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Donald Trump's Hush Money Trial; Following Protests, Numerous People Taken into Custody, Including Two Professors, at Emory University in Georgia; Fourth Day of Criminal Trial, Trump Set to Appear in Court; Last Month, Inflation Increased More Quickly Than Anticipated; For Halting Traffic on Baltimore Bridge Just Before it Collapsed, Three Officers Received Accolades; Chinese President Xi and Secretary Blinken Met in Beijing. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 26, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: University of Southern California has just announced that they are going to cancel the main stage ceremonies for graduation because they don't feel like they can secure the campus enough. Is there any concern that that may happen here? And I ask that because these students that will be graduating that will be walking, did not get to walk on their high school graduations because of COVID. Has anyone been talking about that there?

MADI OLIVIER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE EMORY WHEEL: I've not heard anything from admin that would suggest they are going to cancel it, but I have heard a few students concerned about it. I think, like, for the reason you said, they didn't get to graduate in high school. But I think that's people concerned because they heard about USC, obviously, so -- I haven't heard anything about it happening at Emory for sure.

SIDNER: Madi Olivier, thank you so much for speaking to me today and explaining all of the reporting that you guys have been doing there.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: All right. Very shortly, we will be back inside a New York courtroom. Donald Trump's criminal trial for covering up hush money payments to Stormy Daniels allegedly resumes shortly. It is the meat of the cross examination. That's Trump Tower we're looking at right there, live pictures. We are waiting to see Donald Trump leave. Stay with CNN for our special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:00]

BERMAN: All right. This was just moments ago. Donald Trump leaving Trump Tower, heading down to the courthouse here in Manhattan for the New York criminal trial. He is charged with falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Testimony begins very shortly. On the stand will be David Pecker, who used to run the "National Enquirer". He is in the middle of cross examination this morning.

Let's discuss what just happened and what is about to happen. With me, Defense Attorney and Former Prosecutor Randy Zelin and CNN Legal Analyst and Former Federal Prosecutor Michael Moore. I just want to read a little bit of what was one of the key points for the prosecution in direct to set the stage for where we are right now.

One of the things the prosecution tried to do is suggest that the payments to Karen McDougal, ultimately to Stormy Daniels as well, were about the campaign. And just the campaign, or mostly the campaign. So, there's this exchange from prosecutor Josh Steinglass. After Mr. Trump announced his candidacy for president, did he ever say anything to you that indicated he was concerned about what Melania Trump or Ivanka Trump would think about these affairs?

David Pecker says, no. And just before that, he said that it was about the campaign. He was worried about the campaign.

Randy, to you, why was that important for the prosecution? How effective do you think that argument was?

RANDY ZELIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY AND FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, it was important because it certainly now creates a bridge from the former president's brain to the allegations in the case. Because, remember, it's got to be a specific other crime. The false entries are simply a misdemeanor. To get to the felony, you've got to be doing it in furtherance of another crime. Here we have the election fraud. So, what Mr. Pecker testified to now allows the jury to link the former president to election fraud.

Is it a big deal? No, I don't think it's a big deal at all. John, quite frankly, a trial is all about whose story makes more sense. Whose story is more credible. Who do I like better? And right now, this is all old news. It is a victimless crime. It is so old, and I don't think it has any impact on the election at all, which is all the former president really cares about.

BERMAN: I want to come back to that point in just a second because you do raise some interesting questions that haven't been discussed in detail yet, but I want to stick to the testimony just now.

Michael Moore, to you, you do think it was important to make that campaign link for the prosecution. What does the defense in cross need to do to undo the gains that the prosecution made?

MICHAEL MOORE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST AND FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yes, well, I'm glad to be with both of you this morning. You know, it was good testimony for the prosecution to get out and make that link. I mean, there is maybe a tendency by some to throw a party every time the campaign word is mentioned in this trial. That's not going to be enough. They're going to have to tie in the fact that there was an intent to do this to actually influence the election, they have not done that yet.

But they're trying to work their way and build the blocks. You think about a house would lay it bricks for the foundation, and that's kind of what they are doing is brick by brick, trying to get information out. The cross examination then brought out good information to the contrary. And that was that this is normal.

What we're -- what -- what's happened here is normal. These stories, this paying people for this checkbook journalism, that's normal. So, that's so contradicting and deflating, if you will, the prosecution's bubble about the fact that this was campaign because Mr. Pecker testified there are celebrities that do this. We do this for the politicians. We do this for people. Trump's certainly not the originator of this idea to do this catch and kill practice.

And so, you're watching now with -- through the cross examination, some chiseling away of the foundation that the prosecution has been trying to build over these last few days. So, that will continue today. I would urge that a trial though is a little bit like a small roller coaster. There are a lot of ups and downs and you don't get to the big hill until the end. So, we're going to be watching sort of the back-and-forth match between the defense team and the prosecution team for the next few weeks. That would be good days for both.

BERMAN: And as you get older, motion sickness does come into play on some of these roller coasters.

MOORE: That's exactly right.

[08:40:00]

BERMAN: Randy, you said this is all old news and something everyone has said. So, I'm going to ask you this question, somewhat facetiously here. But the jury, they're not supposed to read any coverage of this. This is a jury that's supposed to be completely oblivious to the world around them, is that not the case, Randy?

ZELIN: It is not the case. They're not from Pluto. They are from planet Earth, and they are from Manhattan. Of course they know. Here, as I said, John, a trial is all about whose story makes more sense? And Michael makes a great point because this case is going to be one for the defense if they can turn the government witnesses into their own witnesses. What we call a constructive cross examination.

The more you can show through David Pecker that this is done all the time. The more you can show through David Pecker that Michael Cohen was running the show. He's the fixer. The more you can show that this is what the former president does. He surrounds people, pays them and says, make this all stuff go away. I don't care how you do it.

You do that, the jury is left with eyes glazed over, and at least one of them is going to say, I'm not convicting. A hung jury is a win for the former president, just like an acquittal is a win for him.

BERMAN: You know, and I hear you say that, and you make a persuasive case, but it also helps me understand maybe some of what the prosecution was doing here by bringing up specific conversations that Donald Trump had with David Pecker, according to David Pecker, about Karen McDougal, about Stormy Daniels. And Michael, I do understand that in and of themselves, there may not be any illegality in those conversations. But if a trial is all about the impressions made, the jury sitting there, I imagine going, huh, that's interesting. Donald Trump is asking a lot about Karen McDougal, this former Playboy playmate. What impression does that leave the jury?

MOORE: Well, sort of in a using a worn-out analogy of "The Godfather" here. If you think about the godfather sitting back and just sort of asking these benign questions, showing some interest in what's going on without maybe giving the command to do the bad deed or to continue to say, well, I'm thinking about this and this has been -- it's a very, good idea you've had there without actually giving the affirmative statement to go do something, you know, that's sort of what we're seeing.

And I think that's going to be the argument the prosecution has to make here because there is no question that Michael Cohen is the man in the middle doing the work. I mean, he's out there talking to David Pecker and doing checks and running accounts and -- I mean, that's his thing.

And so, he's going to have his own problems on cross. But this effort by the prosecution makes a lot of sense to me, whether it's successful, we'll see. But they have to tie Trump to this, you know, we can talk about that there's a conspiracy. There's an agreement. But we have -- they're going to have to put some meat on the bones of those allegations if they intend to have a shot to get a guilty verdict in the case.

BERMAN: Randy, I'll let both you go in 20 seconds left, who is the next witness you would put on the stand if you were the prosecution?

ZELIN: Michael Cohen, let's cut to the chase.

BERMAN: That would make for a big Friday, to be sure. Randy Zelin and Michael Moore, really interesting perspective. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Breaking economic news for you this morning. Stubbornly high new inflation numbers out right now, showing the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, accelerated to 2.7 percent for the year ending in March.

Here to dig deeper into this, CNN Business and Economy Reporter Matt Egan. This is not the number that investors wanted to see, that consumers wanted to see, nor the Biden administration wanted to see, correct?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMY REPORTER: That's right, Sara. That's definitely right. This is going to just reinforce the sense that inflation is sort of stuck. Not as bad as two years ago, but not good either. Let's look at these numbers. Prices up by 0.3 percent between February and March. That was flat. That was as expected. But the big number is 2.7 percent, that's the annual increase in prices.

This is moving in the wrong direction, and it was hotter than expected. Let's look at the trend for this number, because this is the big one that the Fed really looks at. And you can see two things that stand out from this chart. One, we've made a lot of progress, right? This metric was above seven percent two years ago, we're miles away from that.

But the other thing that stands out is the progress has sort of stalled out, and actually the rate of inflation is starting to tick a little bit higher. And that is concerning because again, 2.7 percent, the Fed, remember, is targeting two percent. Now, even if you remove food and energy, which can be volatile, this metric was at 2.8 percent. Again, that's above two percent.

So, here's why all these numbers matter. At the end of the day, I know there's a lot of inflation metrics and it can be confusing. We're talking about the cost of living. The higher this chart goes, the bigger the numbers are, the more expensive life is for all of us. Obviously, food, gasoline, housing are the big ones, but then there's other stuff like car insurance is getting more expensive, baby formula, the cost to repair your car, the cost to bring your pet to the vet. All of those things have gotten more expensive.

[08:45:00]

And the other reason why this is all very important is because the cost of borrowing is expensive right now. So, you think about credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and the hope had been that inflation would cool off enough to allow the Fed to start lowering interest rates, which would be nice for all of us. But the fact that it hasn't yet and progress is sort of stalled out suggested the Fed is not going to be able to lower interest rates anytime soon. And so, your point, Sara, these big implications for the market for the economy and even for the election.

SIDNER: Definitely politically, there are implications because this is really, really stubborn, and you're seeing a tiny trend up. They were expecting -- what, 2.6. It was 2.7.

EGAN: Yes.

SIDNER: Still up from last month.

EGAN: Absolutely.

SIDNER: Matt Egan, appreciate you.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: So, this morning, a trio of officers going beyond the call of duty and saving lives as Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge was collapsing. The officer's decision to stop traffic changed everything for so many drivers. CNN's Gabe Cohen has a story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need one of you guys on the south side, one of you guys on the north side. Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A mayday call just seconds before Baltimore's Key Bridge collapses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a ship approaching that just lost their steering.

COHEN (voice-over): Three officers from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police race in to keep cars off the bridge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm en route to the south side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm holding traffic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just make sure no one's on the bridge right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a crew up there. You might want to notify whoever the foreman is to see if we can get them off the bridge temporarily.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4. Once the other unit gets here, I'll ride up on the bridge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dispatch, the whole bridge just fell down.

COHEN (voice-over): They didn't reach the workers in time, and six members of an eight man crew lost their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we know if all traffic was stopped?

COHEN (voice-over): But they did manage, in a matter of seconds, to stop traffic.

Gayle Fairman, an Uber driver, was seconds from disaster.

GAIL FAIRMAN, UBER DRIVE WHO MISSED BRIDGE COLLAPSE BY SECONDS: That was, like, right up front.

COHEN: How do you wrap your head around how close you came to being on that bridge?

FAIRMAN: Lucky.

COHEN: Still processing it.

FAIRMAN: Sometimes.

COHEN: What do you think of the work of those officers that morning?

FAIRMAN: I mean, it saved our lives. It saved me and my rider's lives and who knows how many other lives.

COHEN (voice-over): These are the officers, Sergeant Paul Pastorek, K-9 unit, 13 years on the force. Corporal Jeremy Herbert, Central Command Detachment, 19-year veteran. And Officer Gary Kirts, Central Command Detachment, six years with MDTA Police. They aren't speaking to the media yet, but the accolades are pouring in. The Baltimore Orioles honored them in the days after the collapse, and they have earned praise from Maryland's Governor, Wes Moore.

GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): It's almost difficult to put into words how heroic their actions were. The fact that you had people who were willing to go towards a danger instead of away from it. The people who were still driving to go over the bridge, they would not have known it collapsed. It was dark. So, they should have kept on driving. And so, the amount of lives that they saved, it was countless. And so, we all owe them a deep sense of gratitude.

FAIRMAN: Yes.

COHEN (voice-over): A feeling shared by Gayle Fairman.

COHEN: What would your message be for those officers?

FAIRMAN: Just thankful. I'm thankful they were there. Definitely grateful for what they do.

COHEN (voice-over): Gabe Cohen, CNN, Baltimore, Maryland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Donald Trump just left for his New York criminal trial. We are waiting to see if he speaks this morning before entering court. We're waiting to see if the judge rules on the gag order, if Donald Trump has been in contempt of court for everything he's said up until this point.

And possible evidence of China interfering in the upcoming November election. What the U.S. Secretary of State just told CNN in an exclusive interview.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:00]

SIDNER: A massive fire tore through a historic pier in Oceanside, California Thursday afternoon. And today, fire crews are still trying to mop up the mess there. A vacant restaurant at the end of the pier caught fire, and it took firefighters hours to put out the flames. Most of the Southern California tourist attraction, though, was actually saved. There is still no word what caused the fire, but we do know that it was lifeguards who first saw it happening and called authorities.

All right. After years of delays and setbacks, NASA and Boeing are moving forward with launching the new Boeing Starliner rocket. It's going to happen May 6th. In a little over a week, the spacecraft will carry two astronauts for the first time up to the International Space Station. If successful, the Starliner will join SpaceX's crew, dragging spacecraft. and making routine trips to the Space Station.

All right. In Hawaii, the state lawmakers are considering legislation reducing the number of those cute rose-ringed parakeets. How come? Because farmers say the birds have been decimating the island's native fruits, things like papayas, and killing trees by stripping off the bark. The legislation would create a one-year pilot program to reduce the population of the islands of Kauai and Oahu. A final vote expected by the end of the week.

Hawaii --

BOLDUAN: I mean, that is --

SIDNER: -- for the birds.

BOLDUAN: I'm sorry. You started and I was like, get over it, Hawaii lawmakers. And then I was like, that's an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I've completely gone 180. Now, those cute little eyes --

SIDNER: Like, I know --

BOLDUAN: -- now, they're freaking me out.

SIDNER: They're destructive, but they are beautiful.

BOLDUAN: I mean --

SIDNER: But they're destructive.

BOLDUAN: -- actually, this really helps me because my daughters want to get a parakeet, want to get a bird.

SIDNER: You're going to show them this story.

BOLDUAN: I'm going to show them this video.

SIDNER: There you go.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

SIDNER: That's good, Mommy.

BOLDUAN: Why? I don't know what to tell you what to do about your problems, but you just solved one mine. Thank you so much.

SIDNER: Fair enough.

BOLDUAN: Glad we have that on record. What am I --

[08:55:00]

SIDNER: Fair enough.

BOLDUAN: -- what am I doing? OK. Let's continue. Donald Trump just arrived at court in New York. The question is, will he speak before cameras, of course, that are waiting outside the courtroom? It is becoming something of a routine from him. And when he does stop to speak to the cameras, he frequently makes claims that range from misleading to baseless to outright false. CNN's Tom Foreman has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Day after day, going in, coming out, Donald Trump is making big claims about his trial. Among the latest, security is keeping thousands of his fans blocks away.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because they don't want any supporters here. They don't want MAGA here. They don't want anybody here. This thing is locked down.

FOREMAN (voice-over): That's false, with no evidence of such crowds anywhere near the court. Still, the former president has had something to say in person or online every time court has been in session, almost always denying the truth.

TRUMP: We've got a real problem with this judge. We've got a real problem with a lot of things having to do with this trial.

FOREMAN (voice-over): From the get go, he insisted his legal troubles were flowing from the current president.

TRUMP: This is all coming from the Biden White House.

FOREMAN (voice-over): That's false. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a locally elected official who does not report to the feds. But Trump has steamed ahead, posting that the D.A. is so busy persecuting Trump, has let violent crime in New York flourish at levels never seen before. And that's false too.

Violent crime is nowhere near its highest level. There were more than 500 murders alone in Manhattan in 1990. Last year, just 73.

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump's illicit acts --

FOREMAN (voice-over): Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen is expected to testify that his one-time boss directed him to pay hush money to a porn star to hide an affair, which Trump denies, and to illegally conceal the payment in falsified records. The gist of the whole case. Cohen went to prison for helping make that happen. But Trump's take?

TRUMP: He got in trouble. He went to jail. This had nothing to do with me.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Trump has said the judge won't let him attend his son's graduation, when no decision has been made and the judge seems sympathetic to Trump's request. Ahead of jury selection, Trump said every legal scholar called the case against him absurd, when that is flatly untrue. And he insists that the gag order makes it impossible for him to defend himself.

TRUMP: Well, I'd love to say everything that's on my mind, but I'm restricted because I have a gag order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking news. Very shortly, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head back to the United States after key meetings in China, including with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The secretary just spoke to CNN national security correspondent

Kylie Atwood moments ago. Kylie joins us from Beijing. Kylie, what did he tell you?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, he said these conversations were certainly better than his conversations with Chinese officials that happened here in Beijing 10 months ago. And that's because he said they were forthright about their differences. But one major point of tension between the U.S. and China that will only grow in the coming months is concerns about China meddling in U.S. elections. Listen to our conversation on that topic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: I want to ask you about a commitment that CNN has reported President Xi made to President Biden when they met in November. We reported that he told President Biden that China would not interfere in the upcoming presidential elections in the United States. But since then, there have been reports of online Chinese accounts that have falsely mimicked Trump supporters. Do you believe that these accounts violate President Xi's commitment?

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: What I can tell you is this, President Biden was very clear about that with President Xi, and I repeated that today in my meetings.

ATWOOD: You repeated what?

BLINKEN: That any interference by China in our election is something that we're looking very carefully at and is totally unacceptable to us. Look, it's something we're tracking very carefully. I can't speak to these specific reports. I can say that as a general matter. We've been very clear with China, don't do it.

ATWOOD: But they're not violating the commitment yet, as far as you can tell?

BLINKEN: Well, again, I have to look at the specific reports that you're referring to. But we have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence and arguably interfere. And we want to make sure that that's cut off as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now, it is noteworthy that he said that there is evidence of China attempting to influence --

[09:00:00]