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This Hour: Trump Arrives In New York Ahead Of Arraignment. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 03, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: His Huskies are winning by an average of 20 points per game this tournament. Both coaches told me in the locker room yesterday, what this journey has been like with their players and fans, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN HURLEY, HEAD COACH, UCONN: ... love their Huskies. An incredible community it stores (ph) and the way that those kids have embraced the players and embraced me, it makes me emotional.

BRIAN DUTCHER, HEAD COACH, SAN DIEGO: They look more nervous than I do right now and they're celebrate more than I did, because I didn't know how much time was going to be put back on the clock. What a moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: What a moment, indeed, folks. And both teams now look to earn that one shining moment cut down those nets being crowned national champs right here in that stadium later tonight. Dana, don't let Phil get with you. He's just mad that his Buckeyes didn't make it here.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: That's harsh, but Coy Wire, the baddest dancer in every dance. Thanks so much, buddy.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: All right. Good afternoon and welcome to a Special Edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kaitlan Collins outside of Trump Tower here in New York.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: And I'm Dana Bash alongside my friend, Phil Mattingly, in Washington. It is three o'clock on the East Coast where we are in D.C. and, of course, where Kaitlan is in New York.

And if all goes as planned, we're looking at less than 24 hours from now, Donald Trump will be turning himself in at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. The first former President ever to face a criminal indictment. About two hours ago, Trump took off from West Palm Beach, Florida so we expect him to land in New York really just minutes from now.

MATTINGLY: Just minutes from now. Now, tomorrow's arraignment is all connected to his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover up involving adult film star Stormy Daniels. But the public and Trump's own attorneys still don't know his specific charges. The grand jury indictment that is still under seal at this hour.

CNN has formally requested the judge release it, but Trump's legal team says they plan to challenge "every potential issue in that document." Nevertheless, Kaitlan, tomorrow the former president will head to the Manhattan courthouse where he is expected in the history of making move to surrender.

COLLINS: Yes, and then he is going to be booked. He is going to be fingerprinted and we don't yet know if they're actually going to take his mug shot. His own attorney said yesterday they weren't sure whether or not that was going to happen.

What we do know is that after the arraignment, the former president will return to Florida. That is where he is going to deliver a speech from Mar-A-Lago, we are told, tomorrow night.

Here with me in Manhattan as we await Trump's arrival is CNN's Chief National Affairs Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, and CNN Political Director, David Chalian, both joining me here live.

Thank you both for being here. One thing that I have been thinking about as Trump is on his way here, he's already launched these attacks. He's been going after the District Attorney Alvin Bragg here, there's no surprise there. They are also going after the judge, though.

And Cy Vance, who was the former Manhattan district attorney was saying yesterday that Trump needed to be careful essentially of potentially committing another criminal offense by going after and lashing out at these officials, including the judge he is going to be arraigned before tomorrow.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORREPONDENT: Without a doubt. And he is arriving in New York shortly momentarily as the leading Republican presidential candidate. But once he arrives here, in his hometown of New York City, of course, things will be different beginning tomorrow. He is in a legal proceeding, one that he does not have full control over.

So we've seen many, many times, he's been sort of acerbic. He says whatever on social media and then he is a bit quieter. So I would be very surprised if there are any outbursts in the courtroom or anything here in New York. He's saving it, of course, when he gives his speech when he returns to Mar-A-Lago on Tuesday.

But this is a very different moment for Donald Trump, so much history in Trump Tower behind us here where he announced his presidential campaign in the summer of 2015. Of course, he's now a Florida resident, but tomorrow he is a - someone who's in a legal proceeding. So that is sort of different than the Donald Trump we've seen.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: The court of public opinion is where he's going to be most vocal. The court of law is going to be an entirely different scenario for him. And you - I think it's really important for us to note, if you - as you guys know, we've studied Trump a long time, he has spent pretty much the entirety of his life trying to avoid a moment like this. He would you would get really close to the line on stuff. He would always be dabbling in it. But he spent his entire professional life trying to avoid exactly what is happening to him now.

COLLINS: Yes. So the idea that he wants to be indicted isn't - it doesn't actually match with reality when you talk to people around him that we are told he was surprisingly calm over the weekend. He is only going to be here on the ground for about 24 hours. It's going to be very quick.

But one thing he does want is for there to be a scene. I know his attorneys have said that they don't believe cameras should be in the courtroom because they don't want to create a circus-like environment.

[15:05:06]

But Trump himself has been urging Republicans to come to New York. He wants there to be protests. We know Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of those lawmakers. But Mayor Eric Adams had this warning for Republican Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene and her planned protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D) NEW YORK: We are the safest large city in America because we respect the rule of law in New York City. And although we have no specific threats, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she stated she's coming to town, while you're in town be on your best behavior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: What do you make of that?

ZELENY: Well, look, I think a police chief telling a member of Congress to be on her best behavior, I wonder if he would do that if it was a different member of Congress. I think, look, the reality here is she has tweeted back that she has a First Amendment right to come here.

So if she does come to New York tomorrow, she comes for the member of Congress and a Trump supporter. I think that is the partisan thing that plays directly into the former president sort of claim that this is not a fair proceeding here.

COLLINS: (Inaudible), David, because Trump has been building up to this moment for some time now. I mean, it was weeks ago that he said he was going to be arrested that Tuesday. Obviously, it happened now two weeks later than what we initially believed it was going to be.

CHALIAN: Yes. The argument that he's been making in that time is that this is a political prosecution. That's the script that every Republican is reading from now. And our brand new poll today shows three quarters of the American public does believe that politics is at play here. That that is something he's going to continue to hammer away at. COLLINS: Yes. All right. Jeff and David, standby. We're going to

send it back over to Dana and Phil in Washington. We are waiting any moment now for Trump to arrive here in New York. He'll be arriving to Trump Tower right behind us. That's where we'll spend his last evening before his arraign tomorrow.

MATTINGLY: Yes. A lot to watch. Clearly, people are already excited around our team on the ground there, doing great work as always.

I want to bring back our panel.

And Elliot, I was struck in Dana's interview yesterday with one of the former president's lawyer, they were talking about how they were going to use everything at their disposal when it comes to the case if they eventually actually get to see what's inside of the indictment.

What tools will they have and how long will that actually take?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, certainly. Now, something we were talking about a little bit earlier in the program was this idea of delay and the former president being able to use delay to his advantage and has in the past. Now, maybe that's the case, but right now, as a litigant, he has the right to challenge aspects of the case.

So number one, he may - they may file a motion to change the venue of the trial saying, this defendant at this time cannot get a fair trial from this bias prosecutor in New York City, from this jury pool that's tainted, we have to move it somewhere else, that's going to get dismissed, right? It's just - he's not going to win that and it's just highly unlikely.

They may challenge aspects of the indictment. So for instance this - if it involves federal campaign finance charges, saying, well, look, this is a state prosecution. This ought not be here or any other matters. The publicity or the politicization of challenging the prosecutor himself.

So any of these things are motions that he can file, he's probably not going to win most of them, because the law presumes that jurors and courts and prosecutors will behave in a fair manner, but he has that right. Now, in terms of - to your question, Phil, about timing, New York is pretty notorious for taking a long time to go from indictment to trial, and it can take up to a year to get something in court.

And I would anticipate that you're going to see that amount of time both because of the fact it's a normal trial, but also you can expect this defendant to file a lot of motions to slow things down.

BASH: As this is his right.

WILLIAMS: As this is his right.

BASH: Yes. And so when we talk about the actual indictment, which we should say - which we've said many times, but it bears repeating, we have not seen. We don't know what's in it. But you mentioned I spoke to one of Donald Trump's lawyers yesterday, I also spoke with Lanny Davis, we've covered and known for ...

Gloria Borger, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Many years.

BASH: ... many years since the Clinton years. He's representing Michael Cohen. And he insisted to me that the Manhattan DA has not just Michael Cohen's verbal testimony under oath, but evidence, evidence in some way, shape or form, that Donald Trump committed the crimes that the DEA is alleging that he committed with regard to falsifying his business records.

BORGER: Well, Michael ...

BASH: We should see that when we - when the indictment is finally unsealed tomorrow.

BORGER: Well, we've seen Donald Trump's signature on a check, but I think what Michael Cohen and Lanny Davis have been saying all along, is that Michael Cohen did this. He went to jail, partly because of this and it was at the direction of Donald Trump.

And again, I think that if they're going to bring felony charge or charges against the former president, they have to have documents beyond Michael Cohen, whom, as we all know, has some credibility issues here, right convicted felon, et cetera, et cetera.

[15:10:13]

So they - I find it hard to believe that they don't have more.

WILLIAMS: The Cohen - well, the Cohen saga is very fascinating because his testimony has been remarkably consistent on this point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, exactly.

WILLIAMS: Where it has been - look, I saw this happen. This happened for the purpose of silencing or quieting down news of these extramarital affairs that were embarrassing of the president. He's been clear on that story. The problem as Gloria notes is that there are a number of credibility issues in terms of being convicted of federal offenses, one of which was for lying ...

BORGER: About the process.

WILLIAMS: ... and as you - and he's on the record even just a few days ago looking at the camera on a television interview and saying, see you in court on Tuesday, buddy. It's just - it's clear that this is a somewhat compromised witness.

Now, look, I prosecuted narcotics cases before and there's a lot of trials where you just have witnesses that have credibility issues, and you can still win if you have other evidence. So I don't think it dooms the case.

BORGER: Right.

WILLIAMS: But like you said, Gloria, they really have (inaudible) ...

BASH: And I just want to bring in one thing, we've talked about as - Audie, you comment on this - we've talked about Stormy Daniels which is we believed to be sort of the crux of this hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, who the president, the former president had an alleged affair with. There's another individual Karen McDougal, who Lanny Davis said that they have given over to the DA evidence about as well, some form of hush money payments to her as well. So it's not just one individual, it's allegedly a second.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: So I know it's hard to kind of think about it because there are sort of these unsavory elements to this, right, with an adult entertainer, et cetera. But fundamentally, campaigns are about information and the story you tell leading up to Election Day.

And if you manipulate that story in a way that's found to be illegal, that's a problem. And I do think that it's very easy to - because so many scandals sort of get brushed away in hurricane Trump land, it's hard for us to look at any one particular one and see the kind of greater concern there.

But for people at home, this is something to think about. There is a reason why there are campaign finance laws, there are reason why there's campaign fraud laws. And it's because we want you to have the best truthful information you can get going into the ballot. And if you have manipulation of that process, then that's something that the law does take seriously.

Now, with that being said, the bar is really high, right, for this prosecutor to make his case. Because if you become just another person who didn't follow up on your kind of legal threat against Trump, that's not good and it's not good for the country.

MATTINGLY: Can I put you on the spot for a second?

CORNISH: Please do.

MATTINGLY: And I think he may have already answered this question, which is really frustrating to me, because I've been thinking about it for two and a half hours. This is how I prepare for these big moments with you, Audie.

As somebody who listens to your podcast every single week, I wonder what are like the fascinating elements of this case, of this moment that are kind of rattling around in your head? Like what are you picking out that you think is most interesting that you're going to take apart in an episode of going forward that may be the broader coverage we aren't necessarily locking into and I fear you may have just set ...

CORNISH: No, no, not at all.

MATTINGLY: ... give me the answer.

CORNISH: I mean, look ... MATTINGLY: But what are we missing here?

CORNISH: ... one of the things I'm paying attention to like lawyers are people too and I think that the relationship between Trump and litigation, Trump and the law is fascinating. I'm also very interested in, basically, how we've take in this information media-wise.

We, in the media, and I'm going to just put myself on that as well, I think all of us have learned some very valuable lessons from the last couple of years in delineating what's significant, what's important, what is of value to the people that we serve, and how that may be different than what politicians want out of that process.

I think we have a better understanding now of how to deal with pronouncements of a certain kind. Everybody has learned something from the last couple of years. And it'll be interesting to see how we all apply those lessons to the next couple of months.

WILLIAMS: That's a beautiful point, Audie, because I think and just sort of tying it to the law, I think there are thing - there's information that is relevant to the world because it's salacious or exciting or people want to hear about it and then there's what's legally relevant and what matters in the court.

Case in point Stormy Daniels being an adult film star is irrelevant to the question of whether the former President approved or signed checks as a means of falsifying business records or concealing another felony. I think people have gotten caught up in sort of the exciting details of all this and it happens all the time across when we talk about things in the law or in politics.

BORGER: And to piggyback on your point I'm so interested in what Donald Trump has done to the legal profession itself.

[15:15:01]

He has pierced executive privilege, right? Attorney-client privilege. I had one lawyer just say to me, no one has ever turned lawyers into witnesses faster than Donald Trump. And what does this mean for the future in terms of what laws we pay attention to anymore? Will attorney-client privilege be affected by this in some way, shape or form? And we just ...

CORNISH: Yes.

BORGER: ... we don't know the answer.

CORNISH: Before it was all op-eds and hot tapes.

BORGER: Yes. Yes.

CORNISH: It was sort of like, well, what if he does this violation of norms.

BORGER: And now ...

CORNISH: And I think there's been many more years of actual crisis ...

BORGER: ... there are no norms.

CORNISH: ... to deal with, right. And I think ...

BASH: We're just doing an imitation of your (inaudible) ...

CORNISH: That's my legal voice.

BASH: Right. Right.

WILLIAMS: (Inaudible) ...

WILLIAMS: (Inaudible) ...

CORNISH: Yes, which is why I didn't make it all the way to law, but ...

BORGER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Looking in the mirror (inaudible) ...

BORGER: And what about client who may lie to his attorneys all the time? What do we - how do attorneys deal with that and ...

WILLIAMS: Well, because I think - well, real quick there's a - bigger point that this can happen in America. And the fact that a premier of the country of former leader is being investigated and possibly prosecuted would have been unthinkable 20 years ago, but you see it all around the world with a certain degree of judgment that happens here.

BASH: I think that looks like the President's plane, which actually leads me to say, as we take a quick break, Audie, you were saying that we've learned a lot. One of the things that we have learned is to not put everything at an 11, not make everything the biggest deal. This is a big deal. This is a big deal that a former president of the United States, for the first time is coming to be arraigned in court and that is going to happen.

Any moment we're going to see the former president touchdown at LaGuardia in New York. It will be a momentous 24 hours that we're going to see over the next - I would say is probably more than 24 hours. But certainly tomorrow when he's going to be appearing in court for the first time the plane is on approach as we just saw back with Kaitlan Collins in New York next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:21:06]

COLLINS: All right. Welcome back. Any moment now, former President Trump is going to land here in New York City. His plane is on approach. It'll be here any moment. He's going to be arraigned tomorrow, of course, following last week's historic grand jury indictment. And to give you a sense of what's happening here in New York and what

for President Trump is landing to - he'll land at LaGuardia Airport but then he is expected to come over here where we are broadcasting outside of Trump Tower. That is where he is going to spend the night before he goes to the Manhattan courthouse tomorrow.

We're outside of Trump Tower. There are a few dozen protesters out here. It's been a little bit loud at times, but largely Manhattan is going on about its day. Of course, the security preparations are very much underway here in New York because this is a historic indictment but also there is going to be secret service here accompanying the President as they do everywhere he goes but also inside that courthouse tomorrow.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is live outside the courthouse in lower Manhattan. Shimon walk us through what it's going to look like once Trump's plane actually lands at LaGuardia. Then, of course, he is going to get in a motorcade. Typically, when he would come here as president, he would land at the airport, and he would take a helicopter to the Wall Street landing zone. And then of course, traffic would be blocked off for him, but it's going to look a little bit different here for today, what are you expecting?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, certainly. As the former president, the entire security package is completely different for him, so that's why as you said, there's no helicopter to take him here into Manhattan. And I think for the New York City Police Department, they start to really kick into high gear, once he starts - once he lands, leaves the airport, goes through the highways and comes into Manhattan.

It's a totally different situation for them as they begin to really prepare for tomorrow and what we're going to see here outside of the Manhattan Criminal Court, where I am. And really we're starting to see some of the security efforts and some of the things that the NYPD along with the court officers are going to be doing.

And a lot of this you're going to see up by Trump Tower as well. These metal barricades that you see here, those are all around the courthouse here. You see the court officers here, but there are also NYPD officers here all along here outside the courthouse.

And the reason why that is, is obviously they're just getting ready for tomorrow. The concern obviously is that you have the media presence here, but then also there's going to be protesters. They anticipate protesters, supporters of the former president.

So these barricades are sort of being put up here just to sort of prevent anyone who may try to cross the street, try to make their way into the courthouse. They're going to try to really have a controlled system here. The courtroom is going to close around one o'clock which is usually what time they break for lunch. And then it will remain close until Trump's arraignment is finished, which should be around 3:00, 3:15.

Trump is going to go inside the Manhattan DA's office tomorrow. He's going to go - through this building, he's going to go up to the 15th floor where the arraignment is going to take place. Side by side with him are going to be secret service agents and court officers and also investigators from the Manhattan DA's office who are actually going to be the ones arresting him because of this indictment.

So tomorrow, certainly this area is going to be shut down as the motorcade makes its way here. We're going to see a lot of street closures. But I also think a lot of people Kaitlan are going to come out. Everyone sort of kind of is asking questions, wants to see what's happening here. But the NYPD certainly their biggest concern is what's going to be happening out here for the court staff and the Secret Service. It's everything that's going to be going on inside the courtroom.

And once it's over, we expect him to leave and head back to Florida at some point tomorrow afternoon, Kaitlan.

[15:25:01]

But for Trump Tower, I think that's going to be the big concern tonight, obviously.

COLLINS: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: And then tomorrow, we'll - all the focus will be here on Lower Manhattan.

COLLINS: Yes. And certainly New York has had several weeks to prepare for this. It was over two weeks ago that Trump said he was expecting to be arrested within days. Now, of course, we know the arraignment is actually happening tomorrow.

Shimon, I will say that for - over here at Trump Tower, there aren't a ton of protesters. There's certainly several dozen across the street. But on this side of the street where we're broadcasting, it seems like there's more members of the media than there are protesters at this moment. We'll see if that changes once Trump arrives.

But Shimon, I think it's just remarkable of the fact that not only is this a historic indictment, but also the idea that the New York Police Department is going to have to arrange these security logistics with Secret Service themselves and dealing with something of that, that we've never seen before. As I should note, Trump's plane is now coming into LaGuardia about to land here any moment.

PROKUPECZ: I just want to point something out to you, Kaitlan. I don't know what happened, but you can see all of these court officers here. They just ran into this park. I don't know if there was some kind of a fight here or something, but it just - I think the point that I want to make here is just to show you how on edge some of the folks here are and keeping an eye on everything.

You can see more police officers here moving in. This has sort of been a gathering spot here. They've just - it looks like they've just arrested someone here, Kaitlan. We don't really know why. But this is sort of in the area where many of the protesters and supporters of Trump have been gathering, but this is the first time that we've seen anyone actually being arrested. We don't know why.

But it was really interesting to watch because something was going on and then all of a sudden, the court officers offices here jumped over these barricades and ran over here and just took that that man into custody. But I think the reason why I'm showing you this just to show you kind of some of the security measures that are in place here, the sensitivity and certainly just how on alert the officers are here.

As I said there are NYPD officers here and all of these court officers and clearly they saw something Kaitlan and they jumped over this way.

COLLINS: Okay, Shimon. Keep an eye on that. Let us know what you hear about that. Clearly there is a sense that city officials are bracing here. I just want to note for viewers we are seeing for President Trump's plane land here at LaGuardia Airport in New York. That is his flight that he was taking before he is going to make his way over here to Trump Tower, Phil and Dana, before he is going to be arraigned tomorrow.

That, of course, is a flight that they had been planning. The logistics of this had been certainly a big aspect. And we know we had heard that initially when that indictment came down last Thursday, they wanted Trump to appear in a courthouse in a courtroom the following Friday, but they said they needed more time to work on the logistics of what exactly this was going to look like.

So while there are still a lot of unknowns, there has been a lot of planning behind the scenes when it comes to Trump's legal team and secret service in the New York Police Department into this visit and coordinating this. And so Trump is going to get off that plane as the ex-president, but also as the first former or sitting president to ever have criminal charges facing him.

And so - he's not expected to speak while he's here in New York. They've said, of course, those are famous last words, Dana and Fish, we do know he will be speaking tomorrow night.

BASH: Wheels down as we say we see the Trump plane taxing now and we do expect him to get out shortly. We know from back in the campaign days that it had been wired with cable news. So it would not be a surprising thing that he is watching his - himself taxing in New York on TV adds to the sort of surreal notion of this moment.

But Donald Trump born and raised in New York, of New York now a resident of the State of Florida back in New York to do something that he spent his - pretty much his entire adult life fighting, which is the legal system as a private citizen, and then as a politician and as president in the way that a president does, but now back being a private citizen, for the first time, getting to the point where he is a man who has been indicted, and he will see what the charges specifically are when he goes to the courtroom and he is booked tomorrow morning - or tomorrow at some point.

MATTINGLY: Yes. I think that's a critical point. Neither the former president nor any of the advisors that traveled with him on that airplane that you're looking at right now nor his legal team already on the ground in New York have any idea what the actual indictment says. And I think that sense of the unknown, you, and Kaitlan, and Shimon and all - everybody's done such incredible work on figuring out the choreography of this moment from the security perspective, from the Trump legal team perspective.

[15:30:07]