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CNN International: Hearings on Motions to Disqualify Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis; Trump's First Criminal Trial Set for March 25 in New York; Former FBI Informant Arrested, Charged with Lying About Bidens; Israeli Special Forces Raid Nassar Hospital in Gaza; Fallout Over Threat of Russian Anti-Satellite System; Munich Security Conference Gets Underway. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 16, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's be clear, because you lied in this, let me tell you which one you lied in right here. I think you lied right here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no, no. This is the truth, judge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a lie. It is a lie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: U.S. prosecutors charged a former FBI informant with lying about corruption claims against President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages, indicating that Hamas held hostages at the Nasr Hospital in Khan Younis.

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

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster.

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Bianca Nobilo. It's Friday, February 16th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Atlanta, Georgia, where later today we'll hear more potentially explosive testimony from the district attorney in the state's election interference case against Donald Trump.

FOSTER: Trump and his co-defendants accuse Fani Willis of a financial conflict of interest and want her thrown off the case, but she took the stand on Thursday in her own defense and fired back with fiery and at times very personal testimony, CNN's Nick Valencia has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I've been very anxious to have this conversation with you today, so I ran to the courtroom.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A defiant Fulton County D.A., Fani Willis, taking the stand today after weeks of fighting allegations that she personally benefited from a romantic relationship she had with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she handpicked to spearhead the sprawling racketeering charges against Donald Trump and his allies.

WILLIS: I probably had some choice words about some of the things that you said that were dishonest within this motion, so I don't know that it was a conversation. As you know, Mr. Wade is a southern gentleman, me not so much.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Willis not hiding her anger over the allegations, at one point being called a hostile witness by the defense.

WILLIS: I very much want to be here, so I'm not a hostile witness.

VALENCIA (voice-over): While both Wade and Willis have admitted to the relationship they had. They say it began only after Wade took the job. That timeline, also a major point of contention in the hearing today. Before Willis took the stand, the first witness of the day directly contradicted Wade and Willis's previous statements to the court.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have no doubt that their romantic relationship was in effect from 2019 until the last time you spoke with her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No doubt.

VALENCIA (voice-over): That's three years earlier than when Wade said in an affidavit their relationship started. But Wade holding firm to that date when he took the stand.

NATHAN WADE, SPECIAL PROSECUTOR IN TRUMP'S GEORGIS ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE: 2022 was the start of any intimate sexual relationship with a district attorney.

VALENCIA (voice-over): As did Willis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When did you start dating?

WILLIS: When I started dating Mr. Wade? It was right around then.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: April 2022?

WILLIS: 22. Yes, it was around there. I don't know, like, you know, it's not like when you're in grade school and you send a little letter and it says, will you be my girlfriend and you check it.

VALENCIA (voice-over): And then there's the money trail. Defense attorneys pressing on whether or not Wade paid for Willis when the two vacation together, trying to suggest that he used money he made from his taxpayer-funded contract at the DA's office on Willis. Both maintain that they split their vacation expenses.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, all of the vacations that she took, she paid you cash for?

WADE: Yes, ma'am.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Willis confirming the same in her testimony.

WILLIS: Because we went out multiple times, that probably went to the level of more than $100. But if we're doing tit for tat like that, I probably paid for as many meals as he paid for. And so, I did not receive any gifts from him.

VALENCIA (voice-over): And at times, forcefully pushing back with the defense attorney who first launched the allegations.

WILLIS: These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I'm not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.

VALENCIA: Earlier, I spoke to Bishop Reginald Jackson, who prayed with Fani Willis before the hearing began. He said that on Thursday, Fani woke up ready to testify and was eager to meet this head-on.

There was times during Thursday's hearing that got deep into the personal lives of both Willis and Wade, with at one point, Willis throwing Nathan Wade under the bus for allegedly making sexist remarks. Her testimony is expected to continue Friday morning at 9 a.m., but it may be days before we reach a decision here.

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The judge has already said he is not going to rule from the bench.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

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FOSTER: Well, the news out of Georgia nearly overshadowed the history made in New York. The date of March 25th had been set for Donald Trump's first criminal trial.

NOBILO: This marks the first ever criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president. Trump appeared in court Thursday, but before the hearing started, he insisted there was no case.

FOSTER: The judge disagreed to the trials about whether Trump falsified business records to funnel hush money to a porn star in 2016.

The late March trial date is right in the middle of the election calendar and just a few weeks after Super Tuesday. CNN's Kara Scannell has further details on the case.

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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A New York state judge ordering Donald Trump to stand trial for criminal charges next month.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Instead of being in South Carolina and other states campaigning, I'm stuck here.

SCANNELL (voice-over): This case related to a hush money repayment scheme involving porn star Stormy Daniels and former Trump fixer Michael Cohen will begin on March 25th.

TRUMP: There is no case.

SCANNELL (voice-over): It's a historic first. A former president facing a jury and on trial in the middle of a presidential campaign.

TRUMP: How can you run for election to be sitting in a courthouse in Manhattan all day long?

SCANNELL (voice-over): The judge in this case, Juan Merchan, made the decision after consulting with Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the election subversion case in Washington, D.C. During a pre-trial hearing in New York, Trump attorney Todd Blanche seized on that unprecedented timing protesting for a delay.

We strenuously object to what is happening in this courtroom, he told the judge with Trump's eyes locked on his attorney. The fact that President Trump is going to now spend the next two months working on this trial instead of out in the campaign trail running for president is something that should not happen in this country.

Judge Merchan asked, what's your legal argument?

That's my legal argument, Blanche said.

That's not a legal argument, Merchan replied, telling the lawyers he'd see them on March 25th.

TRUMP: We'll just have to figure it out. I'll be here during the day and I'll be campaigning during the night.

SCANNELL (voice-over): This case stems from actions that took place in the days before the 2016 election when Donald Trump, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, and Michael Cohen allegedly schemed to keep Stormy Daniels from going public about an affair. According to the indictment, Cohen paid $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels, then submitted sham legal bills to the Trump Organization, which the former president reimbursed with a series of monthly checks.

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I did it at the direction of, in concert with, and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Today, the parties debated questions to ask prospective jurors. An 18-person jury will ultimately be seated. Trump's lawyers wanted to delve into politics, telling the judge they need to know if people like Trump. Judge Merchan called it inappropriate, saying they need fair and impartial jurors. TRUMP: I'm honored to sit here day after day after day on something

that everybody says, the greatest legal scholars say, it's not even a crime.

SCANNELL: It will be up to a jury to decide whether Trump committed a crime, and if convicted, he could face time in prison. It was nearly one year ago that a grand jury in the courthouse behind me handed up the first indictment of a former president, and soon another historic first, the first criminal trial.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

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FOSTER: A huge setback for U.S. House Republicans in their effort to impeach President Joe Biden. A former FBI informant whose story made up a key part of the GOP case was arrested on Thursday.

NOBILO: Alexander Smirnov is accused of lying to the FBI and creating false records, but Republicans seem undeterred.

CNN's Evan Perez has the latest.

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EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: U.S. prosecutors charged a former FBI informant with lying about corruption claims against President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, and business dealings with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The charges against Alexander Smirnov undercut a major part of Republicans' corruption claims against the president and the impeachment inquiry that they've launched against him.

Smirnov was behind two FBI memos in 2017 and 2020. The latter one came after Joe Biden launched his campaign for president, and it included explosive allegations that a Burisma executive claimed that the company paid Joe Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each during the time that Biden was vice president in exchange for assisting the company's business interests.

The indictment in federal court says that Smirnov's allegations against the Bidens were, quote, a fabrication, an amalgam of otherwise unremarkable business meetings and contacts that actually occurred but at a later date than he claimed, and for the purpose of pitching Burisma on the defendant's services and products, not for discussing bribes to Joe Biden when he was in office.

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Smirnov appeared for an initial court appearance in Las Vegas, where he was arrested, and CNN has been unable to reach an attorney representing him. Congressional Republicans have touted Smirnov's claims, and they fought with the FBI to release the memos of his discussions with the FBI. The indictment against Smirnov cites those very same memos as proof that he allegedly made false statements and created fictitious documents. James Comer, the Republican chairman who has been leading the investigation of the president, released a statement dismissing the importance of Smirnov to his inquiry and saying that there's more evidence that Republicans have uncovered.

The case against Smirnov is being brought by Special Counsel David Weiss, who is also prosecuting Hunter Biden on tax and gun possession charges. It's unclear why Weiss has taken nearly four years to bring charges on the allegedly false claims.

Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.

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NOBILO: The U.S. president is not facing charges for his mishandling of classified documents, but the White House has been very unhappy about the Special Counsel's report on the investigation.

FOSTER: We've learned Joe Biden's lawyers wrote to the Attorney General the day before Robert Hur's report was to be released, strongly objecting to, quote, multiple denigrating statements about Mr. Biden's memory.

NOBILO: Those repeated references to his inability to recall dates and details raise new questions about whether he's too old to be president, but the Justice Department appears to be standing by the findings.

Familiar scene in yet another American community in mourning after gun violence shattered a citywide Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City, Missouri. On Thursday night, people gathered for a vigil for the victims of the mass shooting at Wednesday's parade.

FOSTER: The shooting left one woman dead. Her name is Lisa Lopez Galvin, a 43-year-old DJ at a local radio station. Friends said she was a member of a very large family of civic leaders who are actively involved with the city's Latino community. They say she was the light at every party and are absolutely devastated.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just so hard to understand. And I hope that we can learn from this, but I hate that, that God took such a beautiful person. It's going to take a long time for a lot of us to understand and heal from this.

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NOBILO: Police are still investigating the mass shooting. They've detained two people, but no one's been charged. The police chief says there's no known link to terrorism or extremism. They believe a dispute between several people spiraled out of control and they've recovered a number of guns at the scene.

The gunfire erupted on Wednesday as an estimated one million people gathered in downtown Kansas City to celebrate the repeat championship win of the Kansas City Chiefs. People ran to safety -- as you can see -- as law enforcement swarmed the area. This is the second shooting in a year at a major U.S. sports celebration. Here's the mayor of Kansas City.

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MAYOR QUITON LUCAS, (D) KANSAS CITY: Unfortunately, this is not the first shooting at a parade in our country or a rally. That is certainly a tragic incident for us because we don't have experience with them. You asked the chief at the outset, is this Kansas City?

Well, we've had parades like this before. We had one last year without this type of incident. We had a Kansas City Royals victory parade where we had almost no arrests in 2015. So, I don't think in any way that this is Kansas City.

I do think that there is a gun violence challenge in this community and many others. And there certainly is a gun violence challenge as it relates to major events. That, however, does not mean that Kansas City will stop having major events. We will do all we can to make sure people are safe. And that's why I think you're seeing so many people, KCPD and the Kansas City Fire Department, doing work to address that.

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NOBILO: At least 23 other people were injured in the mass shooting, about half of them younger than 16.

FOSTER: And now to Gaza, where Israeli forces have raided the enclave's biggest functioning hospital. The Hamas-run health ministry reports four patients died, nearly 200 others remain inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in harsh and terrifying conditions. According to one doctor, intensive care patients have been left out -- or left without any medical staff.

NOBILO: Israel says it was a precise and limited operation to look for hostages. None have been found. But the Israeli military says a number of, quote, suspects were taken into custody.

FOSTER: Israel had ordered hundreds of civilians sheltering in hospital -- in the hospital complex to leave. But doctors and medical officials say some were shot and killed by Israeli snipers as they tried to do so.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments and joins us now from Abu Dhabi -- Paula.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, we had a warning from the health ministry in Gaza and doctors within the hospital saying that they feared for more loss of life.

They said that since the raid, there was a loss of power and a cessation of oxygen supplies. Now, they have since said that four of those in the ICU that they were concerned about have since died. They also spoke of some of the other patients that were struggling to

get by saying that the two pregnant women gave birth, quote, under extremely challenging and inhumane conditions.

Now, the U.N. secretary-general has condemned this raid, saying that hospitals must be kept free of conflict.

Now, the Israeli military say that the special forces carried out this raid because they had credible information, including from former hostages, that there may have been hostages or the remains of hostages within the hospital itself.

Now, the military, as of late Thursday, said that they are continuing their search within this hospital. They have not found any evidence or any hostages at this point, but they have made a number of arrests.

But there are concerns about those that are still left within the Nasser hospital and how they will be able to cope. But Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Doctors Without Borders, have said that their staff within this hospital were forced to leave. They had to leave patients behind as they were forced to leave by the Israeli military.

Also pointing out that one of their members was detained by an Israeli military checkpoint, and they're calling for the immediate cessation of all operations around this hospital and also calling for information about their member that that was detained.

So, concerns surrounding this hospital, also concerns surrounding further south in Rafah and the potential Israeli incursion into that area.

We are hearing yet more calls from world leaders, from NGOs on Israel to say that there should not be such an operation with well over a million Palestinians crammed into this small area. Also pointing out that there is nowhere else for them to go.

We're also seeing along the Gaza-Egypt border that Egypt is shoring up its own defenses and is starting to create an even bigger buffer zone, clearly concerned about what would happen if there were to be such an Israeli invasion -- Max, Bianca.

FOSTER: Paula, thank you so much for that.

NOBILO: The head of the CIA made an unannounced visit to Israel on Thursday to discuss the latest hostage negotiations. Bill Burns met with the Israeli prime minister and the Mossad director -- an Israeli official has confirmed.

FOSTER: The meeting comes during an active week for negotiators trying to bridge the gaps for a deal between Israel and Hamas. Talks in Cairo failed to produce a breakthrough. A source familiar with the negotiations says Qatar is waiting for Hamas' response to Israeli feedback.

NOBILO: Russian hackers who were targeting the U.S. and its allies have been shut down and kicked out of hundreds of routers that they hijacked. Details on the Russian cyber-spy operation coming up.

FOSTER: Plus, international leaders have kicked off the annual security conference in Munich, but the U.S. delegation has a tough job ahead which has a lot to do with the country's former president.

NOBILO: And concern is growing over why a Republican lawmaker publicized new U.S. intelligence that turned out to be about a Russian nuclear threat in space and the possible connections of that to U.S. funding for Ukraine. Details coming up after the break.

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NOBILO: Not with Kim Brunhuber.

FOSTER: We don't like him.

NOBILO: We don't! We love Kim.

The U.S. and its allies have disrupted a large Russian cyber espionage operation, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. He says the Russian military intelligence agency was using a network of more than 1,000 hacked internet routers to target the U.S. and other governments, military, security and corporate organizations to gather intelligence.

FOSTER: Wray also repeated warnings that high -- hacking teams, rather, backed by Russia and China have been seeking a foothold in U.S. energy and telecommunications networks for a long time.

More fallout Thursday over the Republican House Intelligence Chairman's warning about what he called a serious national security threat from Russia.

NOBILO: Chairman Mike Turner caused an uproar on Wednesday when he revealed that there was new U.S. intelligence that turned out to be about Russia's abilities to place a nuclear anti-satellite system in space.

Biden administration officials are downplaying the threat, but some Republicans are calling for Turner to be ousted as chairman, and others are questioning his motive in disclosing this new intelligence. Take a listen.

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REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): We put out, you know, our concern with Chairman Turner gaslighting the country on these things. And I worry that the motivation to draw so much attention to this is less about intelligence and national security and more about a politician who wants to send $60 billion to Ukraine and wants to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPOKESMAN: There is no immediate threat to anyone's safety. We are not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on Earth.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: I want to assure the American people there is no need for public alarm.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. has been aware of Russia's pursuit of anti-satellite capabilities for months, if not years, and President Biden has been briefed on it throughout. And Kirby denied the administration gave the Republican chairman the green light to publicize the new intelligence on Wednesday.

NOBILO: Moments ago, we learned that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Berlin, where he'll sign a long-term security agreement with Germany.

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To the south, in Munich, the U.S. has a tough sell to make at an annual security conference that's just got underway.

FOSTER: Yes, leaders from around the world have gathered there with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris expected to speak in the coming hours. That's happening after former U.S. President Donald Trump said that if he's re-elected, he won't protect NATO allies, which don't spend enough on defense.

Officials say the U.S. delegation in Munich will try to reassure the allies that Washington will stand by them.

NOBILO: For more now, Nick Paton Walsh joins us from Munich. Nick, with Ukraine struggling on the battlefield and the specter of Trump looming over the future of NATO and his remarks, presumably it will be quite difficult for allies to convey a sense of confidence at this security meeting.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, Kamala Harris does have an uphill task ahead of her in the hours and day or two ahead to reassure NATO members, frankly, because the Biden administration's continued existence is in doubts by the end of the year, depending on the outcome of the U.S. election. And this may be the last time that administration gets to talk to its allies in an open platform like this without being in the throes of what's likely to be an extraordinary election campaign.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine headed towards Berlin, then on to Paris and both nations, signing a security agreement that's essentially some kind of stopgap or substitute for the process of getting into NATO that he'd hoped to be part of. But really a sign of key European powers displaying their commitment to Ukrainian security.

And while we'll hear a lot in the background about the ongoing Israeli assault towards Rafah and deep European concerns about how civilians are going to get killed in that. Certainly, European security is at the forefront of the agenda here, particularly given how the Ukraine conflict persists now nearly into its third year.

And as you said, how the Trump administration, not only the former President Trump, they're suggesting that they may at some point rescind on their commitments towards NATO members if they don't put adequate financing into their own defense.

But the continued hold up of the $60 billion worth of aid that Ukraine so urgently needs for its front-line activities here, and this is already causing munitions problems along the Ukrainian front line and essentially another mark of a dysfunctionality in Republican Trump parts of Congress.

And so, a lot here for the U.S.to do in terms of shoring up confidence, certainly, and I think also a real sense here of Europe having to find its own feet, put forward its own proposals, think more about increasing its own contribution towards defense spending as well, and dealing with a deeply uncertain future in the year ahead here.

The outcome of that U.S. election utterly key in the minds, obviously, of all here. As is to the immediate threat of a persistently aggressive Russia and a weakened Ukraine lacking that vital American financial support as of now -- Bianca.

NOBILO: Nick Paton Walsh for us. Thank you.

FOSTER: Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks have killed at least five people and wounded five others in the past day or so. One person was reported killed in the southern Kherson region in a wave of strikes and drone attacks, and a resident of the eastern Donetsk region was killed on Thursday by Russian forces.

NOBILO: Further north in the Kharkiv region, three civilians are dead after a Russian missile hit a car. That's according to a Ukrainian official who says the attack killed a married couple who were inside the vehicle and a 17-year-old girl who was next to it.

FOSTER: Now ahead, a dramatic testimony from the district attorney leading a case against Donald Trump in the state of Georgia. And the back and forth got pretty intense.

NOBILO: Plus, an inside look at the Ugandan biofuel company that wants to bring its renewable energy product to the global market. Stay with us.