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CNN International: Trump Proposes 2026 Date for Election Subversion Trial; Information of Purported Grand Jurors Circulate Online; Hurricane Hilary a Cat 4 Storm, Still Gaining Strength; Maui Emergency Official Resigns Amid Criticism for Not Using Sirens to Warn Residents; Biden to Host Leaders of Japan, South Korea at Camp David; U.S. Pledges to Approve Supplying F-16s to Ukraine. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo, live from London. Max Foster has the day off but he'll be back on Monday. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Former president Trump reacting to his Georgia indictment for the first time on camera and calling for his party to come to his defense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Joe Biden prepares to host the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday at Camp David. China, and North Korea high on the agenda.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Emergency alert --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you regret not sounding the sirens?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what the head of Maui's Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday before suddenly resigning the day later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN newsroom with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

NOBILO: It is Friday August 18th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. in Washington D.C. Where Donald Trump's legal team is proposing a new date for the trial in his federal election submission case. The date, April 2026. Which is years away. Of course, special counsel Jack Smith is pushing for the trial to start in the January of 2024. Just about five months from now. This comes on the heels of Trump calling off the news conference where he was going to provide his proof that the 2020 election was stolen. In a post on his social media site, Trump said his lawyers would

prefer putting that evidence in formal legal filings to fight his latest indictment in Georgia.

Meanwhile, the purported names, photos and home addresses of the grand jurors who voted for that indictment are being circulated online. The FBI and the Fulton County Sheriff's Office are investigating any credible threats against them. CNN senior legal affairs correspondent, Paula Reid looks at the security risk facing that Georgia jury as well as the judge in a separate case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's because I have four of them now, if you look.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former President Trump reacting to his Georgia indictment for the first time on camera and calling for his party to come to his defense.

TRUMP: They have no idea the anger they cause. So Republicans have to be tough. The Republicans are great in many ways, but they don't fight as hard for this stuff, and they have to get a lot tougher.

REID (voice-over): This call to action comes as the Georgia residents who served on the grand jury that indicted Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election are facing threats and even getting doxed online.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: These people were called to serve and do their civic duty by serving on that grand jury and now they've been basically put on the X by these disclosures.

REID (voice-over): Names, pictures, profiles and even home addresses purporting to belong to the grand jurors are now circulating on far- right websites. Their names were published on the indictment of public documents as is the practice in Georgia. But experts say --

MILLER: This is really a quirk of law in the state of Georgia, that the names of grand jurors come out with the indictment. So this is really the first time we've seen this kind of thing come out in a national case.

REID (voice-over): CNN cannot independently verify the details, and it's unclear if the information circulating online is that of the actual grand jurors or just people of the same name. Former Georgia State Senator and Attorney Jen Jordan testified in this case. And she says these threats might impede prosecutors' ability to find a trial jury.

JEN JORDAN, FORMER GEORGIA DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATOR: Everyone is going to know who they are. Their lives are going to be turned upside down. And so, just to be able to sit a jury of people who would be even willing to put, you know, their lives on the line is going to be really, really difficult. REID (voice-over): And it's not just the grand jury under threat. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal election interference case against Trump, received a threatening voicemail earlier this month. According to court documents, a Texas woman called Chutkan's chambers on August 5th and left a message threatening to kill anyone who went after former President Trump.

[04:05:00]

She also allegedly threatened to kill Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, as well as people in the LGBTQ community. She is now in custody.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

REID (voice-over): Over the last week, Trump has repeatedly posted to social media, speaking directly to the Fulton County grand jurors and Judge Chutkan, saying:

Will someone please tell the Fulton County grand jury that I did not tamper with the election? And saying that Chutkan, obviously wants me behind bars, very biased and unfair.

REID: Trump was scheduled to hold a press conference Monday to amplify his baseless claims of voting fraud. But now we've learned that's unlikely to happen after his advisors, who are currently negotiating his surrender in Georgia, told him that an event like that could just add to his increasing legal problems.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: We are keeping a close watch on hurricane Hillary. 24 hours ago it was a tropical storm but it has quickly intensified into a powerful category four hurricane, with winds over 144 miles per hour and still gaining strength. It's located some 400 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and heading west northwest. But it's unclear just where the storm will make landfall and how strong it will be when it does. The National Hurricane Center predicts heavy rain will spread into California and the Southwestern United States late this weekend.

Meteorologist Chad Myers is tracking the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Quite a few things going, on with Hillary at this hour. Storm in very warm water here off the southwest coast of Baja California, this to the west really, of Cabo San Lucas but in very, very hot water. Gaining strength rapidly on Thursday. But it's going to try to squeeze its way between a low to the west and a high to the east and that's where things really get interesting. This rarely happens. And so we rarely get tropical systems into Southern California or Arizona because of the perturbation that this is. A very, very difficult pattern to get but with the storm we actually do have it. And eventually, we know it'll be somewhere in Southern California, possibly into southern Arizona. I'll show you the different models here in a second.

But we're dealing with down here now. Temperatures in the water are well into the 80s and even upper 80s in some spots. But by the time we get closer to San Diego, we're only in the 60s. Hurricanes and tropical storms don't like 60s. The storm will rapidly die off when it gets into that colder water. How quickly will it die off? That we don't yet. The water is still warmer by a degree or two than normal. But it is significantly colder than any type of tropical storm system will live in or certainly would grow in.

So here are the models taking up into southern California. Some a little bit farther to the east, some a little bit farther to the west. This thing is still four days away. So where it's going to take a couple of days for the computer to figure out what's going on? I do think will probably gobble in quite a bit of dry air off of Mexico proper. That will begin to loosen the spin of the storm itself. Making it less of a tight little system right there in the middle and then eventually, even though there are going to be some very gusty winds maybe 60 miles per hour, for parts of the Southwest.

I think that's when we're really going to see the threat of it being a rain event. The rain will be very heavy with the system, possibly 4 to 6 inches of rainfall. Especially in these higher elevations and possibly washing down the hills. And obviously the flash flood potential here with this is still going to be very strong even as a dying tropical system.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: In Hawaii, the administrator of Maui's Emergency Management Agency has resigned citing health reasons. He's been criticized for not activating sirens to warn residents about the wildfire danger. On Wednesday he defended the decision. Claiming that if residents heard the sirens, then they would have fled to the mountains where the fire was the most severe. One state, Senator the ridicule that claim.

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ANGUS MCKELVEY, HAWAII DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATOR: I've heard the line that all people would have panicked and ran up to the mountains because it's a tsunami siren. The reaction of the community to that is utter disbelief. It's insulting to think that people would be that clueless. That they wouldn't know the sirens blasting was because of the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: The fires devastated the historic of Lahaina, town killing at least 111 people, with more than 1,000 residents still unaccounted for. The mayor of Maui County tells CNN that 45 percent of the area scorched by the deadly fires has now been searched. CNN's Bill Weir has more on this ongoing effort.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN ANCHOR/CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Here on Maui, as that fatality count ticks up a little bit at a time, day by day, it's the number of missing that weighs so heavy on the hearts of people here and really around the world watching this story.

Over 1,000 missing, according to the governor, his last statement on that. And given the fact that a lot of power is back up on the island, a lot of the communication is back up, you'd think we would have heard from those folks by now.

[04:10:02]

And what's especially grievous is when you think about how many children were home that day. I'm hearing again and again from kids. There was no school when the fire hit. A lot of young ones were with their grandparents or someone else while the parents worked. So you can imagine the agony in those families, if they haven't found their children.

I spoke actually to a veteran urban search and rescue officer from FEMA in Hawaii from the Houston area, and he says of the some 90 disasters he's addressed in his career, this is unlike anything else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's been really powerful is the fact that there's a number of local firefighter NPDs that have lost their homes, lost their everything. And they're out there working side by side with us. So this is something very personal for us. Because this could easily have been our community. And so to be able to help them and to see them working in their own destroyed community is really powerful.

WEIR: He told me how they're searching sort of square foot by square foot with these dogs that are trained to detect human remains, even down to cremated ashes. And they want to be reverential. And standing alongside of them, in a lot of cases, are Maui fire and police department faculty, who have lost their loved ones as well, and are digging through that ash, trying to find anything to put some people's minds at ease right now.

The winds are kicking back up again. Nothing as strong as the firestorm tropical gusts that we saw last week. But a concern for the hotspots still in the upcountry Kula Fire. There are two Chinook helicopters, according to the National Guard, ready to go to put those out if they should flare up. But so many concerns still playing out here. So much trauma.

Bill Weir, CNN, Maui.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: If you would like information on how to help those impacted by the Hawaii wildfires, please do go to CNN.com/impact or you could text Hawaii to 70 70 70 to donate.

The leaders of South Korea and Japan are expected to arrive at Camp David in the coming hours for their first ever trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden. Both allies are among America's most strategic partnerships in the Indo Pacific, but Japan and South Korea have a complicated and bitter history themselves. This will be the first Camp David summit of the Biden presidency. And follows his sideline meetings with them in May in Hiroshima. The Japanese Prime Minister and South Korean president have this to say as they prepare to depart for the U.S. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOON SUK YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Republic of Korea, U.S., Japan summit that will be held at Camp David will set a new milestone in trilateral cooperation contributing to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo Pacific region.

FUMIO KISHIDA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): As the international norms, built on freedom and openness are shaken, our bilateral relationships with the United States and South Korea will be the foundation of this historical opportunity to bolster the strategic relationship between the three countries.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: North Korea has reportedly condemned this three-way partnership as an Asian version of NATO. And it's widely expected to make a military show of force in protest. As Will Ripley explains, that could include the imminent launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All eyes on the skies over North Korea. South Korea's spy agency telling lawmakers in Seoul, Pyongyang is planning a provocative show of force, including an intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

The military is detecting signs of possible ICBM launch preparations, monitoring the active movement of ICBM launch-related vehicles in Pyongyang. Expecting drills, including tactical nuclear-capable missile launches in the coming days.

The latest intelligence as North Korea faces growing international pressure. U.S. and South Korean military exercises begin next week. North Korea considers the annual drills a dress rehearsal for war. Those drills coming as President Joe Biden prepares to host the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday at Camp David. China and North Korea high on the agenda.

At the U.N. Security Council, the first meeting in more than five years on North Korean human rights.

IIHYEOK KIM, NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR: Good morning. My name is Iihyeok Kim.

RIPLEY (voice-over): A North Korean defector telling the council:

The government turns our blood and sweat into a luxurious life for the leadership and missiles that blast our hard work into the sky. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says many North Koreans face extreme hunger, acute medicine shortages, claiming the U.N. and NGOs remain barred from the country.

Two nations not barred from North Korea, Russia and China. Two patrons with power to veto biting Security Council sanctions. Both sent high- level delegations to Pyongyang last month.

Leader Kim Jong-un showing off his latest ICBMs and drones analysts say bear striking resemblance to U.S. military models.

[04:15:00]

Suspicion is growing North Korea may have plans to secretly provide weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine. So far, no hard evidence. But South Korea's spy agency expects growing military cooperation, warning of the possible transfer of Russia's core nuclear and missile technology to North Korea.

For nations trying to contain the North Korean nuclear threat, analysts say the worst may be yet to come.

Will Ripley, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: CNN's Anna Coren is covering this for us and joins us now live from Hong Kong. Anna, you really get the sense with this trilateral meeting with the geopolitical tectonic plates are indeed shifting. Especially considering that Japan occupied South Korea. The liberation of that was just celebrated earlier on this week. What is the message that they're trying to send from this summit?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the message is, you know, we are united. And I think the significance of that cannot be underplayed. A few years ago, Bianca, this would have been unthinkable considering, as you say, the historical grievances in at times hostile relationship between South Korea and Japan. You know, two key allies for America in this region. And yet here we see the South Korean president and the Japanese prime minister putting that aside to join Biden at Camp David, in Maryland, for this one-day summit.

We heard from Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, earlier in the week. He said that this meeting would give the three heads of state a chance to talk about concrete steps towards maintaining peace and stability.

You know, at its core, Bianca, this summit is about dealing with an erratic and a missile threatening North Korea -- as we saw from the package. But more importantly how to deal with a rising and aggressive China. You know, Beijing is making its military presence felt in the region. Look at Taiwan, the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the dispute over the Senkaku Islands with Japan.

And we heard from the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, a few days ago he spoke with the Brookings institute. And he said that China assumed that South Korean Japan would never, in fact resolve their differences or get on the same page. And the fact that they seem to be doing that, and that perhaps this embedding of this cooperation in the DNA of the three governments to create a new norm, will present a major deterrent China. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAHM EMANUEL, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN: I think it doubles down, not only on our strength of that alliance, but more importantly it doubles down on the fact that we've created something that exactly what China what was hoping would never happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Now Beijing will be watching very closely, and obviously the fear is, you know, how will it retaliate? It could do so economically, and that would be a great concern to South Korea and Japan. China is their largest trading partner. And look, we heard from China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, last month, warning Japan and South Korea against aligning themselves too closely with the U.S.

So obviously, you know, South Korean, Japan walking a tight rope that they know that this alliance with the United States, you know, between the three of them that that is critical moving forward -- Bianca.

NOBILO: CNN Anna Coren for us in Hong Kong. Thank you, always great to speak to you.

And obviously this trilateral summit, an interesting mirror of the deepening ties between Russia, China and North Korea. And on that subject, Russian and Chinese warships on joint maneuvers near Japanese southern islands, have triggered a song diplomatic response from Tokyo. On Thursday, nearly a dozen ships from the two navies were seen transiting international waters together near Okinawa. The Russian military release this video of what it said were the ships on joint Pacific patrol. Now CNN can't verify that these were the same vessels. Japan's Defense Ministry denounced the maneuvers as a show of force against Japan and a threat to its national security.

Still ahead, a new drone incident in Moscow. It's just the latest in a spate of drone encounters in the Russian capital in recent weeks. We'll have a live report on incident coming up next.

Plus, the U.S. says it will give the go ahead to send F-16 jets to Ukraine but it will still be awhile before those planes are headed there. We'll explain why that is.

And she's taking the concert seen by storm. Still ahead for you this hour, exclusive data obtained by CNN, on just how much Taylor Swift is on track to pull in on her latest tour.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Moscow's mayor says Russian air defenses shot down a drone overnight. Debris from the drone allegedly fell near the Moscow Expo Center. This marks the third time in the past months that this district of the capital has been struck by drone debris. It's one of two incidents that officials reported in recent hours.

The Russian defense ministry says two of its patrol ships in the Black Sea repelled an attack from an unmanned Ukrainian gun boat late Thursday. One of the vessels that thwarted the attack is the Vasily Bikov. That ship took part in Russia's attack on Ukraine's Snake Island at the start of the full-scale invasion -- which you probably remember.

Meanwhile while learning more about American made F-16 fighter jets possibly being sent to Ukraine. CNN's Nada Bashir is following these developments for us. Nada, what is the latest in the F-16?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well we've heard from U.S. officials now saying that the Biden administration is committed to approving the transfer of these U.S.-made fighter jets to Ukraine as soon as that training is complete. But that is really the sticking point here. We heard yesterday, from the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Air Force was saying that Ukrainian pilots wouldn't be trained in the coming months. That they likely wouldn't be able to operate these F-16s over the autumn and winter months. Which is of course a crucial period for Ukraine as they continue to grind on with their counteroffensive. So it is a disappointing blow to those efforts. This was a hope for Ukraine that this could potentially mark a turning point in the boost in that counteroffensive and to air defense aspirations. But the U.S. has been clear they are backing the training of Ukrainian pilots.

[04:25:02]

And that as soon these pilots are fully trained, which will be carried out in conjunction with EU partners, they will be able to use these F- 16s. They will be transferred to Ukraine.

NOBILO: Now in the other stories that we've been watching this morning, we're hearing again that a drone attack has hit a building in central Moscow. What do we know and is this having any impact, do we think, on Russians sense of security and almost detachment or isolation from the invasion?

BASHIR: I think it's fair to say that the Russian authorities tend to underplay any sorts of attacks on Russian soil. And we have seen an uptick in Ukraine targeting Russian territory particularly through attempted drone attacks.

Now we have had some information from the Russian ministry of defense, they say this was an attempted drone attack which took place at around 4:00 a.m. this morning local time. And so far no casualties reported. They say their air defenses were able to down this drone before it reached its target, with debris, as you mentioned, has struck the Moscow Expo and causing, according to the Russian authorities, minor damage.

But they are calling this a terrorist attack. They are blaming Ukraine. And as you seen in the past, Ukraine tends to not claim responsibility for any such attacks on Russian territory. But of, course this has had some impact, though there weren't any casualties. Four major airports were forced to suspend operations temporarily. Those operations are back up and running according to Russian state media.

But of course, we are seeing that uptick. And as you mentioned, we saw an attack on Thursday night on the Black Sea as well as another attempted attack. Well then, we've heard from the Ukrainian authorities in the past, saying that these attacks against Russian targets on Russian soil will continue. They'll continue to use drones in the Black Sea so long as Russian troops remain in Ukraine territory.

NOBILO: Nada Bashir, as always, thank you so much.

The U.S. State Department says it's aware of reports of new charged against a U.S. citizen who's already behind bars in Russia. A Russian state news agency said on Thursday, that Gene Spector was charged with espionage, while serving a separate sentence for bribery. So far there's no indication that the U.S. considers him wrongfully detained. Which is the case with two other Americans held for alleged espionage. A former Marine Paul Whelan the serving a 16-year sentence, while "Wall Street Journal" reporter, Evan Gershkovich, is yet to be put on trial where he'll face up to 20 years in prison.

A 30 something newly appointed judge will preside over Donald Trump's criminal trial in Georgia. Coming up, just who is Judge Scott McAfee.

And in Canada the rush to get residents away from wildfire is still underway. Why officials are keeping an especially close eye on the weather?