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CNN International: Trump Free on Bond After Felony Arrest in Georgia; U.S. Evaluating Possible Causes of Prigozhin Plane Crash; U.S. to Start Training Ukrainians of F-16s in October; High Temps Fuel Unusually Intense Fire Season in Greece. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 25, 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.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster joining you live from London. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think a win for this country. Is Donald Trump having to admit that he's a liar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He could have smiled. He could have looked benign. Instead he looks like a thug.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't want to look weak.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a real legal case where he has some real issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

FOSTER: It's Friday, August 25th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. in Bedminster, New Jersey where Donald Trump is free on $200,000 bond after his arrest in Georgia. It is the fourth time he's surrendered to authorities in less than five months.

NOBILO: And for the first time ever, we have rather iconic mug shot of a U.S. president. Trump was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta facing more than a dozen charges related to his attempt to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. Sources tell CNN that he wanted to look defiant in his booking.

FOSTER: He looks very blond. Doesn't he?

NOBILO: Well interestingly in the booking sheet, they list the hair as blond or strawberry.

FOSTER: Later Thursday Trump posted the mug shot on X -- formally known as Twitter along with a fundraising appeal. He spoke with reporters before leaving Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. And everybody knows it. I've never had such support and that goes with the other ones too. What they are doing is election interference. They're trying to interfere with an election. There's never been anything like it in our country before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: A bit later the former president spoke with the conservative TV network Newsmax on his flight back to New Jersey describing his arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Terrible experience. I came in, I was treated very nicely. But it is what it is. I took a mug shot which I never heard the words mug shot, didn't teach me that at the Wharton school of finance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and four other co-defendants surrendered overnight, that leaves two people yet to turn themselves in. More now on what comes next from CNN senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Now that former president Trump has completed his surrender here at the Fulton County Sheriff's Office the next time, he'll have to return here to Georgia is for his arraignment. The District Attorney Fani Willis has said she would like to do the arraignments for all 19 defendants the week of September 5.

Now in his federal cases, this all happened at once. He was processed and then he went before a judge to enter his plea. But here in Georgia, things happen at a slightly different pace. Now after that initial week or two of arraignments, the defendants actually have a short window of time to file certain challenges to their case.

Now several defendants, including Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, they have already challenged their cases trying to get these state level cases moved to federal court. Now the former president has signaled that he will likely try to do the same. Rudy Giuliani may also try that move. So that process will take quite some time to play out. The next thing that's going to happen though is on Monday, there will

be a hearing for Mark Meadows' efforts to move it to federal court. We expect that the focus of that hearing is going to be that infamous call between former president Trump and former Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. That District Attorney Fani Willis has dismissed any suggestion by Meadows that what he was doing is just part of his job as chief of staff and that this should not be prosecuted.

Now it'll be interesting to see what the judge does here. But if Meadows does not succeed, he'll be back with the other defendants here in Fulton County as this case proceeds. But for a RICO case of this size and complexity, it could take years for a final resolution.

Paula Reid, Fulton County, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Bernarda Villalona is a criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, friend of the program, thank you so much for coming on. We were talking about whether or not there would be a mug shot yesterday.

[04:05:00]

We need to bring it up because it is the talking point of the day. Isn't it? I mean, what did you make of it, the fact he took it and, you know, the image itself and how it has effectively become iconic already?

BERNARDA VILLALONA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Max, as you can see, this is the first time in American history that a former president actually had a mug shot taken. So this is one for the books. This is one that will come up hundreds of years from now when we're talking about the history of this country. But also what's a bit entertaining about it, Max, let's not forget that there was the mug shot pedigree, being the information that was provided, that Donald Trump is 6'3", 215 pounds, also with blue eyes. Yes, I agree. And the strawberry-blond hair. So that information itself is associated with that mug shot. Of course self-reporting.

NOBILO: Bernarda, when are the trials likely to happen? Because there are a number of complicating factors here, aren't there, the number of co-defendants, 19, the complications between state and federal legal complexities. Can you talk a bit more about that?

VILLALONA: Well as of now the only trial that we know for sure supposedly is going to happen because the judge has already given a trial date is for one of the defendants, that being Chesebro where his trial is scheduled for the end of October because he exercised his right for a speedy trial. What happens with that as we know is that because he exercised his right for a speedy trial, now his case is going to end up being separated from the other 18 other defendants.

So what we're looking at possibly is several different trials. It's not going to be all 19 defendants at the same time. It's going to be staggered out. Also many things can happen. Defendants can plead out. Meaning they plead guilty. You can have defendants that actually going to cooperate with the district attorney's office and testify against each other. And ultimately you will have those that won't plead guilty and are going to exercise their right for a trial.

As of now we know Donald Trump is going to delay this trial as much as possible. You heard on one of his cases he is asking for a trial date when? In 2026. Highly unlikely it's going to happen in 2026, but his trial definitely one of them should be going forward out of the four sometime in 2024, hopefully before the election. This case itself is very important for the people of this country, so hopefully this case can move along.

FOSTER: He's hired another lawyer, hasn't he, last minute really. That makes it difficult for the legal team, doesn't it, I mean, how do you make sense of that?

VILLALONA: Well, it is quite expected. You have to think that Donald Trump is facing not only just federal charges but as well as state charges. And when you are talking about a defense team and when you're talking about getting attorneys that are equipped to handle these types of cases, the recent attorney that he hired yesterday who came forward yesterday is one that is very seasoned and has experience in trying cases in state court. Specifically RICO cases, racketeering cases in state court. Because you need the right team in order to be able to assess and maneuver these different trials that are going on.

So the right fit for one case won't be the right fit for another case. And let's just be clear, you need a team for these types of charges because of the enormous amount of publicity and as well as the enormous amount of charges and the discovery that you're going to be getting in terms of information and evidence.

FOSTER: Bernarda Villalona in New York, thank you so much.

Now a day after the apparent death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Wagner boss a talented man who made serious mistakes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): First of all, I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. This is always a tragedy. Preliminary information suggests that Wagner Group employees were also on board.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: It was his first public comment about Wednesday's deadly crash and it came two months after Prigozhin and his mercenary group staged a brief aborted insurrection against Russia's military leaders. U.S. officials are evaluating possible causing as to what brought down the plane including an explosion on board. But they are ruling out one possibility for now. CNN's Oren Liebermann has the latest from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. is still very much looking at the crash of a private jet belonging to Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin to try to figure out what happened there that caused it to crash on Wednesday afternoon about 30 minutes into its flight out of Moscow. Three U.S. officials tell CNN that there is no early indication that it was a missile. In other words, no early indication that surface to air missile fired from a Russian air defense system took down that Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin.

[04:10:00]

There were even some questions about whether Prigozhin was on the flight even after Russian state media put out a passenger manifest showing that Prigozhin was on the flight. But on Thursday, Pentagon Press Secretary, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, said U.S. does believe that Prigozhin was killed in that crash.

But that leaves open the question of what took down the aircraft. Again, according to really assessments and the early indications, it was not a surface to air missile launch from a Russian aerial defense system -- according to three U.S. officials. Nor was it an air-to-air missile launched from a Russian aircraft -- according to one of those officials.

So the U.S. and intelligence community as they work through the available information and the available intelligence, are looking at a number of other possibilities. Including the possibility that it was an explosion on board that aircraft that took down the flight.

But it is important to caution here that this is still very early into what the U.S. can see and obviously there are no U.S. investigators on the ground there. So this process will take time. Not only to look at the possibilities, but also to figure out which of those possibilities is the most likely to have happened. Whether the U.S. can determine there is something definitive, that at this point remains an open question.

The Embraer Legacy private jet was about 30 minutes into its flight from a Moscow airport headed towards St. Petersburg at about 28,000 feet, so a normal cruising altitude and some 500 knots, when flight data from flight radar 24 shows that after going up and down erratically for a short period of time, it crashed just about 30 minutes into its flight outside of Moscow. Again, DOD confirming they believe Prigozhin was on that flight.

And there is a prevailing belief amongst U.S. officials that Russian President Vladimir Putin was going to take some sort of action against Prigozhin after the attempted mutiny against him in late June. The surprise not that this happened, the surprise being that the two had even met after that attempted mutiny and this we see here as the U.S. tries to figure out exactly what happened there.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE) NOBILO: Ukrainian pilots will start cutting their teeth on F-16

fighter jets in the U.S. this October.

FOSTER: The Pentagon says they'll be learning to fly those jets at an air base in Arizona. Which will be run side by side with separate training led by Denmark and the Netherlands. Nada is here looking at those developments. I mean, this really, it's presses how long this whole process is going to take. How long is the training on its own going to take?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely, and we've heard from Ukraine's defense minister saying he expects it to take a minimum of six months. But at the end of the day, it's up to the instructors, particularly those in the U.S. to determine when these Ukrainian pilots and of course, their maintenance engineers are ready to operate the jets.

Now that training is set to begin in Arizona in October, but before that, these pilots and engineers will be heading to Texas where they'll be undertaking English language training because they'll need to be equipped with these specialized and sometimes complex language needed to operate these jets. And of course, this training could take months. But it isn't happening independently in the U.S., as you mentioned, this is happening in conjunction with partners in Europe. And we heard that yesterday from a Pentagon spokesperson. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGADIER GEN. PAT RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: The training provided by the United States will complement the F-16 pilot and maintenance training that's already under way in Europe and further deepens our support for the F-16 training coalition led by Denmark and the Netherlands. Moving forward, we'll remain in close consultation with the Danes, the Dutch and other allies to ensure U.S. training compliments the broader coalition training effort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now earlier this week Denmark and the Netherlands both committed to sending those F-16s to Ukraine. And we know of course that U.S. is in talks with other European allies who might be able to provide the F-16 to Ukraine at a later date. And we heard from the White House on Thursday. President Biden spoke to President Zelenskyy and assured him of an expedited approval process as soon as that training is complete.

NOBILO: Nada Bashir, thank you so much.

Around 80 million people in the central U.S. are under excessive heat alerts from the Gulf Coast to the southern Great Lakes. In Chicago temperatures reached a blistering 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday for the first time since 2012. The city also set an all-time record when the heat index reached 120 degrees.

FOSTER: Officials report over 285 daily heat records could be tied or broken through the end of the weekend and National Weather Service says the dangerous and oppressive heat will continue throughout a large portion of the U.S. on Friday. The heat plus humidity levels mean heat indices could approach 120 in the Midwest and central Gulf Coast there.

Almost 700,000 homes and businesses are without power in parts of Michigan and Ohio. At least one tornado has been confirmed in the region. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has declared a state of emergency due to flooding in and around Detroit. Some areas received 7 to 8 inches of rain in just 24 hours.

NOBILO: The heavy rain caused some flights to be canceled at Detroit Metropolitan Airport where some tunnels were flooded -- as you can see. A 70-mile-per-hour gust was reported in Detroit on Thursday night.

[04:15:04]

FOSTER: Mandatory evacuations are in place in parts of Louisiana, as fire spreads in the state's southwest area. More than 10,000 acres have burned near the Texas border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE STRAIN, COMMISSIONER, LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY: Air tankers and the helicopters at work knocking us down. But this is what we got to watch. It's moving pretty fast and you can feel the air picking up. That's from the heat of the fire sucking air into the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: One official said normally at this time of year Louisiana is dealing with hurricanes and tropical storms, not wildfires. Louisiana's governor says that his state has never been this hot and dry since they've never had many fires. A statewide burn ban on outdoor burning for barbecues and such is in effect. Several hundred fires have been burning in the state.

FOSTER: Hawaii's Maui County is formally pointing the finger at local utilities and suing them for not doing enough to prevent the death and destruction from the wildfires that scorched that area.

FOSTER: Plus, mortgage rates soar to their highest level in more than two decades. We'll check the latest numbers.

And later on, a growing call for Spain's soccer chief to face accountability after an unwelcome kiss during the World Cup victory celebration.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:20:03]

FOSTER: We're finally getting some hard numbers from Hawaii of the number of people unaccounted for in the recent wildfires. Maui County officials say they validated a list of 388 people still unaccounted for and more than 1700 originally thought missing are safe and well.

NOBILO: Meantime, Maui County is accusing local utility companies of an action that caused loss of life. On Thursday, it filed a lawsuit alleging that Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries, = caused the fires by ignoring warnings from the National Weather Service about high winds that could knock down power lines.

FOSTER: And it says, when the fire started on August 8, the companies didn't power down their equipment in the area. At least 115 people were killed. A spokesperson from Hawaii Electric tells CNN it is very disappointed that the county chose to file a lawsuit while the investigation is still unfolding.

NOBILO: In Greece authorities say they're dealing with a large resurgence of wildfires gripping parts of the country. Officials say strong winds stirred up fires north of Athens early Thursday morning.

FOSTER: Let's bring in CNN correspondent Eleni Giokos live in Athens. Eleni, you've been reporting on the ground there since the fires began. Very bravely, I have to say, with some of the scenes you been in. How are the conditions today?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As you can see, very windy, Max. We're in Paramythia. We've been here the last few days. The fire that started on Tuesday afternoon. And there was hope that last night they would be able to make headway and get it under control. They have not.

We're deep in the mountains. Very bad signal here. We in fact can see a fire that is raging beyond -- I mean, you can see the smoke that is billowing out of a virgin forest that is now being decimated as we speak. As you can see the pylon their, that electrical pylon. We were beyond that mountain and we couldn't report from there because there was just no signal. There's an ancient fortress there that was built in 404 BC, a danger of being burnt to the ground.

The firefighters here are on high alert. We're seeing helicopters coming in every few minutes dropping 11 tons of water at a time. That there are teams from Slovakia here as well helping the Greeks. You can see that most of those forests have been decimated.

This is -- and I keep repeating -- the lungs of Athens. What was supposed to be a carbon basin to absorb pollution is now emanating enormous amounts of carbon dioxide. Absolutely drastic and catastrophic environmental damage. Apart from the fires that you saw on the residential areas that we were covering just yesterday, and you can see that helicopter coming through dropping vital water, vital resources.

You know, they had to stop working overnight and that's where it becomes difficult, that is where the fire starts to spread rapidly. And we've been seeing many spots that are as aggressive and intense as this in many parts of this mountainous area. Showing just the scale that has been impacted.

Max and Bianca, let me tell you one of the most scary facts, the land area that has been burnt in Greece is a record number for any area that has been burnt in the EU. The numbers are enormous. In the billions in terms of square kilometers. The numbers are still being estimated and currently calculated. We've got three major frontlines in Greece right now, 100 kilometers from Athens and Viotia, Alexandroupoli, which has been burning since Monday. That's still absolutely under devastating scenarios that we're seeing the fire department saying they are doing what they can with the resources at hand.

FOSTER: OK, Eleni, thank you, take care.

Pakistan still in urgent support one year after catastrophic flooding. Last year's monsoon season killed hundreds and destroyed millions of homes and wiped-out entire farms. At one point nearly one third of Pakistan was under water. A year later UNICEF warns millions still don't have access to essential services.

NOBILO: According to the U.N. organization, some 8 million people are still without safe water and over 1.5 million children are in need of nutrition and intervention. The floods damaged or destroyed vital infrastructure including 30,000 schools, 2,000 health facilities and 4,300 water systems. UNICEF is calling on the Pakistan government and others to any investment in basic services like these for children and families.

FOSTER: Still ahead this hour, more on our top story. Donald Trump goes to jail. The former U.S. president arrested, fingerprinted and photographed in Fulton County, Georgia.

[04:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: I'm Max Foster. If you are just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories and photos.

Donald Trump remains defiant insisting he did nothing wrong following the 2020 election after surrendering to Georgia authorities on Thursday. The former U.S. president was leased on a $200,000 bond. Meanwhile, the Fulton County district attorney wants the criminal trial for Trump and 18 of his co-defendants to begin in less than two months. Trump's lawyers told the judge in Georgia that they oppose the proposed trial date of October 23rd. I'm looking at the right camera now.

Let's bring in Thomas Gift. He's the director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at the University College of London. And he is joining us live this hour from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Thanks for joining us, Thomas. We want to bring up that mug shot again because it's interesting looking at it, isn't it, and the fact that he's actually using it as part of his campaign I thought was pretty interesting. We were under the impression that he would resist having a mug shot taken but he is using it to his advantage now.

THOMAS GIFT, CENTRE ON U.S. POLITICS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LONDON: Well good morning, Max and good morning, Bianca. It's great to be with you. You know, this mug shot is certainly going to go down as one of the most iconic images I think of the Trump years and it will mean different things for each side. But from a political perspective, I think this is a real gift for Trump. It's hard to deny. It's basically the perfect visual metaphor for the same story that Trump's been telling over and over, that he is the victim of a partisan vendetta. And I think that he's going to.

[04:30:10]