans feel very strongly about how Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas War. And if you take a look at some of the polling it say, look, they basically disapprove of how he has been handling this war.

At the same time, you have had this unprecedented retaliatory attack from Iran directly onto Israeli soil.

How does he thread the needle here with his -- with his voting base, many of whom are very upset with what's happening in Gaza, what's happening with the people there -- the catastrophe that's unfolding there humanitarily? And then, you have this other side of things where you see Iran actually attacking Israel for the first time like this.

JONES: Look, some things are above politics. When you have -- look, there are a billion Chinese people, a billion Africans -- there's a billion Indians. There's only 15 million Jewish people left on Planet Earth. Half of them live in Israel. And when they are under existential threat you have to protect and you're supposed to protect that tiny, precious minority. And he has done that and he's going to continue to do that.

Now, what he should do is come before the American people and explain the threat of Iran. I remember after 9/11, you had George W. Bush come out and just explain to people what is al Qaeda. Who are these people? What are they about and what are they trying to do? I didn't like where George W. Bush went after that but he at least explained to people this is a major global threat.

I don't -- I think we spend so much time talking, as we should, about what's happening in Gaza, what's happening in Israel, the hostages, et cetera. I don't think people understand that Iran is a much bigger threat than just to Israel. They have proxies all throughout Africa. They have proxies all throughout Asia. And they are destabilizing the world with their Jihadist agenda.

He has to explain that this is now a much bigger fight. It's not just about Gaza, it's about Jihadist terror against Western civilization. He's got to explain that -- and when he does it, I think he's going to be able to get more support.

But regardless, whether it's popular or unpopular, you cannot allow half of the remaining Jewish people in the world to be bombarded by military from a Jihadist regime like Iran and not respond.

SIDNER: Sarah Matthews and Van Jones, thank you both so much. I appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: On that front, Israel's war cabinet is meeting right now to discuss its response to the Iranian strike. Let's get an update on what's coming from that meeting. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, what are you hearing now?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this meeting began nearly an hour and a half ago, I'm told, and this heated debate between the war cabinet members is certainly continuing. They are reviewing various military options that could be executed to respond to Iran's attack on Israel over the weekend. But certainly, there are differing views on the war cabinet in terms of how quickly and how big Israel's response to this attack from Iran should be.

I'm told that Benny Gantz, a key member of the war cabinet who also happens to be Prime Minister Netanyahu's chief political rival, has been pushing for a much swifter response than what we have seen so far. Whereas, the Israeli prime minister has actually pumped the brakes so far on making a decision about exactly what type of response and when to give the order to carry out that response to Israel's military.

There are both domestic and political calculations at play, as well as those on the international stage. We know that multiple countries, including Israel's allies, have been urging Israel to move and to proceed with restraint, taking into account the fact that only a few of those ballistic missiles that were fired at Israel actually hit their targets, causing what the Israeli military has described as light damage to an air base in southern Israel.

And then there are the domestic political calculations. And for the Israeli prime minister, who relies on a government that has significant elements of the far-right here in Israel -- he is being pressured by his right flank to go big. To carry out a significant military response to Iran that sends a message and that makes clear that this first attack -- first Iranian attack on Israeli soil cannot go unpunished.

[07:55:00]

There's certainly a consensus that some kind of response is going to need to happen, but the question now is when and exactly how significant that response will be -- John.

BERMAN: All right, Jeremy Diamond for us, watching this meeting. Keep us posted, Jeremy.

In the meantime, with us, CNN military analyst and retired general Mark Hertling. General, just so people know, this was -- and I don't use the word massive very often -- this was an enormous strike -- an attempted strike by Iran. More than 300 projectiles shot at Israel -- 170 drones, 120 ballistic missiles, 30 cruise missiles. This is a huge attack, largely unsuccessful, right? Almost no success at all for Iran.

But as you look at the situation now and as the Israeli war cabinet is meeting, what do you think the possible responses could be?

GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. ARMY EUROPE AND SEVENTH ARMY (via Webex by Cisco): You know, to reinforce, John, your comments about this being huge, let me give a comparison real quickly. The first day of the so-called shock and awe campaign in the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States, 500 precision weapons were used. In this case, you've got over 300 in a five-hour period. So this was a significant attack.

To answer your question of what's going to happen next, that debate going on -- I think we should mention that Benny Gantz is a former chief of the Iraqi Defense Forces, so he has a significant amount of intelligence and information about how to strike.

But I think Israel realizes they have improved their strategic messaging position by defending so well against this massive attack that could have been catastrophic. I'm going to throw that in there, too. It could have killed a lot of civilians and damaged a lot of infrastructure within that small area that is Israel.

But you're going to see the potential for kinetic strikes in return, but I also think you're going to see more covert measures. Israel has just a brilliant capability in cyber offensive operations and defensive operations.

They are going to be able to say to Iran we stopped your strike. We're going to do things to you. You won't know when those things are going to occur, and it's going to affect your country significantly. And by doing that, they're still going to stay in the catbird seat in terms of their messaging and their strategic position.

BERMAN: So, while it's possible that Israel does respond directly and maybe soon, you see it less a strike inside Iran, for instance, than maybe some kind of covert activity striking against them either inside Iran or somewhere else?

HERTLING: I do. I see a combination of both small, overt actions that prove that they are ready to respond. But also, probably, massive covert actions -- both special operators and cyber attacks potentially against the Iranian regime.

BERMAN: So, General, this was -- this attack was largely thwarted but it included assistance from the United States, from France, from Britian, from Jordan, including having these missiles being shot down by those aircrafts outside of Israel.

How much could Israel do if it did not have help?

HERTLING: Certainly, not as much, John. And you're right -- this was a significant multinational operations not just -- I mean, we see the shooting down piece of it -- the trigger-pullers. What we don't see is the refuelers, the intelligence gatherers. The planes that direct aircraft to different locations. The integrated air defense. All of that is a part of it.

And when you have as many countries involved with highly technical capabilities in this area on a defensive positioning, that's why you saw the success that we saw the other night.

So, yes, could Israel do something? Certainly. They have a very capable and modern, technologically advanced force. But they couldn't do something on the scale that we saw on Saturday night. It's just impossible for them to do it. BERMAN: We've got about 30 seconds left, General. Are you surprised that Iran was not able to get more success here? Does this give you a different perspective of their capabilities?

HERTLING: Well, not so much of their capabilities, John, but their methods. And it's the same thing we saw in the Russia -- with the Russians in Ukraine. They weren't very good at what they did. And the reason I say that is because they could have massed the drones, the ballistic missiles, the cruise missiles in one large strike. But instead of massing them and doing them in a synchronized way, what they did is use them sequentially.

So we were -- you know, the multinational force was able to pick off different ways of weapons as they came into the area of operations and they certainly telegraphed what they were going to do. But there was a great deal of intelligence that was prepared for this.

It was the techniques that Iran used as well as just their capability. They certainly have some capabilities and they have a lot of them, just like Russia does. So the countering of this kind of action, unlike what Russia does -- they synchronize their operations with a lot of things going in at one time. Iran was very bad in terms of sequencing their different weapons systems.