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Former Trump Org. Executive Pleads Guilty To Perjury; Guardsman To Plead Guilty To Leaking Classified Documents; Supreme Court Unanimously Rules To Keep Trump On Colorado Ballot. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 04, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

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[11:34:06]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We're tracking another breaking news headline for you this morning. The former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization has just pleaded guilty to perjury. Allen Weisselberg had been charged with lying under oath during an investigation into the Trump real estate company's finances.

Our Kara Scannell is outside the court in lower Manhattan for us right now. So, update our viewers, Kara. What can you tell us?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Allen Weisselberg just left the courthouse a short time ago. He entered a plea of guilty to two counts of perjury. These are felony counts and they relate to testimony that he gave to the New York Attorney General's office in 2020 during a deposition as they were investigating the Trump organization's finances. The specific charges that Allen Weisselberg said -- pleaded guilty to, that were lies that he is admitted to involved him being asked, have you ever advised any financial institution that the value of Trump's triplex apartment was incorrect on the statements that they gave?

[11:35:03]

He said, no, he only learned about it after it was given to them and they -- during the trial. And during his guilty plea today, they said that, in fact, he did know because of conversations with Forbes Magazine, which was conducting its survey of Trump's wealth that they had raised questions about the size of the triplex department. In the financial statements, the Trump organization had said that they were -- it was 30,000 square feet. In reality, it's just under 11,000 square feet.

Now, the other account that he said -- the other lie that he had made, he told was he was asked, were you ever present when Donald Trump described the size of the triplex apartment. Allen Weisselberg said he wasn't but this again, Forbes Magazine had an audio recording of an interview with Donald Trump, in which he described the inflated size of this penthouse triplex apartment and Weisselberg was there. So, that's specifically what he is pleading guilty to. But he also admitted to lying during his testimony in the fall. During this trial where that Allen Weisselberg, Donald Trump, and the adult sons were all found liable in that massive find that Donald Trump is facing a $454 million. So, Weisselberg acknowledging that he lied under oath during that testimony, though, he did not plead guilty to that charge today.

So, Weisselberg now is expected to be sentenced next month. Prosecutors said that they have agreed and recommended a sentence of five months in Rikers Island jail. Remember Allen Weisselberg already pleaded guilty in 2022 to tax fraud charges. He served a five-month sentence at Rikers. Ultimately, that ended up being about one hundred days. So, that is what looks like it will play out now.

Now, importantly, Weisselberg just pled guilty today. He's not cooperating with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, who has investigated and brought a criminal case against Donald Trump in connection to the hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. That case is going to trial later this month.

Weisselberg is not expected to be called as a witness by prosecutors or by Trump's attorneys. You know, they had been pressuring Weisselberg for years to cooperate with them. He had been a close confidant of Donald Trump for decades.

He has not flipped. He has not agreed to cooperate. So, you know, another significant felony charge for Allen Weisselberg. He will serve more time in jail. But he is not going to cooperate against Donald Trump, Wolf.

BLITZER: which I don't understand, Kara, maybe you can explain it to me. Usually, when someone pleads guilty, they want to reduce sentence. And in order to get a reduced sentence, they have to cooperate with the -- with the prosecution. And you're saying in this particular case, he's pleading guilty, he's going to get a reduced sentence, but he's not going to cooperate. Is that right?

SCANNELL: That's right, Wolf. He could have faced a sentence of between three and a half to seven years on these felony charges. Initially, they were looking to charge him with five counts of perjury.

They allowed him to plead guilty to two of these counts on what Prosecutor Gary Fishman had said in court today was that one of the reasons they were agreeing to this deal in this sentence was because of Allen Weisselberg's age. He's going to be turning 77 years old this year. He had already served time in Rikers. But Fishman was saying that it is still important to bring this case because as he put it, perjury tears at the very fabric of our justice system, Wolf.

BLITZER: Kara Scannell reporting from New York for us. Thank you very, very much. An important case, indeed.

Coming up. We'll have much more on the breaking news out of the United States Supreme Court this morning. The nine justices ruling to keep Donald Trump on the Colorado ballot. Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[11:43:04]

BLITZER: The U.S. Air National Guard who has been accused of leaking hundreds of classified military documents in an apparent attempt to impress his gaming buddies is expected to plead guilty this morning. Jack Teixeira is facing more than 16 years in prison. CNN's Jason Carroll is outside the federal courthouse in Boston for us. Jason, can you walk us through what's expected to happen today?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, any minute now, Wolf, during this hearing, Jack Teixeira who was sitting in court right now with his father in court as well. Teixeira wearing a Rosary as the judge goes over some of the details surrounding this plea agreement that he's expected to enter into.

Again, he's expected to plead guilty. Change his not-guilty plea to guilty just within the next few minutes. And once he does that, he's going to enter into this plea agreement.

We've got some details about that plea agreement. If he pleads guilty to all six counts of -- all six indictments -- this indictment on all six counts, rather, willfully retaining and disseminating National Defense Information, the U.S. attorney will then agree not to charge him with anything else. His sentence would also then be greatly reduced. Wolf, you'll remember he was initially facing a maximum of 60 years behind bars. But as part of this plea agreement now, he would only face 200 months behind bars. That roughly translates into about 16-plus years behind bars.

But there are a few caveats here. One of them being he must agree to participate in status -- in a status factory debrief with members of the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice. And in addition to that, he must turn over any documents that he may have in his possession related to this case.

So, it's very obvious that there are members of the intelligence community who want to find out how he was able to get access to some of these classified documents. They want to know if there are any holes in the system. Clearly, the holes are there. They're hoping that Teixeira can provide them with some of that information. And as part of this plea agreement, he's going to have to do just that, Wolf.

[11:45:18]

BLITZER: And as you correctly point out, this is potentially a very big win for the prosecution. Obviously, because he's pleading guilty, but also because they're now going to avoid a highly sensitive public trial --

CARROLL: Right.

BLITZER: That could expose very sensitive classified information. CARROLL: Right. Because you remember, Wolf, this whole case opened up really a can of worms. The intelligence community asking a number of questions why someone like Teixeira, someone who had a checkered past -- why someone like him had access to this type of classified information. For example, you remember in his past, this is someone who his high school classmates -- I spoke to one last year, who had said that he had made racist comments, made comments about having guns, he had done searches about mass shootings, there were concerns among some of his classmates that he would be someone who might want to commit a mass shooting. And in fact, at one point, when he tried to get a weapon -- a gun, he was denied a permit by local police who did their own check and had determined that he was not the type of person who should be owning a gun. So, there were all sorts of these red flags that were there.

And so now, all sorts of questions in terms of why someone like this was a candidate to get -- to have this sort of clearance to have access to classified information. So, all of this would have probably in all likelihood been brought out in public, in court during a trial. And so now that this trial has been averted, at least that part of it will not be shed to light.

BLITZER: Interesting. All right, Jason Carroll reporting for us from Boston. Jason, thank you very much. And we'll be right back.

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[11:51:27]

BLITZER: The breaking news this morning. The United States Supreme Court ruling unanimously that former President Donald Trump will remain on the Colorado presidential ballot. Justices rejected efforts to bar the former president using the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov is joining us live from Denver right now. So, what kind of reaction, Lucy, are you hearing over there in Colorado?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People are still waking up to the news here in Colorado, Wolf, but we are outside of the state Supreme Court, which back in December ruled that Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, was ineligible to run for president to be even on the state's primary ballot. The highest court of the land, of course, the Supreme Court, this morning overturning this Court's decision. Now, Colorado Secretary of State General Griswold has offered some reaction to this.

In a tweet, she said that states should be able to enforce the insurrection clause. She tweeted this morning, "I am disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision stripping states of the authority to enforce Section three of the 14th Amendment for federal candidates. Colorado should be able to borrow oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot." The state GOP celebrating the ruling calling it a massive victory, Wolf.

BLITZER: Lucy Kafanov reporting from Denver, thank you very much. In a few hours from now here in Washington, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to meet with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz. They'll be meeting over at the White House as urgent talks are taking place right now in Cairo. The vice president is making her most forceful call yet, for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is over at the White House for us. Arlette, Gantz is a major critic of Prime Minister Netanyahu. And this isn't a sanctioned visit as they say. So, why is this meeting so significant? Give us the background.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz a little bit later this afternoon. He's also slated to meet here with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at a time when the U.S. is trying to pressure Israel on several fronts. One being trying to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza as to alleviate some of the human suffering there but also, as the U.S. is pressing hard when it comes to a temporary ceasefire.

Now, this visit from Gantz, Israeli officials say, is not sanctioned by the Israeli government. The Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Herzog, has been told not to participate in the -- these meetings. Of course, according to sources familiar with those talks.

And it is, as you noted, notable that Gantz is Netanyahu's lead political rival in Israel. But the U.S. is trying to hold conversations as they're trying to move these negotiations when it comes to a ceasefire along. Yesterday, we heard Vice President Kamala Harris really speak in quite stark terms and forcefully about the need for an immediate ceasefire.

That's -- she's talking about a temporary one around six weeks, saying in a speech that Hamas needs to agree to the deal that is on the table. But she's also saying that the U.S. -- that Israel needs to ramp up its ability to get aid into that region. She said that there is no excuse at this time.

And so, these are all things that likely will come up in that meeting with Benny Gantz a little bit later today, as the U.S. is hoping that somehow there can be some type of agreement to bring a temporary ceasefire to this conflict.

BLITZER: Arlette, see if that happens. Arlette at the White House, thank you very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining me here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Wolf Blitzer. Be sure to join me later tonight at 6:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM." I get a reaction from Colorado's top election official, Secretary of State Jena Griswold. She'll join us live. We'll discuss today's historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling that will keep former President Trump on the presidential ballot.

[11:55:11]

Stay with CNN. "INSIDE POLITICS" with Dana Bash starts right after a short break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:01]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm Dana Bash. And we start with a monumental Supreme Court decision.