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Now: Federal Judge To Hear Arguments On Deporting Venezuelan Migrants To El Salvador; Source: Trump Met With Actor Jon Voight At Mar-a-Lago Just Before Announcing Plan To Tariff Foreign-Made Movies; Trump Claims U.S. Movie Industry Has Been "Decimated"; Today: Government Resumes Collecting Defaulted Student Loan Payments; Trial Of Rap Mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs Begins Today; Excused Prospective Juror Called Combs Video "Damning". Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 05, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:20]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Deciding whether the President can deport more migrants to El Salvador, the White House making its case this hour in a federal courtroom. Lawyers for President Trump argue the deportations are legal under the Alien Enemies Act.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And who will decide Sean Combs' fate? Jury selection is underway in Manhattan as the music mogul's sex trafficking trial begins. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

And eight days of delays, and travelers are short on patience. What is behind these problems at Newark's airport, and can they be fixed?

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

HILL: It is the top of the hour here. The President's executive power is about to get tested again in federal court. At any moment now, a Trump-appointed judge will hear arguments in Pennsylvania over the administration's attempt to quickly deport Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.

Now, the judge has already temporarily blocked the deportation of detainees from an ICE facility in her district. You may also recall that just a few days ago, another Trump-appointed judge, this one in Texas, ruled the President unlawfully invoked the sweeping 18th century wartime authority to speed up some deportations in his district.

Joining me now to talk more about the case, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. He's a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Elie, always good to have you with us, especially to put things in plain English when it comes to the legalese.

When we first, let's see, if we take a step back here, there's been so much back and forth when it comes to the Alien Enemies Act. So right now, what is the administration legally allowed to do?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Erica, let's start with first things first. Generally speaking, any presidential administration has very broad authority to deport people who are not in the United States legally. You go into an immigration court. Essentially, you prove this is the person we say it is. This person does not have legal status here. And usually that's the end of it. That's something that we call Title 8. So that's the normal immigration process, which is fairly straightforward.

The catch here, the wrinkle, is that the Trump administration, for some deportations, is calling on this sort of old, obscure Alien Enemies Act, which dates back to 1798, which before now has only ever been invoked three times, all during wartime. And they're trying this sort of brand-new extension of this to argue, well, the presence of this Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is essentially the same thing as if we were being invaded by a foreign government. And that's where the complications have arisen. And that's why we're having court hearings like the one you referenced last week and like the one that's about to take place.

HILL: In terms of the one last week, just how impactful is that one? How does that figure into this conversation?

HONIG: Well, it certainly doesn't help the Trump administration's position because last week we had a federal district court judge, which is the trial court in Texas, also a Trump nominee, I should say, who flatly rejected the application of the Alien Enemies Act to this gang. The judge went through in a sort of very full manner.

He went through the dictionary definitions. He went through prior cases. He went through history and he said this is not what the Alien Enemies Act means. It means a foreign army essentially or a foreign force invading our territory. And while a gang may do really bad things here, it doesn't meet that definition.

So, now today we are in another district court in a different federal district. So, what the Texas judge did I think will be important. It could be persuasive, but it doesn't necessarily compel the same result in the Pennsylvania court. But look, if I'm the opponent of the administration here, the first thing out of my mouth to this judge is, hey, judge, you should do the same thing that the judge in Texas did last week. You should rule that it does not apply.

The Trump administration is going to say, no, the judge in Texas got it wrong. You judge here in Pennsylvania. You should go our way.

HILL: So, when people look at this, right, there's also been a lot of talk in the last several months about these different district courts around the country and whether or not how much they should be weighing in and how much weight that should carry when we're looking at things that are happening nationally, which brings everything sort of pushing it up to the Supreme Court, when you have all these different rulings, how should Americans be looking at each one of these in this moment?

HONIG: Well, this is a controversy that we are finally after years about to get some resolution on because the U.S. Supreme Court is going to hear a separate case next week on May 15th, where they're going to consider this exact question.

[15:05:05]

Is it okay to have these individual district court judges around the country issuing rulings that are essentially binding on the entire country. And just for perspective, Erica, we have something in the range of 600 to 700 of these federal district court judges. They're spread over 94 geographic districts.

Again, last week we were in a district in Texas. Today we're in a different district in Pennsylvania. And so, what happens is sometimes you get conflicting rulings out of these two different district courts may decide two different things. And ultimately, we rely on the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve those. But next week, the Supreme Court is going to rule on that question. Can an individual judge give a ruling that applies not just to the parties in front of him or her in the courtroom, but to the whole country.

It's been a controversial practice that both sides have objected to. Really, whoever's in the White House hates that practice.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Elie, always appreciate it. Thank you, my friend.

HONIG: Thanks, Erica. All right.

HILL: Brianna?

KEILAR: Today, the Trump administration is expressing confidence that new trade agreements could be signed very soon. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier today new deals could be signed as early as this week. President Trump said the same last night.

And in the meantime, we're learning more about the lead up to President Trump's announcement that he wants to put 100 percent tariffs on movies that are produced outside the U.S. Over the weekend, he met with vocal supporter actor Jon Voight at Mar-a-Lago to talk about plans for reviving the American film industry. The White House has said no final decision has been made on this. Here's the President addressing the issue earlier.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of it's been taken to other countries and a big proportion. And I'm actually going to meet with some because, you know, there's some advantages, I guess. And I'm not looking to hurt the industry. I want to help the industry. But they're given financing by other countries. They've given a lot of things. And the industry was decimated.

If you look at how little is done in this country now, you know, you think we were the ones - we used to do a hundred not long ago - a hundred percent. Now we do almost like very little. It's shocking.

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KEILAR: CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is with us now. Vanessa, on Secretary Bessent saying that new trade deals could come this week. What did he say about getting those deals across the finish line?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, according to the Treasury Secretary, it is ultimately up to Donald Trump to close those deals. He has the final say, according to Scott Bessent. But according to experts, trade experts, it takes more than a couple months to get these deals done - years. And that that time clock is really running out on that two month - two- to three-month pause on those 90-day reciprocal tariffs, which will expire essentially in July.

Now, trade experts saying that it does take a little bit longer than two months to get this done. But the administration saying for weeks now that they are likely going to have deals with South Korea, Japan, India. Here's the Treasury Secretary just a few hours ago doubling down on that. Listen.

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SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: I think we're very close to some deals. As President Trump said last night on Air Force One, maybe as early as this week. I am highly confident that we have 18 important trading partners. We'll put China to the side. The 17 other partners, many of them have approached us with the very good trade proposals. President Trump is going to be involved in all of those. He will be the final decision maker.

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YURKEVICH: Now, even though the Treasury Secretary said in that thought that he's going to put China aside. For many, China is the key country that people want to see a deal with, especially just deescalating, bringing those high tariff rates down. Because essentially right now, Brianna, trade between the two countries is essentially grinded to almost a halt. China is exporting very little agricultural products from the United States, and U.S. businesses and retailers are bringing very few imports out of China into the United States.

And ultimately, that is going to start hurting the U.S. consumer. We know that in the next couple of weeks, the port of Los Angeles is expecting a major slowdown in cargo coming into the ports. Retailers just have a couple weeks of inventory left before some of those higher tariffed goods have to make their way to shelves. And retailers, Brianna, telling us that they don't even know if they're going to go ahead with that. They may just stop selling those products altogether and that's ultimately where you end up with the empty shelf problem, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much for that report. Erica?

HILL: Today, the Department of Education begins collecting payments on federal student loans in default after a pause since COVID. Now, for some borrowers, there are worries their paychecks or their benefits could soon be garnished. A new study shows about one in five Americans with student loan debt is seriously behind on their payments.

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CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is following this for us.

Sunlen, look at this, what could potentially be the impact? That's a fairly - I'm surprised by how high that number was in that survey.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Erica. Five million people. This is going to affect - starting today - who are already in default on their student loans and potentially 4 million on top of that, people who are very, very close to defaulting on their loans.

Now, as you said, this is a program that had been put on pause during COVID. So, the first time that Americans are really facing this deadline, that they're going to be faced with collections happening on them because they're in default and this will impact potentially their paycheck, parts of their paycheck withheld to cover those payments.

Also affecting potentially your tax refund, Social Security, disability benefits, all of those benefits in your paycheck, potentially, you are going to see less money if you're in default on your student loans. And I talked to many people in advance of this deadline, many who are talking about the anxiety and the fear that they're feeling, because frankly, they are not able to pay and they certainly don't want to see parts of their paycheck withheld.

I spoke with one woman from Kansas City. She faces $185,000 in student loan debt. She battled with a breast cancer in 2017. So, she prioritized her money to go to her medical expenses faced with this because she is in default. She says she's going to have to likely sell her home, take out a loan for an RV and live in her parents' backyard. Here's what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLIE GRAY, STUDENT LOAN BORROWER: My family does their best, but they don't - they couldn't help me with college. There was no college fund. They don't have money now or resources now to even help me with this beyond, like, letting me have this little place on their property. So emotionally, it's devastating.

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SERFATY: And so many of the people that we spoke to, Erica, they didn't know that - what their student loan looked like, what they needed to pay. And so, experts - we spoke to encourage people because there's been so many changes during the COVID time to actually go in, see what you owe, see if you're in default. And a reminder, this only applies to people who have been in default on their loans for 270 consecutive days. But again, encouraging people to check out their stats. HILL: Yes, to stand on top of it, to at least know what you might be

facing.

SERFATY: Yes.

HILL: Sunlen, appreciate it. Thank you.

Still ahead here, jury selection now underway in the trial for Sean "Diddy" Combs. What he had to say in court today about being nervous.

Plus, passengers are fed up as a major U.S. airport experiences now its eighth day of delayed and canceled flights.

And a bit later, President Trump says he's not ruling out using military force to take over Greenland. That and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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HILL: Today in a New York federal courtroom, Sean "Diddy" Combs told the judge he was, quote, "a little nervous." The rep mogul's criminal trial began this morning. He is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and more. The two sides are now in the process of selecting a jury of 12 plus alternates.

Most of the prospective jurors acknowledge they're aware of Combs's case and also the allegations that span some 20 years. Among those allegations, he's accused of forcing at least three women to engage in sex acts with him and at times with male prostitutes during parties known as freak offs, which last for days. Combs faces spending the rest of his life in prison. CNN's Kara Scannell has been covering all these developments for us. She's outside New York's federal court right now.

So, some of these prospective jurors already turned away. Kara, why?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a number of jurors have been turned away. One woman, because she had seen that hotel surveillance video, she saw a still image of it where Combs is on camera kicking and dragging his then girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. Now, the jurors said that she referred to it as damning evidence. And after a back and forth with the judge, he decided to excuse her for cause because she had formed an opinion on it.

Other jurors have been excused, one, because the man had just started a new job and couldn't take off eight weeks. Another juror was excused because he said he had a negative experience with law enforcement.

But so far, 11 jurors have qualified to continue through this process. And the magic number here is 45. Once they hit 45 jurors, that is when the judge will have both the prosecutors and Combs' team do their peremptory strikes. That's where they can eliminate jurors for just about any reason until they get to 12 jurors and a number of alternates. But those who have gotten through, some of them have seen the tape.

One woman said she did see that hotel surveillance video. Others were familiar with the case. I mean, there were two women who said that they had been sexually abused, saying it happened decades ago and they thought that they could look at the evidence in this case, which is about sexual assault, and view it fair and unbiased based on what comes into the courtroom.

One woman had - who is proceeding said she was arrested when she was 16 for shoplifting at Harry Potter's World at Universal Studios. The judge asked her what she stole. She said it was a wand. And then another juror who works for the Department of Corrections said that he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor felony. And he is continuing in this case.

So, we're expected to continue as long as it takes to get to that 45 and to get through the strikes. The judge is hopeful that that could be concluded as soon as Wednesday, with opening statements in the case beginning next week and then the beginning of the evidence. So, Combs has pleaded not guilty. He has said - his lawyers have said that all of these allegations are the prosecutors trying to criminalize the sexual activity that they say was entirely consensual. Guys?

[15:20:02]

HILL: All right, Kara, appreciate it. Thank you. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Let's talk about this now with entertainment attorney and former litigator Lisa Bonner.

First, Lisa, I just want to get your reaction to some of what we learned so far. The judge granting a defense request to dismiss a prospective juror because she called the hotel surveillance video damning. Maybe not surprising, but what do you think about this?

LISA BONNER, ENTERTAINMENT ATTORNEY & FORMER LITIGATOR: The - good afternoon, Brianna. It's absolutely not surprising because they want to get to a fair and impartial jury. And someone who is already formed a - an opinion, for example, is not going to be someone that the defense is going to want to move forward with because you are supposed to listen to what the judge says in the four corners of the room.

And so, when you are walking in there with a already preapproved idea of what you think is going to happen and what you think your opinion is going to be, it is hard to be able to say that that person is going to be swayed and can be fair and impartial.

KEILAR: And we do have the jury questionnaire. One of the questions is: "Have you, a family member, or someone close to you been the victim of sexual assault, sexual harassment or domestic violence?" It's notable two women who said they'd been sexually assaulted in the past remain in the jury pool after being questioned. How could that impact things and specifically how the defense may handle this?

BONNER: Well, there are - that's one of the things that you would be looking for as a prosecutor, right? You would like someone who has experience with that - with sexual violence. And that does not mean that you have a predisposed notion of what he did, but you are comfortable with graphic testimony, for example, you are comfortable watching videos and you have some experience.

So, it's not a ideal judge - excuse me, an ideal juror for the defense, but that is someone that the prosecution would want on their team. And that is not a reason to excuse the juror for cause.

KEILAR: What kind of juror does the defense want?

BONNER: The defense ideally would be looking for an - a man, an older man, for example, someone who has maybe been falsely accused by the police, someone who may be in a high-power job with traditional values, someone who is really does not come in with a preconceived notion, someone who is skeptical of law enforcement. Those would be the type of jurors that the defense would be looking for.

KEILAR: And at this point, Combs' lawyer is saying he could take the stand. Would you find that difficult to believe? Do you think he could help himself - help his case or hurt his case?

BONNER: Well, that's one of the things that a defense lawyer always says. If you look across any of these prior cases, oh, my client is really considering taking the stand. He really wants to tell his side of the story. And I'm willing to bet that he is not going to take the stand. That would be the absolute worst thing that he can do because that offers up cross-examination. It offers up his priors. It offers up him to be caught in a lie and really, really can talk to him about anything that he has ever done.

So, there is probably no way that Sean "Diddy" Combs will take the stand, although that is the very old trick in the book with a defense lawyer saying that he wants to tell his side of the story. I don't see that happening.

KEILAR: Yes, it would be extraordinary if it did. How tough is this case going to be for the defense?

BONNER: A big mistake. I'm sorry?

KEILAR: How tough is this case going to be for the defense?

BONNER: It is an extreme uphill battle for the defense. If you look at the indictment, it is very tight. They have video evidence. They have four witnesses, one being Cassie Ventura, who was very detailed and explicit in her complaint. And you have a large digital footprint. You have Combs trying to contact people to try and get them to recant their stories or make sure that his - their testimony aligns with his. They've got so much incriminating evidence, but the burden is on the prosecution.

So, the defense does not have to put on a case, but the prosecution has a very, very solid case here. And it's going to be a very uphill battle, especially with what they are offering as a defense, that it was consensual, that these people are in a swinging lifestyle and the prosecutions are prudes. And that does not really have anything to do with the case.

If you have a consensual, you know, sexual swinging lifestyle, the one thing that you - that is implicit in there is consent. And there - this case is built on the fact that he was abusive, he was violent.

[15:25:04]

He blackmailed people into staying and to staying silent.

So that really undermines the defense's testimony right there. So, I don't really see that this is - this case is going to be easy for the defense to disprove in any way through cross-examination or otherwise. Any kind of allegations that many - most of the allegations that the prosecution is putting forward. It's a very, very strong case.

KEILAR: Yes, we'll have to see what the defense is when it gets into the details of it. Lisa Bonner, thanks so much.

BONNER: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: And coming up, flights at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, are experiencing historic delays. We're going to tell you what's behind the disruptions and how long these are expected to last.

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