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Trump Comments before Cameras; Trump Speaks about Trial; Israel Strikes Iran; Police Detain Man in Paris. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 19, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Moving to New York.

But this is a rigged case. And this is a case that was put in very strongly because of politics. So, instead of being in Pennsylvania, or Georgia or North Carolina, or lots of other places today, I'm sitting in a courthouse all day long. This is going on for the week. And this will go on for another four or five weeks. And it's very unfair. And people know - and people know it's very unfair.

The gag order has to come off. People are allowed to speak about me and I have a gag order, just to show you how much more unfair it is. And the conflict has to end with the judge. The judge has a conflict, the worst I've ever seen. And it has to end with the judge.

The gag order has to come off. I shouldn't be allowed to speak. Every time I come out to speak to you, I want to be open because we did absolutely nothing wrong. I showed you yesterday 30 stores, 32 stories of experts, legal experts, and I don't have one the other way. Thirty- two stores of legal experts saying very strongly, there's no case - this is a case that shouldn't have been brought. Trump did nothing wrong. And they say it (INAUDIBLE), Trump did nothing wrong.

So, they ought to get rid of the conflict with the judge, because that's something that he cannot do anything about. It's wrong. It's wrong.

And the second thing is, I have to released of a gag order. They've taken away my constitutional rights to speak. And that includes speaking to you. I have a lot to say to you and I'm not allowed to say it. And I'm the only one. Everyone else can say whatever they want about me. They can say anything they want. They can continue to make up lies and everything else. They lie. They're real scum.

But, you know what, I'm not allowed to speak. And I want to be able to speak to the press - the press and everybody else about it. So, why am I gagged about telling the truth? I'm only telling the truth. They're not telling the truth. The judge has to take off this gag order. It's very, very, unfair that my constitutional rights have been taken away.

Thank you very much.

QUESTION: Are you going to keep posting about (INAUDIBLE)?

QUESTION: Do you want to talk about (INAUDIBLE)?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's Donald Trump right there headed into court today for jury selection. He made a statement before entering complaining about the gag order that is in place over him. Not very gagged right there I will say.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: No. Right.

BERMAN: He very much spoke his mind and he, I think, was misleading people about what this gag order is. It's about some very specific things, correct?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, he says, I shouldn't be allowed to speak. He is allowed to speak. There are three categories of speech that forbid Trump to speak about. Speaking publicly or directly about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses in the case. That he's not allowed to speak of. Specifically concerning their potential participation in the case.

Another one is speaking publicly or directly about prosecutors - prosecutors other than Bragg in the case, about staff members of Bragg's office in court, and about family members of prosecutors, staffers, or the court. And talking directly about the jurors and prospective jurors in the case.

He can attack Bragg all he wants. He can defend himself all he wants. He can say that he thinks the case is unfair all he wants. He can talk about what he calls a conflicted judge, though we can fact check that all he wants. These are the three categories that are part of the - are the gag order. And he's got a lot of leeway outside of it.

BERMAN: Jury.

SIDNER: Yes. Witnesses.

BERMAN: Witnesses. Family members of people involved.

SIDNER: Right.

BERMAN: And just one other quick thing he continues to say, this is a prosecution from the White House.

SIDNER: Right.

BERMAN: That is not true at all. This is a New York state case full stop.

SIDNER: The thing is, he's not gagged.

BERMAN: Right.

SIDNER: He has been talking and talking and talking. And he's been going after the judge, going after just the prosecutor. But there is this other big issue because there could be a stronger or a fine or something that comes forward because of something Donald Trump did say about the jury on Truth Social.

Let's get to Brynn Gingras, who is outside of the court, has been following all of these details.

Brynn, what can you tell us after hearing those statements? Probably the longest statements we've heard actually from him in the last day or two.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, Sara, I have to be honest with you, I didn't fully here exactly what he was saying. I can't hear it in my ear. But essentially I'm sure this is something that could likely be brought up when court starts up at 9:30 this morning. Remember, prosecutors have already said they believe Trump has violated the gag order seven more times. That was after the initial time they brought it before the judge, saying that they wanted to fine Trump for three different social media posts and they wanted to fine him $1,000 each for those posts. And the Trump - the judge, rather, said that he would take that up at a hearing on Tuesday. So, let's see what they bring up on Tuesday. Let's see what they bring up in court when it gets started at 9:30 this morning, anything that he did just say outside of that courtroom.

Certainly the gag order is a major issue for these prosecutors. We know that at the end of court yesterday, Trump's defense team essentially said, hey, listen, we want to know the order of the witnesses that you're going to start with once this trial gets going.

[09:05:03]

And the prosecution said, no, because they don't believe that Trump will not go on social media and talk about these witnesses. So, it's very possible that the public doesn't know, Trump's defense team doesn't know the order of these witnesses. Of course, they know the witness list, just not the order. And the judge agreed with the prosecution with this - with this request that the prosecution essentially made.

So, the gag order is a major issue. But, again, we'll see if it comes up when court gets started in not too long from now, 25 minutes.

SIDNER: OK. Brynn, thank you so much. I think when you - when you look at this case in particular, can you just give us a sense of where we are right now because we do have the 12 jurors, what is left before we believe there may be opening statements on Monday.

GINGRAS: Yes. Yes, so there's a couple things left. Essentially they need to find more alternates. There is one alternate. It's unclear how much the judge wants. Initially he said six, but it's possible they don't need that many. But that is the objective for today, at least for this morning, is to find those alternate jurors.

We know that there are 22 jurors that are going to come forward and essentially go through that 42 questionnaire as they search for these extra alternates.

Now, remember, each side, the defense and the prosecution, had ten strikes when it came to the jurors. What we're understanding is, when it comes to the alternates, both sides actually have two strikes for each alternate, for each person that they're questioning for these positions. So it is expected to not take too, too long. They do think that they will wrap this up before the lunch break.

And then into the afternoon, it's possible the judge said they will get into what is called a Sandoval (ph) hearing. And essentially what that is, is figuring out exactly what of Trump's legal history can be addressed if Donald Trump takes the witness stand. We know from a previous filing the prosecution has said that they would like to get into the verdicts from his civil case, also the defamation case with E. Jean Carroll and some other cases. So, this will also be discussed possibly today according to the judge.

And then if that is all done, then possibly we will be seeing opening statements on Monday, guys.

BOLDUAN: All right, let's see what happens first and foremost right now as they're heading into court. Brynn is standing by for us.

Brynn, thank you so much.

Let's bring in CNN legal analyst Elie Honig on this.

So, Donald Trump speaks. Donald Trump, as you heard, Elie, he went off about the gag order, saying that the gag order has to be lifted. He's facing a lot of questions and is going to face a hearing about, did he cross the line and how much next week. What do you think of this extra element that we've learned of, of prosecutors saying they don't want to - they don't want to say who their first witnesses could be because of what Donald Trump could do?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, Kate, that's an example of one way where Donald Trump could actually suffer a meaningful consequences of violating the gag order because prosecutors, as we've been discussing, they now alleged that Donald Trump, in his social media posts, has violated the gag order ten times. And it looks like they're right in most or all of those allegations. The problem though is one of enforcement and discipline. All that the law allows the judge to do is either, a, imposed fines, but under the New York law that the DA cited, only a maximum of $1,000 per incident. That's not going to matter to Donald Trump.

And then the other option is to lock him up, which I think is very unrealistic. And I just don't think is realistically in play here.

Now, the thing for Donald Trump, though, where he's suffering is now, the DA is refusing to give over to the defense lawyers the order of witnesses. And that's a big deal because if you're Donald Trump's team, you head into this weekend, you've seen their witness list, but there's dozens of names on that list. You need to prepare for whoever you're going to be cross-examining potentially on Monday or Tuesday. And if the DA's office is unwilling to give you the order and the judge is unwilling to make them give you the order because they don't want Trump tweeting about them. Then Donald Trump is sort of leaving his own lawyers adrift. So, there's a real consequence to that. BOLDUAN: Elie Honig. Thanks for jumping on, Elie.

Brynn is outside court. We're going to be following it as court's about to get underway in just a few moments. We'll be bringing you updates throughout the morning.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right, we will continue to follow the breaking news from the New York courthouse where Donald Trump just walked in there. There was a lot to dissect about what he said.

In the meantime, more breaking news overnight. Of course, the Israeli strike inside Iran. Apparently a military installation near the city of Isfahan. Now, the fact that Israel and Iran seem to be targeting each other in the open is a new stage in their decades-old conflict.

But the most important developed this morning there seems to be the fact that Israel and Iran are both trying to downplay this. And the world largely seems relieved.

A short time ago, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was not involved in any offensive operations. He also said this.

[09:10:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: You saw Israel on the receiving end of an unprecedented attack. But our focus has been on, of course, making sure that Israel can effectively defend itself, but also de-escalating tensions, avoiding conflict. And that remains our focus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, CNN has learned that the U.S. was informed before the strike.

Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv. Christiane Amanpour standing by in London.

First, Jeremy, what's the latest from inside Israel?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, absolutely no word from the Israeli military, from the Israeli government about these strikes overnight. They seem intend to stay absolutely quiet about what was actually done by Israel overnight. We have heard reports of explosions over that city of Isfahan with Iranian officials saying that at least three drones were intercepted over Isfahan. Isfahan is, of course, very important because not only is it home to a military base, but also to a nuclear facility, although there are no indications that that nuclear facility was targeted.

Syrian state media is also reporting that Israel targeted its air defense assets in - inside of Syria. We also know, of course, that Iran maintains a significant military presence inside of Syria.

And so where does this leave us ultimately? It leaves us with the fact that over the course of the last week we have heard Israeli officials and American officials talking about the fact that Israel was looking for a response that could thread the needle here, that could make clear that this Iranian attack over the weekend, that the first in - of its kind to target Israeli soil, that this attack would not go unanswered. And so this sends a message that that attack was not going to go unanswered, but it also avoids escalating this conflict into all-out war between Iran and Israel.

And as of now, a regional intelligence source is indicating to us that Iran does not intend to respond, but rather that this tit for tat between Israel and Iran, for the moment at least in terms of direct confrontation, appears to be over. And that is significant because last night we had heard the Iranian foreign minister warning that an Israeli attack on Iranian soil would draw an immediate and an overwhelming military response from Iran. And clearly that has not happened.

So, it seems, at least for the moment, that we have hit that kind of balance of the ability to de-escalate this going forward and the United States is now instead focusing on a global coalition to further isolate Iran, which very much suits the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, thank you.

BOLDUAN: So, also with us, as John mentioned, CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour.

Christiane, on that point that Jeremy was making, the reporting, the sense is that this is - this phase, this moment, this has passed. No, it's not going to escalate further right now.

The question then is, what does happen next?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, I think it's really interesting because as Jeremy mentions, the Iranian foreign minister did tell CNN, Erin Burnett, last night that if there was to be an attack, it would be responded to. The president even said that, the Iranian president, yesterday said that. So that is why they are saying that nothing happened so that they don't have to follow through with retaliation.

We've also heard, as Jeremy said, from actually an Iranian official telling the "Reuters" agency that they had no plans to retaliate because the only explosions were their own, they say, anti-aircraft defense system and that they intercepted and infiltration - these are the words that they are using as a way to essentially try to draw a line under this. Because while both sides - I mean this needle threading business at some point is - the thread is going to snap, frankly, because it's been a whole bunch of miscalculations, attack going back in this chapter to April the 1st. The United States was totally surprised when it was told at the last minute that Israel planned to attack that building, that consulate, that facility in Syria.

If you look at it, it's been completely obliterated and it did, in fact, take out several senior Iranian military officials. So, they didn't think that that would engender an Iranian response. Why? Because Israel's be doing this stuff for years. It has been covertly and overtly acting in order to eliminate officials over the last several years. And Iran never attacked and never responded.

So, there's been a whole series of miscalculations and it looks like now they are trying to say, I can do it to you. You can do it to me. We can all do it to each other, but we don't want to go into all-out war. So, that appears to be what's happening right now.

I spoke to an Israeli general just before this attack happened and he said, Israel had to do - needed to do three things. One, respond to last weekend's aerial barrage from Iran. Two, not take its focus off the war in Gaza.

[09:15:01]

And, three, not lose the sudden goodwill that Israel has gained from the international community after Iran struck it. Remember, Israel was definitely on the defensive over its - its counteroffensive in Gaza, which is causing so much civilian casualties.

SIDNER: You know, the G-7 was meeting when this strike happened overnight. Antony Blinken spoke today and was really clear over and over and over again talking about de-escalation. How do you think world leaders are looking at this right now as they see this back-and- forth, but they also see that neither Israel or Iran are on the attack verbally?

AMANPOUR: Well, I mean, they presumably hope, like presumably everybody does, that this is not going to escalate, and that what's happened over the last week anyway is now contained. We don't know what will happen in the future because there is an actual hot war continuing Israel against Gaza and against Hamas. So, that is a major issue that continues. And Iran, although the U.S. and Israeli intelligence confirmed there was no evidence that suggests Iran had anything to do with the slaughter of October 7th, nonetheless, Iran is an interested party watching this war in Gaza. And this war is causing a huge amount of anxiety, not just in the western alliance, but around the region, as you can imagine, as the pictures and the reality of 34,000 plus dead people in Gaza in six months, the vast majority of those. Even according to the Israeli general I spoke to, the vast majority of those being civilians.

So, this has to - boils down now to some kind of, you know, leadership in the world to try to fix what's happening between Israel and Gaza. And there's no suggestion that this may happen.

Even yesterday, Qatar, which has been the only essential mediator, certainly, with the Hamas side, is saying it's going to have to re- evaluate its role because it doesn't believe it's being treated as an actual in good faith and that a load of politics is derailing the mediation effect - events as they stand now. BOLDUAN: Christiane, thank you so much for coming on. It's great to see you.

Christine is going to have much more, of course, throughout the day in her own reporting.

Still ahead for us, President Biden said the United States would not support an Israeli offensive operation against Iran after the strike last night. What will we hear from President Biden today.

We're following breaking news out of Paris still. Police say a man was seen entering the Iranian consulate in Paris carrying a grenade or an explosive vest. We'll have an update for you.

And a win for House Speaker Mike Johnson after Democrats come to his rescue in a key vote on the foreign - on the foreign aid bills. The next test happening on the House floor very soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:37]

BERMAN: All right, just in to CNN, Paris police have now detained a suspect that was seen carrying a grenade or an explosive vests into Iran's diplomatic building. This has obviously caused concern across the diplomatic community. The U.S. embassy has tweeted a security alert. French authorities are warning people to stay away from the area, which is just across the river from the Eiffel Tower.

It also comes, obviously, as we've been following the breaking news between Israel and Iran, Israel conducting a strike inside Iran near the city the Isfahan. This does not, as far as we know at this point, seem in any way connected to that.

Let's get right to CNN's Melissa Bell, who is with us with the latest.

Melissa, if you can hear me, from Paris, what are you learning?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, what we've seen over here in Paris, you can't quite see, and the police have just moved us around so you're not going to see very much behind my shoulder, a huge police operation going on here in central Paris in the western neighborhoods. And that's because what we heard a few hours ago was that there was a man that police said had been seen entering the Iranian consular building carrying what seemed to be either an explosive vest or a grenade. They weren't hearing exactly what kind of arming. He was certainly armed as he entered the consulate.

We're not hearing much about what went on while he was inside, weather or if there were - what sort of negotiations there were inside the building. What we understand from Paris police is that he's now left the building and is now in police custody and undergoing questions. So, for the time being, more questions than answers really at this stage. Why he went into the embassy armed, how he got in there in the first place, and what his intentions were. But certainly a huge police operation here in central Paris. Several metro lines closed down. An entire part. These western neighborhoods of Paris entirely cordoned off because this is a city, of course, remember, that is on high alert. We'd seen, over the course of the last few years, since that big wave of terror attacks a few years ago here in Paris, the number of military personnel out in the streets of France kept at a maximum of about 3,000.

After the Moscow attacks last month, you saw that number doubled. So, Paris was put on its maximum state of alert. And that police operation you're seeing going on, on those images, the result of that. A very quick police presence around this building as soon as it emerged that an armed man had entered.

BERMAN: Obviously, Olympics coming up in Paris, not too distant from now. Obviously concerns around the world heightened right now in this overall security environment.

[09:25:02]

Melissa Bell, let us know when you hear. Thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: A jury is set and Donald Trump is back in a New York courtroom again today. What well opening statements look like as they could begin Monday.

House Democrats came to Speaker Johnson's rescue overnight in a key vote. Will they do the same today as critical foreign aid bills make their way to the House floor?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:03]

SIDNER: Just moments ago we saw a very frustrated Donald Trump railing against the gag order on him. Just before he entered the courtroom