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Day Two in Combs Trial; Israel Attacks Yemen Capital; Millions Under Flood Watches. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 06, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:03]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for the second day of jury selection in the criminal trial of music mogul Sean Combs. He pleaded not guilty to all charges, which includes sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

Now, during the first day of jury selection, most of the prospective jurors said they had at least some knowledge of the case. Several said they had seen the 2016 hotel surveillance video of Combs assaulting his girlfriend. One juror was dismissed after calling that video damning.

Let's get right to CNN's Kara Scannell outside the courthouse.

How much longer to go here, Kara?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we're still waiting for the jurors to assemble into the courtroom and for day two to get underway. But as of yesterday, the judge had qualified 19 potential jurors to serve on this case. And he wants to get to 45. And once he gets to that number, then the prosecution and Combs' lawyers will strike the potential jurors until we get to 12 and a number of alternates. The judge thinks that that can happen by tomorrow. So, if the jurors get in there and we keep the same pace as yesterday, it's possible that this jury will be seated by tomorrow.

Now, what we know about those in the group so far? That they range in age from 30 to 75. It includes a man who works in finance, a middle school gym teacher, a woman who works at a grocery store, as well as a number of retirees. And they come from different parts of life and different kinds of experiences. I mean two women who are in that pool say that they were sexually assaulted decades ago, but they said that their experience they can set aside and view differently than what evidence will come into this case, because at the heart of this case is the sex trafficking allegations.

So, once this gets underway today, we'll begin with this new batch of jurors. The judge will start the questioning all over again to learn a little about people, to see what they know, see what names they're familiar with in this case. Yesterday, they were given a binder to look at of a lot of names. The judge had joked that it seemed like the appendix to "Lord of the Rings" it was so thick. Of people and places that could be mentioned in this case for any reason, just to see if anyone had any connection.

You know, then, once this jury is seated, opening statements are expected to begin on Monday. The prosecution will go first. We're expecting to hear from Cassie Ventura. She is the former girlfriend that was on that hotel surveillance video. She's expected to be a key witness in the government's case.

And then also three other accusers are expected to testify. We did learn yesterday from one of the prosecutors, though, that one of those alleged victims may not come to the trial, may not testify. They said they've had a hard time getting in touch with her and her attorneys. So, they said, even though she is subpoenaed, she may not show up.

John.

BERMAN: Interesting to see the justice system at work here.

Kara Scannell, thank you for being there. A rainy day outside the court today.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, joining me now to discuss CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson.

Joey, thank you so much for being here, as always.

I do want to ask you about something that that Sean Combs said in court, telling the judge, I'm nervous. I'm a little nervous. Should he be?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Sara, good to be with you. Good morning.

Without question. You know, when we speak about this case, the consequences are enormous. Not only as it relates to a life sentence, but what we don't say enough is about the issue of asset forfeiture. In cases like this, remember, he's charged with running a criminal enterprise. And that criminal enterprise, prosecutors say, was for his real sexual gratification. If they could establish that, you get to asset forfeiture, everything, all the fruits of his earnings over the years from that enterprise now become the governments. And so we're not only talking about his life, but we're talking about his family's life with respect to their financial support, et cetera. The government takes it all. So, the stakes could not be higher. And so to be nervous, quite normal and natural because what he's facing is significant.

SIDNER: How hard is it, though, to prove a racketeering case? Because I hear that these cases are extremely difficult to convince a jury of.

JACKSON: You know, so that is always an open question. And it always is about the evidence.

Now, prosecutors, this is going to be the battle of the narratives. If you're the prosecutor, you're going to say that this was pure coercion, that he used this enterprise and built it to have people really do his bidding for his sexual gratification to get these parties in order. He did it by duress. He did it by offering money or taking money away. You'll hear about guns. You'll hear about drugs, et cetera.

And, of course, the defense narrative will be quite different. And their narrative, Sara, will all be about consent. These were, according to the defense, long-term relationships. And based upon those long-term relationships of girlfriends that he had, everybody knew what he was up to, knew what he was doing and why it - while it may have been immoral, may have been somewhat unseemly, others might say, and others may pass judgment. There's a distinction between immorality, there's a distinction between that and illegality. And so the government will really advance its case, talking about this trafficking, saying people did not have really a choice to do what they did, saying he was engaging in prostitution, and all these other things.

[09:35:12]

The defense will say it was a lifestyle. And it might have been a lifestyle you don't like, but it was not criminal. So, it could be a challenge, but expect the government to have at it with all types of evidence that they expect to advance, surveillance videos. The jury will see a lot in terms of parties and other things that, you know, they are not going to soon forget. And they'll hear a lot of witnesses. The issue is whether it was illegal and against certain federal statutes, which, of course, can keep them in jail, as we noted, for life.

SIDNER: All right. I do want to ask you about this. Look, everybody in New York, certainly, and that's the jury pool here, knows the name Sean "Diddy" Combs or Sean "P. Diddy" Combs or Sean "Puffy" Combs. You - you - you put that name out there and New Yorkers know who this guy is. They may not know the details of the case, but they certainly know who he is and have - most of them have heard something about the case.

Are you surprised that the judge believes that the jury will be picked and the trial will go forward with opening arguments on Monday?

JACKSON: So, you know, this is federal court. And federal court, it moves, you know, pretty expeditiously. Now, to be clear, in the event they can't get a jury, right, then it will go on as long as it's necessary.

But the issue, remember, Sara, it's not about whether you've heard about him and all his various names. It's not even about whether you have an opinion about him. It's about whether or not, based on the facts in court, not social media, not regular media, not tabloids, not anything else, you can make a fair determination. And if you say you can't, hey, I like him too much, I'll never convict him, you're off the jury. If you say that, you know what, I think he's guilty as ever, you're off the jury. And so the reality is, we look at the very serious charges he's facing, the five counts, is that, at the end of the day, if you could commit to formulating opinion based on the evidence before you, whether you like him, love him, or anything in between, you can get on the jury. If you can't do that and make a commitment to that, then you don't belong to be there.

SIDNER: And that is the rub. You have to be able to be impartial and look at the evidence from both sides, even if you know who he is. If you can do that, you get to stay.

Joey Jackson, it's always great to have your analysis. Thank you so much for being here this morning.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Got new details this morning on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plan for sweeping cuts to senior - to the senior military ranks. Why he says the move is necessary. And then a look at the impact it will have throughout the military.

And American swimmer Gary Hall Jr.. awarded ten replacement gold medals in an emotional ceremony.

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[09:42:18]

BERMAN: All right, breaking news. The IDF confirms that Israel has targeted Yemen's main international airport and several power plants in the capital of Sanaa. This marks a second consecutive day of strikes. The IDF says the attacks are in response to a Houthi ballistic missile that disrupted flights at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel on Sunday.

With us now CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Army major, General James "Spider" Marks.

Spider, we're seeing some of this footage of these strikes inside Sanaa, the capital here. The back and forth at this point, is there something Israel could do to get the Houthis to stop?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: John, very difficult task. Look, the Saudis tried to get the Houthis to stop over the course of about a decade. They did some significant damage. But the Houthis are immensely resilient. Stockpiles of capabilities and support certainly for Iran.

Now, that support from Iran has diminished, certainly, but the Houthis still exist in a - in a certain amount of capabilities. And they - they do have additional sources. So, you have to define what you're really trying to achieve and what the IDF is doing here as this is a step clearly in a sequence of steps to dilute that capability that the Houthis have. But the Houthis will still maintain a capacity to do kinds of disruption that we've seen before.

But I think it's a great opportunity on Israel's part if they've got the great targeting intelligence, they've got the capacity to strike. This kind of strike will continue. We can expect it. But we're going to see it continue over the course of time. There won't be an end state that's going to look much different than this, unfortunately. BERMAN: So, General, I want to ask you about Defense Secretary Pete

Hegseth and his new initiative to slash 20 percent of the four star generals and, you know, four star flag admirals from the Navy as well.

Listen to how he puts it.

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PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We're back with more DOD reforms. This one is general and flag officer reductions. That's the official title. My title is less generals, more GIs. More generals and admirals does not equal more success. Now, this is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high ranking officers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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BERMAN: So, fewer generals, he should have said. He says it's not slash and burn, Spider, but what do you think when you look at this?

MARKS: You are correct. And you are - yes. Yes, first of all, you're correct. My English teacher would have said minus 0.5 with less generals.

[09:45:01]

The real issue here is, it's a - it's a non sequitur. I don't see the correlation between reducing the size of the general officer ranks, flag officer ranks, and increasing the size of the enlisted population and those incredible noncommissioned officers. These are two different sources, two different buckets of individuals and leadership capacities.

Now, if - this kind of smacks as really a fiscal objective. This is - if so, this would be a drop in the bucket. The real issue is, I haven't - I didn't hear in what Secretary Hegseth said that really addresses a problem. His proclamation that they're going to have more GIs, they're going to have more enlisted soldiers, Marines, airmen, guardians, et cetera, that doesn't - that doesn't match up here.

So, what I'd love to hear him say is, look, here's the problem I'm trying to solve. Maybe I, as the secretary of defense, think this organization is too, too much of a behemoth. It's got bureaucratic lethargy. We can't move quick enough. Quick enough, OK. Then what I would recommend, if that's the case, I don't think it is, but if that's the case, turn around to the services who say, service chiefs, I think we've got a challenge here. I want your recommendations on what - what you should look like. Come back to me with your recommendations. Don't state up front we've got a 20 percent reduction in four stars, which would be about eight to ten personnel, and don't say we're going to have an additional 10 percent across the board in all the other flags, which would be about an 80 to 90 number of individuals reduced.

Come back and say, look, here's what we can do to solve this particular problem. Then if you do that, the service chiefs own the solution. I mean, they're going to be all in. If it's coming from the top, it seems rather - it seems non-serious is what it seems to me. And there's not much - there's not a lot of real substance to what he's trying to achieve. I think he's flexing his muscles. We don't need to be reminded that he's the SECDEF. I got it. You're in charge. This is not the way you kind of embrace the organization.

BERMAN: All right, retired General James "Spider" Marks. Always great to see you. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, we're standing by for a jury to begin delivering (ph) the fate of three Memphis police officers charged with murder in the beating death of Tyree Nichols in Memphis.

And parts of the south central U.S. under flood threat this morning as storms could dump inches of rain in some places. We have the latest on the forecast there.

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[09:52:10]

SIDNER: This morning, seven people remain missing after a small boat was found capsized off San Diego's coast. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that three people died, four others were injured. A Coast Guard official told the Associated Press, those on board are believed to be migrants. Rescuers searched the surrounding area by sea and air before suspending their search.

Today jurors could begin deciding the fate of three former Memphis police officers charged in the death of Tyree Nichols. They will hear the final closing arguments first. Nichols was beaten after police say he ran during a traffic stop in 2023. The officers' attorneys have argued that their use of force complied with the department's policies.

Swimming legend Gary Hall Jr. lost all of his Olympic medals in the Los Angeles fires a few months ago. Goodness. But now he has a brand new record. All ten of them were re-awarded to him at the IOC headquarters yesterday, the most for any athlete on the same day, five golds, three silvers and two bronzes, if you're counting.

And this morning, a man is in custody after he allegedly drove a car through the gate of Jennifer Aniston's home in Los Angeles. He is described as a white male in his 70s and was held by a security guard on the premises until police arrived there. Authorities tell CNN the homeowner was at the residence when this happened. Police say they have not determined yet if this incident was an accident or whether it was intentional.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. So, right now also, more than 25 million people are under flood watches. The warnings reaching from New Mexico to Mississippi, all in the path of some serious thunderstorms. CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking the storm system for you.

Derek, where - what are you looking at?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kate, we've got some rough weather, especially if you're in around central Texas this morning. We have new information to pass along to our viewers. A new tornado watch just issued where you see the shading of red. That's until 4:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. We've got a severe thunderstorm watch that's issued just to the west. These storms are racing towards the Dallas- Fort Worth metroplex.

But what I'm more concerned with are what we like to call renegade thunderstorms. These are the ones that form ahead of this line, which is mainly a wind threat. These single cells, they can often produce these tornadoes. And this has actually been a tornado warned storm earlier this morning, just northwest of Austin.

But what we're worried about here for Dallas-Fort Worth, where you currently have a severe thunderstorm warning, wind gusts in excess of 58 miles per hour. This is going to create some airport delays today. Already know this personally. My wife actually delayed by three hours flying from Atlanta into Dallas-Fort Worth because of the incoming weather.

This is the area where we need to keep a close eye to the sky. Specifically, this enhanced risk, including the Houston suburbs. We have a greater chance within this hatched region of seeing tornadoes of EF-2 or stronger. That's 111 miles per hour.

[09:55:08]

But on top of that, we have this hail threat as well. With that incoming line you saw on the radar just a moment ago, this region, the Abilene and into San Antonio region, this is the area where we could see some of these storms produce baseball sized hail.

These storms will advance eastward through the course of the day. And this is the flood threat that is going to be ongoing that Kate mentioned because it's pulling in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, kind of recycling the rainfall over these same locations. That's why the National Weather Service has hoisted these flood alerts from Oklahoma City, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, for an additional four to upwards of six inches of rain. Heads up, Shreveport, Jackson, Mississippi, even Dallas, New Orleans as well, we have a good potential of flash flooding through the course of the day today.

Kate, back to you.

SIDNER: Geez.

BOLDUAN: Derek, thank you so much for keeping an eye on it for all of us.

BERMAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: The entire country. Thank you all for joining us.

BERMAN: It's pouring here too.

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: All right, thank you all for joining us. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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