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Trump to be Arraigned Tuesday After Surrendering to Authorities; Trump Legal Team Previews Defense Strategy Ahead of Arraignment; New York City Preps for Trump's Historic Arraignment; Secretary Blinken Calls for the Release of Journalist and Former Marine; Plastic Surgeons Help Wounded Ukrainian Soldiers; "Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico" Airs Tonight. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired April 02, 2023 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:01:01]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Tomorrow Donald Trump heads to New York to prepare for a moment we've never seen before in U.S. history. The former president is expected to turn himself in on Tuesday to face criminal charges and appear before a judge. The Trump legal team says it's ready to challenge the indictment and the Trump campaign team says he'll head back to his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday night to deliver a speech.

Right now no one knows what the charges are exactly. The indictment is still sealed, yet many Republicans are already rallying around their leading candidate for the Republican nomination. And New York City is preparing for the security nightmare of a first ever arraignment of a current or former president.

We're covering every angle of this unprecedented moment from here in Washington, D.C. to Mar-a-Lago and Manhattan. Let's begin with CNN's Kristen Holmes in West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago in Florida tonight.

Kristen, how is this going to play out over the next few days? And I suppose it's a surprise, you know, it would have been a surprise if he weren't making some kind of a speech on Tuesday night. We knew he have to say something.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. And I just talked to a source that said really the logistics for tomorrow and Tuesday are still being put together. We have to keep in mind that as you noted this is a huge security concern and a huge security effort so there are still details that are being pounded out. But what we know is that the former president will leave Mar-a-Lago, we believe, Florida tomorrow afternoon.

He will arrive in New York. He will spend the night at Trump Tower and then head down to the courthouse Tuesday afternoon. After that he will get on a plane almost immediately after his arraignment, after that public unsealing of the indictment, and come back here to his Florida home where he will deliver a primetime address. And I am told by sources that this will be the opportunity, and I'm

sure that he will take it, for him to spin his own narrative. And that's really what we have seen from the president, not just with the last recent days in this indictment, but for the last several months around all of these legal entanglements. We have heard him talk about how it is a political hoax and a witch hunt.

And I do have some reporting from sources who say he really spent most of the weekend texting and calling allies, supporters, talking about how he believes that this is a political plus for him. But here's the thing. As you mentioned, these Republicans, they have gone out there, they have defended him, they have gone on board with this idea that it is a political hoax and witch hunt, but none of them have actually seen the charges.

So the question is whether or not that messaging around the former president changes once we actually see what he is charged with -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Very good point. Kristen Holmes, thank you.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is here with me in Washington.

Katelyn, we still don't know what the charges are exactly since the indictment is still sealed. But Trump's legal team says it will look into every issue that they can challenge at this point. Do we know what that means? Are they just guessing at this point? What do we think?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now they are just guessing. I mean, we do know little dribs and drabs of what has been investigated here at the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels in 2016, the possible falsification of records at the Trump Organization, but Donald Trump has not been read his charges yet. They are still under seal.

But his lawyers, they're out there laying the groundwork for all of the things that they know that they can do as defense attorneys after he enters that not guilty plea and we're off to the races headed toward a trial. So some of the things that they are already flagging that they have the possibility of doing is filing a motion to dismiss, asking the judge to toss out all of the charges because maybe they do not fit under the law or that this shouldn't be a case brought in state court as a felony, which is one of the things they expect but don't know for sure.

They also are talking about the statute of limitations. The possibility that the actions being charged here are too long ago shouldn't be in court at this time. Joe Tacopina, one of the defense attorneys, was on CNN earlier today. Here's what he told Dana Bash.

[20:05:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH TACOPINA, TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: We will take the indictment. We will dissect it. The team will look at every, every potential issue that we will be able to challenge and we will challenge it. And of course I very much anticipate a motion to dismiss coming because there's no law that fits this.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR, STATE OF THE UNION: Are you going to ask for a different judge?

TACOPINA: We are going to take the indictment, evaluate all our legal options and pursue everyone most vigorously. This is a case of political persecution. I have no reason to believe this judge is biased. I've not been before him on this matter. So we have to let this process play out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So that exchange between Dana Bash and Joe Tacopino, Donald Trump's defense lawyers, about the judge at the end there, that's an important thing to watch, how to judge is responding to Donald Trump attacking him on Truth Social. Also remember, the judge in this case is going to control everything from now until the trial. What sort of decisions the defense team gets in their favor if the case is thrown out, the pacing of things, when the trial happens, is it before the election or after next year.

And then finally on his hands we know this judge is already looking at a request from the press including CNN and many media organizations coming together and asking, Jim, for that indictment to be unsealed immediately. We haven't seen whether or not he will do that but there is a possibility we could get a decision on that tomorrow.

ACOSTA: All right. Katelyn, thank you very much for that.

And CNN's Polo Sandoval is outside the Manhattan courthouse where we're expecting to see the former president on Tuesday.

Polo, I have a lot of envy I suppose that you're there on the scene but also I'm a little worried about just how circus-like that atmosphere is going to be on Tuesday. What have the preparations been like?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's certainly calm right but only time will tell what we'll see in the next couple of days, right? Now in terms of the law enforcement presence, Jim, what you see behind him it certainly pales compared to what we'll see on Tuesday, which will be of course the main day when the former president will travel here to Lower Manhattan. What I've seen is law enforcement certainly bolstering their presence here over the weekend, even staging some of those barriers that are used for crowd control.

And the key here is just in case, because it's not -- if we're going to talk about the what is happening here in Lower Manhattan, it's important to remind viewers of the why we've seen law enforcement just steadily increased their presence in and around 100 Center which is the building that you see behind me which all eyes will be on come Tuesday when Donald Trump travels here to officially face those charges. There is of course the security concerns that come with transporting a

former president that is still under Secret Service protection but also that the potential violence that we may see, again, again this coming from law enforcement saying that for the last two weeks they've been mothering online chatter for any potential word of protest and the concern with that is that we could see that in a post-January 6th world, devolved into some possible violence. And that is why authorities have been keeping a close eye on the building that you see behind me.

But we should mention, Jim, as we send things back to you, that law enforcement officials here in New York City, saying that they have no credible threat right now that they've identified but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll let their guard down for the next two days.

ACOSTA: And New York's finest will be on the case. Polo Sandoval, Katelyn Polantz and Kristen Holmes, thanks to all of you. We really appreciate it. A long day today. Thanks so much.

Let's drill down on all of this, joining me now CNN contributor John Dean, former Nixon White House counsel, and CNN legal analyst and former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen.

Great panel having both of you gentlemen on tonight. Thank you so much.

John, let me talk to you first. This is obviously an unprecedented moment. That word unprecedented, it gets used a lot. This is -- I think it's bigger than unprecedented. Donald Trump is the first former president to be indicted. Do you think that -- I mean I know you were intimately familiar with what happened with the Watergate 50 years ago.

That was once seen as the mother of all political scandals here in the U.S. but to see a former president of the United States go into a criminal courthouse to be arraigned, paint that picture for us. I mean, how do you stack that up against what you experienced doing Watergate?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, we've never been this distance before. It got clothes with Nixon. The Watergate special prosecution force was drafting an indictment. They were going to charge him with obstruction of justice and bribery for his role in the coverup, but Ford pardoned him and that ended the drafting. After that any effort obviously has been moot to try to pursue the case further.

Obviously with Bill Clinton there were some talk by the Special Counsel Ray that he wanted Clinton to know that he could charge him with perjury but they worked out an arrangement so it didn't get that far. So, yes, we are unprecedented. But, you know, Jim, what strikes me as most unprecedented about this is Trump's treatment of the process, his belittling the judiciary, his attack on the prosecutor, his attack on the judge.

[20:10:09] I don't know how much this judge is going to tolerate. If that happened during Watergate, they had a very tough judge, John Sarica, he would have hauled any defendant who played these kinds of games before him and said, listen, I'm going to give you one warning and if you reach this warning, you're going to find yourself in a very, very tough situation. And I think that's what this judge needs to do in Manhattan as well.

ACOSTA: That's very interesting, John.

Norm, what do you think of that? I mean, because we have seen Donald Trump have the ability to control the narrative, shape the narrative in just about every setting, but in courtroom it's different, and the judge is in charge. The former president is not in charge. The judge is in charge. I mean, could we see an extraordinary circumstance where the judge says to Donald Trump, I forbid you from anymore social media posts about this case, no more threatening the prosecutor, no more threatening the judge, no more threatening anybody with respect to this case? Could we see something like that?

NORM EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You could, Jim. One of the things I'll be watching for at 2:15 on Tuesday when Donald Trump shows up for the first ever arraignment of a current or former president in American history is how does the prosecution, the New York D.A., how do they plant the seeds for the judge to enter that kind of a gag order. They are not unusual in criminal cases but I doubt that they will do that the first day.

So I'll be looking at how does the prosecution say, your honor, there have been some troubling things here, kind of get Judge Merchan, who is a very tough no-nonsense judge. He's like a judge -- get him to say, you know, if these threats of violence continue, we're going to be back in this court to discuss a gag order. But I don't think there's enough to impose that on day one.

ACOSTA: And John, we got a little bit of a preview from Katelyn Polantz earlier in terms of what the defense or some of what they started to lay out in terms of how they might defend the former president in all of this. What do you make of what they're saying so far, how they might try to pick this apart? I mean, what are their chances in all of this?

DEAN: Well, since they don't know, no one knows the nature of the indictment specifically. We do know that a lot of the defense is political. There's never been any doubt in my mind that one of the reasons Donald Trump was so quick to jump into the presidential race is he sees that as his vehicle to get a defense, that he can politicize everything, that he can use the excuse he's running for president to try to delay things, to try to influence the proceedings, and use that vehicle as a defense mechanism.

And it's unprecedented of course because of the attention he can draw. But I think the judge is again going to have to cut through that, and square the guy away, and say, listen, you're not in charge, as you said, Jim. ACOSTA: Yes. Well, I have to be in charge of one thing and that is

taking a break, but because the two of you are such a strong panel, have so many things to say to this, stay with us. We're going to get back to both of you on this.

Everyone, stay with us. We'll be right back. More to discuss on this historic moment, just ahead. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:17:09]

ACOSTA: All right. Let's continue our discussion of Tuesday's arraignment of former President Trump. Joining me again CNN contributor John Dean, former Nixon White House counsel, and CNN legal analyst and former White House ethics czar, norm Eisen.

You know, Norm, before we went to the break, you know, I wanted to get into the sequencing of these cases. And a lot has been said about, well, the Manhattan D.A.'s case is not as important as the January 6th case that the special counsel is looking into. And so what is your take on the sequencing of all of this and the strength of the Bragg case, the D.A.'s case in Manhattan?

EISEN: Jim, we looked at these hush money allegations in the impeachment because they are matters that impact our democracy in a fundamental way. You might say the impact of the 2016 alleged financial fraud to cover up the payment of hush money was actually more impactful. The attempted coup of 2020 didn't change the outcome. In the wake of "Access Hollywood," another sex scandal could have altered an election that was decided by a little over 70,000 votes in three states.

ACOSTA: True.

EISEN: OK?

ACOSTA: Right.

EISEN: So this is very important case. In terms of sequencing, prosecutors don't orchestrate these cases like the NFL picking, which playoff game will run in what order.

ACOSTA: Right.

EISEN: They look at the facts. They look at the law. When they're ready to go, they go. Alvin Bragg decided he was ready. He's not thinking about those other cases. He's not thinking about the politics, nor should he. His job is to apply the facts to the law as he would with any other defendant. And a lot of other people have been prosecuted in New York for this identical conduct, falsifying financial records to cover illicit campaign contributions.

ACOSTA: And, John, you know, a lot has been made of what this means for Trump, what this means for the presidency. What about what this means for the rule of law and the idea that even the president of the United States should be held accountable if he's broken the law? You are intimately familiar with that subject matter. What are your thoughts on that?

DEAN: Well, I think it's vital for that reason that this be done fairly and fully, and I'm one who has a kind of a distant hope that they might even televise these proceedings, that they can be made in front of this judge to make a broader audience. Because I think the rule of law is at issue here and with Trump playing with the process and belittling the process in particular, it even puts more emphasis on the importance of the proper process. And that's what this D.A. is doing. He's following it by the book.

Mr. Trump doesn't play by the same rules as everybody else, so he's not playing by the book and he's, as you know, going to give a speech apparently after he is arraigned, when he gets back to his estate in Florida.

[20:20:11]

ACOSTA: Is that a good idea?

DEAN: So, yes, the rule of law is -- it's foundational to our democracy and all of these proceedings are going to test it.

ACOSTA: Yes. Good idea, John, for -- I mean, from a defense attorney standpoint, a good idea for the former president to go out there and give a speech at Mar-a-Lago right after the arraignment? I mean, it sounds like yet another setting where he may poke this judge in the eye. I can't imagine his defense team thinks this is a good idea.

DEAN: Terrible idea, and he is so loose and foolish, he may cause his own jeopardy and increase his jeopardy. So, you know, it will be good theater. It will not be a good defense.

ACOSTA: Yes. And Norm, what about what John was saying, I mean, about this potential for the case to be televised? Isn't there an argument to be made? And several news organizations have made that argument, we're always making the argument for more access and to televise things. But the trial of a former president on whatever the case may be is so significant, it's so important, how can you not televise it?

EISEN: I certainly favor it, Jim. Look, I was the ethics czar.

ACOSTA: Right.

EISEN: Transparency was part of my job, right?

ACOSTA: That was your job.

EISEN: And we maximize transparency. Judge Merchan is not exactly cut from that cloth. He's not known to be one. He's a very fair judge and he's a very tough judge. But he wants to keep control of his courtroom. That's not always easy in the colorful human panoply that is New York City criminal practice.

I've tried cases in New York City, and let me tell you, it can turn into a media circus. So I'm guessing we're not going to see that kind of transparency in this case. I will say, though, I'll take a bit of a contrarian view. Donald Trump is not only trying this case in a court of law. He is also trying this case in the court of public opinion. And he is going to attempt to make lemonade out of the lemons by appealing. He's, you know, in a presidential primary.

ACOSTA: Right.

EISEN: He is going to use this to attempt to drive forward. In the impeachment we found, every time we did something big, his numbers would go up. Then they would come back down again as people realized the severity. So he's going to try to milk this. I think ultimately this and the other cases are going to be a negative for him in the primary. But he's going to try to make the most of them.

ACOSTA: Yes. John, I mean, I guess it goes without saying that Donald Trump is going to attempt to turn this courtroom into yet another rally venue. Like an amphitheater is Des Moines, Iowa, or something like that. And he is going to try to maximize this moment. They've already bragged that they raised some money, which of course helps him, you know, for the Republican nomination. Doesn't do him a whole lot of good for the general election because I don't see how this makes him more palatable to a general election audience. But he is going to try to monopolize and capitalize on this.

DEAN: And he has a full chorus when he does that with the Republican Party. It's been quite striking the way they stepped forward to support his doing whatever he wants to do and claiming there's nothing criminal here. They talk about even the fact that he's been indicted as some sort of terrible act of political nature by a prosecutor who makes his living and protects New York by doing just what he's doing here.

The people of New York and the country are entitled to a fair trial as is Donald Trump, and so I'm hoping again this judge is tough as Norman finds him to be, and makes everybody play by the rules.

ACOSTA: That'll be interesting to see if -- how this judge handles Donald Trump in the courtroom. That might be something we're all going to be watching and analyzing in the days to come.

John Dean, Norm Eisen, thanks to both of you. Really appreciate the discussion. Great stuff.

There are questions tonight about a deadly explosion of the cafe in Russia that killed a pro-war military blogger. There's the video of it right there. We'll talk about this in just a few moments. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:28:01]

ACOSTA: An explosion today in a cafe in downtown St. Petersburg, Russia that was captured on video you're looking at right here killed a well-known Russian military blogger who supported the war in Ukraine. More than 30 other people were injured in the blast. It's not known if the blogger was the intended target, but there are reports that a woman there gave him an object that may have held an explosive device.

CNN has not verified that information. We'll of course keep following this and bring the latest to you as it comes in.

"Wall Street Journal's" editor-in-chief says she's not in touch with detained reporter Evan Gershkovich, but Emma Tucker called talks between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, quote, "hugely reassuring."

Gershkovich was arrested last week in Russia, Blinken today called for the correspondent's immediate release along with former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is already serving a 16-year prison sentence.

White House correspondent Arlette Saenz joins us now from White House.

Arlette, what's the latest on the efforts to facilitate some kind of release? It certainly seems like things are ratcheting up.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his deep concern in a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as he urged Russia to immediately release not just Evan Gershkovich but also Paul Whelan.

Now this marked a very rare phone call between the two men. They've spoken only three times since Russia has invaded Ukraine. In each of those times they have spoken about the detention of American citizens. Now the State Department released a readout of this call between Blinken and Lavrov, where they say, quote, "Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States' grave concern over Russia's unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist. The secretary called for his immediate release. Secretary Blinken further urged the Kremlin to immediately release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan."

Whelan as you mentioned is also facing espionage charges and currently serving out a 16-year sentence for those. Now both the White House and the "Wall Street Journal" have pushed back calling these espionage charges against Gershkovich inaccurate.

[20:30:05]

But it's certainly come at the time where tensions are simply heightening between the U.S. and Russia. Not only over these detained Americans but also that war in the Ukraine.

ACOSTA: All right, Arlette Saenz, thank you very much.

Earlier today for former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson told me he's ready to help Evan Gershkovich get out of jail but he has to hear from the family first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL RICHARDSON (D), FORMER NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR: I'm ready to help. I'm ready to get involved. I don't need the OK from the U.S. government. But I do need a request from the family, and that's up to them. But I'm ready to help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Governor Richardson, of course, has a long track record in this area. He also helped in the recent release of U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner from Russian prison.

Coming up, lashing out, fundraising and boasting that he is a, quote, "totally innocent man." That's just a sampling of how Trump is reacting to his indictment. We'll discuss next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Several media outlets including CNN have asked for permission to broadcast Trump's expected appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday for his arraignment. In a letter to the judge in the case, these outlets say the right of access is at its zenith when applied to the first ever indictment of a former U.S. president.

[20:35:01]

Joining the discussion, CNN political analysts Alice Stewart and Maria Cardona. They are the co-hosts of the podcast "Hot Mics from Left to Right."

What do you think about this? I mean, a couple of things. If we do see what's going on in the courtroom, Maria, that is going to be -- I mean, this is a huge moment for the country to see a former president being indicted, being arraigned. It's hard to argue against having the cameras in the courtroom but at the same time you know he is going to want to turn this, as I was talking over with John Dean and Norm Eisen earlier, he's going to try to turn this into yet another rally venue.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Absolutely. And I think what is scary about that, Jim, is that we are not just in an unprecedented territory as a country with the indictment of a former president which we've never seen, but Donald Trump himself finds himself in a position that he has been able to dodge his whole life an actual indictment. He is like a cornered animal, like a cornered scorpion, and all of his stingers I am sure are loaded up.

And we don't know how he's going to react, but we do know he has the propensity to react in a way where he's going to want all of his followers to protest. We all know that he's already prone to incite violence, and what I think is more dangerous than that is Republican leaders who are supposed to be leaders are actually backing him up on this, instead of saying, let's take a step back, cooler heads needs to prevail, let's see what's in the indictment, they are already saying this indictment is purely political. They're attacking the D.A. They are going to be responsible if any

violence, God forbid that it doesn't happen, but if it does, if it erupts, Republican leaders who have been on Trump's side trying to push this indictment aside as it means nothing, and personally attacking the prosecutorial team that is bringing this, they are going to have some -- they're going to have blood on their hands, hopefully it's not blood, but they're going to have some blame if that happens.

ACOSTA: I was going to ask you, Alice, have you been getting a little nervous this weekend listening to top Republicans like Jeb Bush, I mean, somebody that Trump used to call low-energy Jeb, coming out with kind of a high-energy defense of Donald Trump this weekend?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Exactly. And Lindsey Graham, as well.

ACOSTA: Yes. Yes.

STEWART: Several people doing so. But, look, I think --

ACOSTA: Do you wish they wouldn't go out on a limb like that?

STEWART: Absolutely we don't need any one going out on a limb when it comes inferring that there needs to be more than just critical conversation on this. Hinting towards violence and hinting toward heated rhetoric is absolutely the wrong thing to do. And to the point of cameras in the courtroom and putting this out there, this is a sealed indictment. No one knows what is in this. It could be really bad. It could be a misdemeanor.

But here's the problem, is there are so much speculation and conspiracy conversation around this. The best anecdote for speculation is transparency. The more we can put all of the information out there in real time that is the best way for us to tamp down a lot of the speculation as to what's going on. And the more the people can find out the better. But here's the thing. And in the defense of many Trump supporters out there, and I'm not defending Donald Trump, but in terms of where we are right now many people are very frustrated with the fact that this does appear as though this is prosecutorial overreach.

CARDONA: How so?

STEWART: The D.A. is using what has been passed over by the Federal Election Commission and by the Department of Justice. They have passed over, use their discretion not to move forward on this particular charge because they didn't feel it was warranted in doing so.

CARDONA: Well, there's more to it than that.

STEWART: Well, we will see on Tuesday, absolutely. But for him to move forward on this it does scream to many people as though he is using this to advance a political agenda and to attack a political adversary. And that is why there is such outrage by Republicans. And I'm not even a Donald Trump mouthpiece. And I'm certainly not always at his defense. But this does scream of prosecutorial overreach. CARDONA: So then let me respond to that because I actually think that

is also dangerous even to put that out there in the ether because this was passed over by the DOH but not really. Michael Cohen went to jail. So he went to jail because of what Trump told him to do. So if he went to jail, why is it that Donald Trump doesn't deserve the same faith? This was Donald Trump's DOJ at the time, which is why he didn't go to jail back then. The other thing is that Republicans scream that this D.A. campaigned on indicting Donald Trump.

Well, he may have, but guess what? He didn't do this the very first day he got into office. He did not rush to this. It took him time. He looked at the evidence. He looked at the facts. He looked at the documents. And you know what the other thing about this, Alice, is he's not the one who indicted Trump.

[20:40:03]

This indictment came from the majority of 23 grand jurors. Americans, everyday hardworking Americans of Donald Trump's peers, not dyed in the wool progressive liberals paid by George Soros.

ACOSTA: Yes, and --

STEWART: Let me --

CARDONA: So let's really take a look at that is how our judicial system works, and it's dangerous to think otherwise.

STEWART: A couple things to my dear friend, Maria. Thank you admitting that --

CARDONA: Yes, my dear friend, Alice.

STEWART: Thank you for admitting that the D.A. did campaign and did vow to go after Donald Trump on this because that springs right there of him saying, I'm going to go after Donald Trump and he won office and he is following through on his promise. And that does not present an equal view of equal distribution of justice under the law. And number two, talking about --

CARDONA: In their view.

STEWART: This was decided by a grand jury of his peers. This is a very, very liberal district, more than 70 percent of the people in that district voted for Joe Biden in this case. So it's really not an accurate --

ACOSTA: Maybe he shouldn't have broken any laws in that jurisdiction.

CARDONA: Exactly.

ACOSTA: Maybe that was a mistake.

CARDONA: There you go.

ACOSTA: Don't do it in New York. CARDONA: That's right.

ACOSTA: You know, but they're familiar with him in New York. I call the New Yorkers the least surprised people in the world because they've dealt with Donald Trump for a long time.

CARDONA: They've known him for a very long time.

ACOSTA: But, Maria, is there a part of you that wishes that maybe one of these January 6th cases had gone first, that Fani Willis had gone first, that Jack Smith, the special counsel, had gone first?

CARDONA: You know, there is a lot of talk about a ton of Democrats who believe that, and there are a lot of Democrats who believe that. I've talked to a lot of them. I'm not so troubled by this. Why? Because I do believe that this D.A. and especially because this is not a dumb man, right? He knows that he is in the spotlight. He knows that this is make-or-break for him. And so I don't believe that he will have brought this, even if it was, you know, one more person in the jury of the grand jury that decided to indict him, I don't think that he would have brought this if this was just one misdemeanor charge. Right?

I think he brought this because it was serious, because it was real, because it was heavy, and the other thing I actually believe and I do think that the others will be very serious as well and they are coming down the pike so I think this is the first of others, and it's going to be interesting to see if Republicans also come to his defense on those other ones.

But, Jim, you know what else this proves? No one is above the law, not even a former president of the United States, and if Republicans believe that this is too unserious to bring this kind of indictment, then maybe they should be campaigning on getting rid of all of those laws, because then what are they there for?

STEWART: And I do agree with Maria. I think the others will be more serious. And to the D.A. Bragg's credit, I will give him credit for, you know, this indictment and the grand jury decision comes when the information is in and the timing is right. And it does say that he's not coordinating with other jurisdictions that have what I see as certainly much more serious charges against the president.

ACOSTA: And at the end of the day, the law is the law.

STEWART: Right.

ACOSTA: And we rely on professional prosecutors and grand jurors. When you get that little envelope in the mail, everybody has their duty to participate, and they came to this conclusion. By anyway --

CARDONA: It's the court of law which Donald Trump can't control the way he thinks he can control the court of public opinion.

ACOSTA: Yes, he won't be in charge on Tuesday.

CARDONA: That's right. ACOSTA: The judge will be.

CARDONA: Exactly.

ACOSTA: All right. Alice and Maria, thank you very much.

CARDONA: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Some plastic surgeons from the United States are on a special mission of mercy. Next, see how they're helping Ukrainians who are wounded defending their homes from Russia.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:47:25]

ACOSTA: Pope Francis today presiding over Palm Sunday mass at the Vatican It comes just a day after he was released from the hospital after suffering from a bout of bronchitis. The Pope thanked all those who prayed for him during his illness. The 86-year-old pontiff sat for more of the ceremony. He did deliver a prayer as he begins this week's events leading to Easter.

Now to eastern Ukraine where military officials say fighting is intensifying and Russian forces are firing with everything they have. Around 1800 civilians remain in an area of Donetsk. That is being hardest hit.

Thousands have been wounded so far on the war in Ukraine and now there is new help for some of those who were disfigured in the fighting. Surgeons from the U.S. and Canada are running to their aids.

CNN's David McKenzie explains.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, the intense shelling continues in the eastern part of the country. Every day it seems there are civilian casualties because of this war. We spent time with a group of American and Canadian surgeons who are trying to put back together Ukrainian civilians and soldiers who've been badly injured by the war. And I must warn some viewers they might find some of these images disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (voice-over): The impact of war is hard to look at.

DRO. RAYMOND CHO, OCULAR PLASTIC SURGEON: My finger? The difficulty that I'm having is that I don't know what anything looks like behind the skin. I can make an opening that looks like there's an eye, but they're never going to look like normal eyelids.

MCKENZIE: And the surgical realities are nothing like civilian life.

(On camera): How do you compare it to here in Ukraine? DR. ANTHONY BRISSETT, MISSION DIRECTOR, FACE THE FUTURE: Well, the

level of complexity for these cases is significantly more elaborate and significantly more complex.

I think we can get the mouth working better.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Face the Future mission director Anthony Brissett says the blast injuries are often devastating.

BRISSETT: One of the things that we can do is improve the appearance of the scar.

MCKENZIE: Multilevel bone and soft tissue injuries.

BRISSETT: It really does not get any more complex than this, even in a combat scenario.

MCKENZIE: They brought together highly specialized plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses from the U.S. and Canada to reconstruct and repair.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All that bone is missing.

MCKENZIE: But many cannot.

BRISSETT: And if we can do that, then that certainly is a fulfilling opportunity.

MCKENZIE (on camera): So it's not just the physical change, it's a psychological help, you hope?

BRISSETT: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's a psychological help not just for the patient but also for their family.

[20:50:03]

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Roman Belinsky is one of their patients. He's invited us to his home.

What do I think of him? I'm proud of my son, says his mother Lecia. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the fact that he didn't run away. He didn't hide.

Early in the war, his mechanized infantry brigade faced the brunt of Russia's invasion and their oncoming tanks.

(On camera): Are you surprised that you survived?

(Voice-over): I do not understand how I survived, he says. I don't even understand how I got through the shelling because it was dark. My eye was hanging out. I was concussed. My whole face was covered in blood. Shrapnel went right through me. He says many in his brigade were lost. We were all like one family, he says. You know, in some way you feel your guilt that I didn't also die like they did.

Roman lived. And this will be his third surgery with Dr. John Frodel. DR. JOHN FRODEL, FACIAL PLASTIC SURGEON: What bothers you the most

now?

Our hope is that at some point they leave happy. You know, that I don't see them again. On my end, I have to appreciate we're making steps because we don't fix that. We make them better.

BRISSETT: This is where we shine, which is in the operating room. All of the steps and activities that we're doing before getting here is really to get us to this point.

MCKENZIE: Roman's surgery is one of the first of the day. He says Dr. Frodel and the team have already put him back together and saved his life.

(On camera): Dr. Frodel is working to move a cheek implant, just a tiny bit higher under Roman. The margins in this kind of surgery are very small, but the differences for the patients can be huge.

DR. PETER ADAMSON, FOUNDER, FACE THE FUTURE: A person's appearance is reflection of their inner spirit, of their inner self to the world. And we must never forget that. But everyone wants to have a facial appearance that others want to look at and would want to get to know you. It's part of the human condition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE: You know, I've kept in touch with Dr. Frodel. He says the surgery of Roman went very well. That team will be back here in just a matter of weeks. The commitment from these surgeons is a long one and that of the patients -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Thank you to David McKenzie for that excellent report. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:56:22]

ACOSTA: All right. Welcome back to the scene here in Washington, D.C.

In the meantime, actress and activist Eva Longoria is proud of her Mexican roots and deeply connected to the country she calls her second home.

In the CNN Original Series "SEARCHING FOR MEXICO," she takes us on a journey through the country to see how its people, culture, landscape and history have shaped its diverse cuisine. I sat down with Eva to talk about this week's episode on the Yucatan and the food at the center of that region's culture.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVA LONGORIA, ACTRESS: Yucatan is beautiful, but it's interesting how pork heavy the region is. So Mexico was a vegetarian country before the Spaniards arrived. There was no cow, there was no pig, there was no goat, there was no sheep, there was no dairy. And so, when the Spaniards came they brought with them the pork and it took hold in the Yucatan. So cochinita pibil is one of the most famous dishes from the Yucatan.

And they have -- I mean, I had pork for breakfast, pork for lunch, pork for dinner. I was like, wow, but the beach is right here. I remember I finally had fish on the beach and I was like, fish. But the spices and the way they prepared things was super. It's a super fusion between indigenous ways and Spanish ingredients.

ACOSTA: You talk in the episode about how the Mayan -- the Mayans defined Yucatan culture.

LONGORIA: Yes.

ACOSTA: How did you see that brought to life during your visit?

LONGORIA: So I got to make tamales with this Mayan woman who didn't speak Spanish. She only spoke Mayan and her son had to translate in Spanish.

ACOSTA: Wow.

LONGORIA: And I translate it in English, like it was --

ACOSTA: She only spoke Mayan.

LONGORIA: She only spoke Mayan, and it's a beautiful language. And she was making this tamale, a version of tamales, and I'm making it with her, and I could just feel her judging my bad technique.

(LAUGHTER)

LONGORIA: I was like -- I was like I was sweating because it was hot but I was sweating because she was like --

ACOSTA: Of course.

LONGORIA: Yes, you're not doing it right. My gosh, I'm sorry. But it was beautiful because they still cook it underground, in this like a hole in the ground and like I said the techniques are still the same. They still believe these ancient techniques.

ACOSTA: Ancient. Yes.

LONGORIA: And lenia, which is wood, and -- so it was beautiful to be in her presence and to see how she's passed that down to her son who's a chef and how in his restaurant he incorporates a lot of these traditional techniques.

ACOSTA: You also had the opportunity to visit some important places.

LONGORIA: Uxmal was one of the most well-preserved Mayan pyramids in Mexico. It is beautiful. And we cooked a traditional bean soup with pork underground, cooked it underground. I mean, it was the best meal I've ever had. ACOSTA: What stood out to you the most when you were in the --

LONGORIA: I think, you know, for Yucatan, the preservation of Mayan culture is front and center in the Yucatan, in the most beautiful way. And I love that, you know, colonization and the conquest could not squash the spirit of the indigenous people.

ACOSTA: And they're worried about it going away.

LONGORIA: Yes. I mean, you know, the Mayan language, you know, not many people speak it. I do feel like there is a reclaiming that's happening right now with the Mayan people, like people are now proud to speak Mayan, and they're proud to celebrate that Mayan culture. And again, you see it through the food.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And I'm getting hungry just watching this right now. Don't miss an all-new episode of "EVA LONGORIA: SEARCHING FOR MEXICO." It's next right here on CNN. And then stay with CNN for "HEAVEN'S GATE: THE CULT OF CULTS," that's at 10:00 Eastern and Pacific. So that's also tonight here on CNN.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Thank you for joining me this evening. We'll see you here next weekend. Have a great week, everybody. Good night.