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Immigration Advocates Bracing For Trump's Mass Deportation Plan; Israeli Minister Pushes For West Bank Settlement Annexation; Richard Allen Found Guilty In Delphi Double Murder Trial; Justice Sotomayor Staying Put Amid Calls To Step Aside; Thomas, Alito Court's Oldest Justices, No Retirement Plans Announced. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 11, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

MIKE MADRID, CO-CHAIR, LEAGUE OF MINORITY VOTERS: Well, look, I think there's always an element that is driven by this. I want to ask the same voices, where we're you 12 years ago when these same voters were setting historic highs for Barack Obama?

Where were you 10 or eight years ago when they were setting historic highs for Hillary Clinton? Where we're you, you know, when Joe Biden was out- performing these Democratic numbers?

And the answer is they were quiet, they were silent, because nobody was paying attention to it.

I've been raising the alarm bells for the better part of a decade, saying this vote is sliding. Only now, only now after 10, 12 years of this decline in the vote, do these accusations of these spurious allegations come out.

There's no truth to this. This is all the impartation of people who, I think, emotionally shocked, and it's understandable.

But to simply blame a minority group when the economic conditions have been really, really difficult for the better part of a decade is disingenuous at best. And I'm trying to be diplomatic about that.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Mike Madrid, we have to leave the conversation there. I appreciate you sharing your perspective with us.

MADRID: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Next, Israel's finance minister is calling for parts of the West Bank to be annexed, citing Donald Trump's election win and support for Israel. We will take you live to Tel Aviv for the latest there.

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[14:35:55]

SANCHEZ: Major developments today in the Middle East. Israel's finance minister telling lawmakers he is beginning preparations for full Israeli sovereignty over West Banks settlements.

And he cites Donald Trump's election victory as giving Israel what he calls "an important opportunity."

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: CNN's Jeremy Diamond is on the ground in Tel Aviv.

And, Jeremy, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have long been controversial. What does this declaration today mean going forward?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly means that this right-wing Israeli government is sensing an opportunity with the incoming Donald Trump presidency.

And, in fact, that's what Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, who also oversees two key departments within the Ministry of Defense, responsible for settlement activity, he tied his decision to lay the groundwork here for annexing these settlements, Israeli settlements in the West Bank directly to Donald Trump's election.

Saying he sees it a, quote, "important opportunity" for the state of Israel. And he's saying that because he believes that President Trump, once he comes into office, would support annexing these Israeli settlements.

Now, we haven't heard directly from Trump on this issue. Certainly, not since Smotrich made this announcement.

But we do know is that, back in 2020, when Trump put out his peace plan at the time, it did, indeed, call for recognizing Israeli settlements inside the West Bank as part of a peace plan that would also see the establishment of a Palestinian state.

And so certainly, Smotrich and other members of the Netanyahu government have reason for optimism that Trump will give the Israeli government much more leeway in the West Bank but also perhaps in Gaza and other areas related to the current war than the Biden administration has.

We know that the Israeli prime minister himself has said that he has spoken with Donald Trump three times now in just the last week. And so that is certainly indicative of a very close relationship that they will have.

Whether or not that includes accepting and recognizing the annexation of Israeli settlements is perhaps another question. And also, we note that the prime minister himself has yet to weigh in on this move by his finance minister -- Brianna, Boris?

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for that important update.

Right now, nations are beating to discuss what can be done to slow and stop global warming. But the expectations are very different after Donald Trump's win last week. We're going to discuss in just moments.

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KEILAR: Breaking news into CNN. There is a verdict in the Delphi double-murder trial of Richard Allen. He has been found guilty.

SANCHEZ: You'll recall he's accused of killing two teenage girls and leaving their bodies near a hiking path in the small town of Delphi, Indiana, seven years ago.

We're joined by CNN's Jean Casarez who has been tracking the case.

So, Jean, the jury, after some 20 hours of deliberation, finding him guilty.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And our affiliate, WTHR, is reporting that the courtroom was quiet. However, the emotion was immensely strong in that courtroom.

Richard Allen himself was stoic as that verdict was read. The police superintendent from the county of Delphi, Indiana, according to our affiliate, put his hands to his face and started to cry as that verdict was read.

He has been on this case from the beginning. This has been an emotional jury. And this has also been an emotional time for the Delphi community, because it was seven years before they were able to charge Richard Allen with this crime. And so much had gone on.

It was because of the tip of a volunteer who had looked in a box, because they didn't know who did this, and they found the name Richard Allen, who worked at the local CVS pharmacy, who had made the copies of photographs for the family before the funerals, free of charge for the families.

That's who they then looked at and that is how the arrest came -- became, and also to this ultimate conviction.

Now, of course, the families of the victims, Abigail Williams and Liberty German, they were in the courtroom. And according to our affiliate, the emotion for these families to have some type of -- not closure, you can never get closure, but justice. That law enforcement did their job and that they have the right man.

This was a unanimous verdict. This is what the jury believed. And this is a case that had no DNA, had no murder weapon. Had confessions.

But also had the picture of Bridge Guy. That was the picture that Liberty German -- and I think we do have that picture -- that Liberty German's phone took minutes before it's believed that these two young girls -- there it is. That's Bridge Guy. That is from Liberty German's phone.

[14:45:03]

And the prosecutors said, at the end of the closing argument, that Liberty German had always said she wanted to help police solve crimes. And that's her picture. And that was exhibit A in this courtroom.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

KEILAR: She solved her own in the end here, perhaps.

I want to bring in Mercedes Colwin, legal analyst and trial attorney, to talk a little about this.

Merecedes, I want -- there was no murder weapon discovered, but there was this bullet that was found near the bodies of the girls. And -- it was unfired.

But once you had bullets fired through the weapon, the six-hour of Richard Allen and compared markings on it, there was a match.

Now there was a defense witness who said that that was nothing conclusive, because a bullet that is unfired versus a bullet that is fired, this is comparing apples to oranges.

It seems the jury did not buy that.

MERCEDES COLWIN, LEGAL ANALYST & TRIAL ATTORNEY: You're exactly right, Brianna. And it really was a ballistics expert that made it clear that there's a strong possibility that that bullet was connected to Richard Allen.

But really, what was the most damning -- and we know that the defense fought so hard to keep those jailhouse confessions out of courtroom -- were those recordings. You can't unhear what Richard Allen said repeatedly to them.

You can't unhear what Richard Allen said repeatedly to his wife. "I killed them, but will you still love me?"

Those were such -- and of course, the defense tried to distance Richard Allen from those confessions, saying we have an expert that says that it was -- that his conditions we're so deplorable in the prison, in solitary confinement, he started to lose reality and that's why he made those confessions. The jury didn't buy that either.

But really, at the end of the day, it was the horrors of what happened to those two young girls and those jailhouse confessions that really brought it home for the families.

SANCHEZ: And, Mercedes, I'm wondering if the defense were to seek appeals here. I imagine they would revert back to the issues that he had when incarcerated. It was, at one point, eating his own feces and acting manically apparently.

Is that the most likely route they would go, do you think?

COLWIN: That's a great point. And, Boris, they will certainly look to appeal. They have to. I mean, they have no choice. They'll look and -- one of the evidentiary rulings will be the, number one, those jailhouse confessions. And to your point, the deplorable conditions that the defense brought

up during the course of the proceedings, saying that those conditions were so terrible that he started to lose reality. He started to lose himself. He started to become crazy, quote/unquote, "crazy" in those circumstances.

And frankly, at the end of the day, you have a constitutional right for a fair trial. If you can point out that any of these evidentiary rulings deprived him of due process and a fair trial, certainly, one will be those tapes. Secondly would be those conditions.

If he can't -- if he, Richard Allen, cannot understand the proceedings -- and it wasn't questioned during that court, but we'll see what happens on appeal. They might bring that up and say that might be the basis for an appeal and try to look for a new trial,

But it is very difficult, as you know, to overturn a jury verdict, especially one of this magnitude.

KEILAR: Jean, seven years this community has waited. They have been traumatized, a very small community, losing these little girls.

CASAREZ: Absolutely. And that permeates the courtroom. I mean, I know from other cases I've covered, that emotion wanting justice, wanting this solved can be very strong in that courtroom.

And I think what Mercedes is saying, the confessions, I think, were critically important because of what he said. He gave very specific details in some of those confessions as to what happened.

That there was a white van and that scared him. And so, because of that, he didn't commit sexual assault as was his plan. Well, there was a white van that a resident had that lived a very close distance away from the crime scene.

And so the defense argued -- he had his legal documents in the cell and he read them. But on the other hand, the specificity, I think, also is something the jury looked at.

SANCHEZ: Our Jean Casarez, Mercedes Colwin, thank you so much for waking us through the details on this breaking news, Richard Allen found guilty in the Delphi double-murder trial.

Thank you so much for that analysis as well.

[14:49:39]

We'll be right back.

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KEILAR: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor now said to be pushing back against calls for her to step down so that President Biden can replace her with another liberal justice before he leaves office.

Sotomayor is 71 years old, and despite having type-one diabetes, she shows no signs of slowing down.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Paula Reid is here.

Paula, some progressives are clearly concerned that she may not be able to serve through the end of Donald Trump's term.

But the press is trying to confirm if the Supreme Court justice is wrought and complicated on its own, never mind a truncated window with an incoming administration.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. Even if you had a qualified nominee, this is something that takes months. And it's unlikely they'd be able to get someone confirmed, which is why sources telling our colleague, John Fritze, that she is not stepping aside.

But we're also seeing these questions sort of percolate on the other side for the conservatives. Some Trump allies raising questions whether Justices Thomas or Alito should step aside and let Trump, President-Elect Trump, once in office, appoint younger successors to solidify his conservative super majority.

Now it's interesting. Leonard Leo, who is widely credited as being the architect of Trump's very successful strategy to create that super majority and stack the court with conservative justices, he entered the chat and he pushed back on the calls.

[14:55:08]

Saying, quote, "No one other than Justices Thomas and Alito knows when and if they will retire. And talking about them like meat that's reached its expiration date is unwise, uninformed and, frankly, just crass."

Notable that he weighed in here. You have to remember, these justices have no bosses. They don't tend to take kindly to calls for them to step down.

The ghost of Ruth Bader Ginsburg looms large here. And remember, with Justice Breyer, there were calls for him to step down in Biden's first year, and he took two years before he stepped aside.

So it could be a little bit of three-dimensional chess here, not wanting to pressure these justices. But of course, the goal is retain that super majority as long as possible.

But in talking to sources, it's clear that Leo really wants to draw a contrast with Democratic groups that really did try to pressure Breyer to step down. Saying, look, we don't do that.

But we know there's always a strategy when it comes to the court. So it'll be interesting to see if these calls get louder as Trump gets closer to Inauguration Day.

KEILAR: I feel like 70 is young, but everything is relative in Washington. (LAUGHTER)

REID: -- reenforce justice. My goodness.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. And who is -- I mean, when people are talking about her stepping down, who are they suggesting replace her?

REID: Well, for Sotomayor, there's a list of people that obviously were on the short list for the last vacancy. But, I mean, no one that's actually involved in building those lists seriously thinks she's going to step down.

And the bigger question, who could Trump appoint to replace either Alito or Thomas? And remember the first time Trump ran, he released a list of names that caught a lot of people's attention.

So during this campaign, I kept asking for the list of names. And they said, Paula, those are the names of the judges he appointed to the courts of appeals. So look on the bench. So kind of no short list there.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a bit of a preview there.

Paula Reid, thank you so much.

Still to come, President-Elect Trump is filling out his roster, announcing more hires for his second term. We're going to talk about who's been seen at Mar-a-Lago that may play a role in a new Trump administration.

Stay with us.

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