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Lawyers: Trump Can't Make $464 Million Bond In Civil Fraud Case; IDF: Senior Hamas Leader Killed In Al-Shifa Operation; Putin Breaks His Tradition, Calls Navalny By Name. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired March 18, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:11]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: In Iceland, barriers to divert the flow of lava are holding after this massive volcano erupted Saturday. Do you see this? Local residents were evacuated once the country's Civil Protection Agency declared a state of emergency in the area. Plumes of smoke and an orange sky could be seen from Iceland's world famous blue lagoon. This is the fourth eruption there since December, and one expert says it's the most powerful so far. Some stunning images there.

All right, thanks very much for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Hope you have a great week, everybody. Our next hour of Newsroom starts right now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And you are in the CNN newsroom. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We're following breaking news just coming into CNN right now. Attorneys of former President Donald Trump say they're unable, unable to get a bond to pay the $464 million fraud judgment. Calling it, and I'm quoting now, a practical impossibility. CNN's Kara Scannell is joining us from New York right now. Kara, what can you tell us? Walk us through what this means.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Trump's lawyers have informed the Appeals Court today that they are unable to get anybody, an insurance company and underwriter, to help them post this bond, the $454 million for Trump alone, the rest to cover his sons. And what they say is that they've approached 30 insurance underwriters, some of these big gigantic companies that you know, and they say that none of them are willing to do it.

As you said, they are calling it a practical impossibility. One of the reasons that they say is an issue here is that some of these insurance companies have internal limits that they won't issue a bond for more than $100 million. And some of the biggest names that you can think of in the insurance world also will not underwrite a bond and take property, which is what Trump has to put up. They want cash. They want securities, stocks, bonds, something that is, what's a liquid, easy to sell asset. They don't want property. And so that is the problem that Trump has run into in trying to come up with this massive amount of money, half a billion dollars.

You know, these bond companies, too, they also want their own, I guess you could call it, you know, insurance on it. They want extra money than just what the bond is so that they can, you know, cover this as it plays out. This bond is to stop the New York Attorney General's Office from seizing the property while the appeal of the judgment and the case goes forward. So they've been asking the -- the Trump's team has been asking the appeals court to allow them to not have to post this bond until the appeal is over.

They're saying that Trump has properties that are worth more than the judgment in this case. It's just something that the insurance companies won't take. So they're saying that the attorney general's team will be able to collect on this judgment if it stands. And they could do so by seizing some of the properties, which the Attorney General's Office said they're ready to do. But they're still asking the appeals court here for more time. And that's why we're seeing this new information come out today saying they're unable to post the bond of this magnitude. They can't get anyone to underwrite it because it is just a large amount and particularly a large amount for one individual. Wolf?

BLITZER: So, Kara, what comes next in this process?

SCANNELL: So now it is before the appeals court. There's been briefing on this. It's up to this New York State Appeals Court to decide whether to allow Trump to move forward with the appeal and stop the Attorney General's Office from seizing properties to give them this time to have the court case play out. If the court says that Trump does not get the state, Trump's side is asking them to allow them to put their ruling on hold so they can appeal to the highest Appeals Court in New York State. Those will be decisions for the New York Appeals Court to decide. And, of course, the New York Attorney General's Office has opposed this. They want the Appeals Court to allow them to enforce the injudgment now, if Trump cannot post that bond. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Kara, we'll stay in close touch with you. We'll see what happens. A significant development indeed.

There's other important news we're also following right now, including in northern Gaza, where a very dangerous situation is unfolding. Israeli forces have surrounded the Al-Shifa Medical Complex there. It's the largest in the enclave. And they're telling people in the surrounding area to get out as they search for what they describe as Hamas terrorists. Gaza's Ministry of Health says some 30,000 people are using the hospital for shelter right now.

All this is happening as we learn Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden will speak today by phone for the first time in more than a month. I want to get straight to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's joining us from Jerusalem right now. So, Jeremy, what's the latest? How is this situation unfolding, very dramatic, very dangerous?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Wolf. It is a major Israeli military operation that is currently unfolding in and around Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. We have seen as the Israeli military overnight sent in not only ground troops, tanks, armored vehicles, but also appears to have carried out several airstrikes according to eyewitnesses on the ground. Those strikes as well as the gunfire from Israeli troops appearing to result in multiple casualties, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which also says that there are still many people injured, trapped under the rubble, rescuers unable to reach them because of the active gunfights happening in the area.

[11:05:34]

The Israeli military, for its part, says that it was going after senior Hamas operatives that it says were operating inside of the Al- Shifa Medical Center Compound. They also now claim to have killed one senior Hamas operative who they have named as Faik Mabhouh, the head of Hamas's internal security operations directorate.

They say that he was killed in an encounter with Israeli troops while he was hiding at Shifa hospital. But what is also clear is that civilians appeared to be among the dead and injured from these operations. We have seen videos from -- on the ground that show women and children among the dead. And what's also clear, Wolf, is that this is an area where we know that thousands of civilians have been sheltering, 30,000 civilians approximately sheltering inside Al-Shifa Hospital.

Thousands of them appear to still be trapped there as these operations continue in the area. Thousands more in the Ar Rimal neighborhood around the hospital have begun to flee south towards central Gaza. We have been seeing images of those individuals leaving, heading for safety, but of course, a very, very dangerous situation still on the ground, Wolf, and one that I'm sure will develop throughout the day.

BLITZER: I suspect you're absolutely right. Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem for us, thanks for that update.

I want to bring in Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner right now. He's a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. Colonel, thanks so much for joining us. First of all, what can you tell us about the current IDF operations inside the Al-Shifa hospital? What's going on right now?

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, SPOKESMAN, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: Indeed, since the early hours of the morning, Wolf, we've been conducting a precise operation against Hamas terrorists that have been operating within the grounds of the hospital. And indeed, as Jeremy Diamond pointed out, we've killed at least one senior leader of Hamas, that some of those forces actually opened fire against our forces as they approached the hospital, as they conducted their operations.

What it actually goes to show, and this is what we actually know at this stage, Wolf, is that it shows that Hamas has returned to the hospital of Shifa to conduct its operations and try and safeguard its operations, to continue its operations of terrorism against Israel.

We are determined to dismantle Hamas as a terrorist organization, make sure that they can't use the sanctity of the medical facilities, because hospitals are for healing, not for hosting terrorists in order to conduct their terrorist activities. We are indeed conducting activities as we speak with Special Forces on the ground in order to engage and kill the terrorists or arrest them. Despite what the Hamas Ministry of Health has told the journalists, there are not 30,000 people taking refuge in the hospital compound. There are a few thousand, and we are not fighting against them.

We are targeting our efforts against Hamas terrorists that have opened fire against our forces and continue to pose a threat to the region. There's a very easy way out of this. They can surrender unconditionally, lay down their arms, and there will be no more need for combat in this area. It just goes to show, Wolf, that Hamas have no regard for the humanitarian mission. They have no regard for the medical mission. And they have no regard for the people that need the medical help in the hospital itself.

BLITZER: But, colonel, eyewitnesses on the scene say people, civilians at the Al-Shifa Complex have been killed and injured already. Can the IDF confirm if there are civilian casualties from today's raid on this hospital, the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza? And is this what is called a justified use of force, given that there are so many civilians, men, women and children, at that hospital?

LERNER: Wolf, I can absolutely confirm that Hamas does not wear uniforms when it is conducting its combat. They are wearing civilian clothes. They're conducting their operations intentionally from behind the civilian population. I can confirm that we are targeting Hamas operatives, the terrorists that are engaging, attacking, planning to conduct further attacks against Israel and Israeli forces on the ground. That is what I can confirm.

You know, we wouldn't be in this war if it wasn't for Hamas. They have planned this war for the last 16 years, intentionally weaponizing hospitals, weaponizing U.N. facilities, weaponizing schools and mosques. This can't be permitted. I would say, frankly, it can't be the new norm of terrorism that the world accepts. Hamas have to leave the hospitals. They have to leave the people alone. They need to lay down their weapons and release our hostages that are still being held today, 134 of them.

[11:10:15]

BLITZER: As you know, Colonel, Israel stormed the same hospital back in November. And while U.S. and Israeli intelligence said Hamas did in fact have a presence there. Israel still has not proved Hamas has a full command and control center at that facility. Will the IDF commit to releasing more evidence to prove that?

LERNER: Wolf, over the last five months, we've seen in every hospital that we've approached that there has been infrastructure that Hamas has used, whether it's tunnels, whether it's the CCT television that they've used -- that we've revealed time and time again that they took hostages to these locations, whether it's the tunnel system that gave them access to mobilize from place to place, whether it's the communication capabilities, and all of this while they were feeding off of power supplies, water supplies from the hospitals above ground.

So I would say there's been ample proof, ample evidence, and there is enough to say once and for all, Hamas, leave the hospitals alone. That is the only decent thing that decent people should say to this terrorist organization. They have no regard, Wolf, for what you and I understand, that there are basic decency that are required in the conduct of warfare. They will manipulate and try and take advantage of every single law of war to try and exert the maximum amount of death on civilians.

Israelis and I would say Palestinians as well, we are operating in order to restore safety and security to the people of Israel. We're operating in a way that is unprecedented in the urban warfare. And I strongly suggest that we look at this with very wide eyes and not a narrow tunnel vision, that Hamas, as the way it is operating, how it is operating, how it has institutionalized its terrorist intentions and capabilities within the civilian arena. They need to be condemned. They need to be outcast. They need to be gone from the control of the Gaza Strip. That is what we are out to do.

BLITZER: The World Food Programme, Colonel, said today that famine in northern Gaza is imminent, their word, imminent. While Israel is planning to open one more land route for aid, U.S. officials say it's not enough by any means. Will Israel need to commit to significantly expanding the amount of humanitarian aid, food, medicine, water, that it gets into Gaza? Will Israel significantly expand the amount of aid it lets in every day?

LERNER: Wolf, I can tell you this is what we are doing, we are increasing the access of food supplies to the Gaza Strip, both to the north and to the south. We're doing it by land, by increasing the access and the capacity of our land crossing. There is no bottleneck on the Israeli side. On the contrary, the bottlenecks are on the Palestinian side. And the distribution issue is actually the challenges that is faced inside the Gaza Strip.

We have also, for the second time, just last night, increased access to the northern Gaza Strip from a second access point across the border, not in Kerem Shalom, but further north in order to circumvent some of those looters that the trucks were facing in the southern areas, indeed, to try and increase the amount of supplies.

We can also recall that the access of food supplies and medical supplies, whether it's from airdrops or also from a sea route, a maritime humanitarian corridor that we just conducted over the last weekend. And we expect more to come in over the next few days. So I would say, yes, absolutely. We understand the humanitarian needs. We understand that there is a combat zone, there is a war zone. And as this operation just this morning underlines, Hamas are still operational in the north. They are still abusing this civilian arena. They are still weaponizing the humanitarian mission. And that needs to be a concern for everyone. So I would say we will maintain our operational connections with the welfare program and the other international humanitarian organizations precisely to alleviate the difficulties that are a result of a war, a war that we didn't ask for.

BLITZER: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner of the IDF, thank you very much for joining us.

LERNER: Good day. BLITZER: I want to continue the conversation right now, talk about the conditions on the ground in Gaza. Joining us, the UNICEF emergency communication specialist, Joe English. Joe, thank you very much for joining us. Your UNICEF organization says that more than 13,000 children have been killed since the Israeli military offensive in Gaza started. How dire is the situation for children in Gaza right now?

JOE ENGLISH, UNICEF EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: Good to be with you, Wolf. Staggeringly, it is awful and it getting worse. As you say, 13,000 children killed reportedly just in the fighting. And now we see hunger, starvation and famine stalking children, especially in the north. And we know that many, many children, many more thousands more children may die because of something like a lack of food and water. And children should not be dying of starvation in the 21st century anywhere in the world, but it's certainly shouldn't be happening a few short miles from where there is humanitarian aid and assistance that could save their lives.

[11:15:31]

And so, yes, we need the access to get more in, and we need to see more entrances over the land, which is the only way that we can get in at the scale needed. But we also need to see an end to the fighting, because that will allow us to distribute the supplies, it will allow us to reach communities who are in need, and ultimately, it will allow us to save children's lives, which is what we do in conflicts all around the world. We know how to do this. We have to be allowed to do so.

BLITZER: So just how dangerous and how imminent is the threat of famine across Gaza right now? How big is the discrepancy from what you've seen between the aid that's needed and the aid that's actually getting in?

ENGLISH: You know, there was a report released today by our colleagues at the IPC that says a famine is imminent in the north. It could happen at any moment between now and the end of May. But what we know is that if a famine is officially declared, it is already too late and thousands of children would have died. We are getting the reports already that children are dying of starvation. And you can imagine as a parent watching your child waste away in front of your eyes, losing strength, losing color each and every day.

And so that is why we are seeing the scenes of desperation when aid is able to get through. And we've had convoys from UNICEF, from WFP that have been able to get in, but it's been sporadic, and it needs to be consistent. Communities need to know that aid is going to get in today, tomorrow, and the next day, and in the weeks and months ahead. And again, we keep saying this, but the only way that we're going to be able to do this is an end to the fighting.

It is impossible to deliver the critical humanitarian supplies that are needed whilst bombs are falling and bullets from all parties of the conflict, to all sides. We need to see an end to the fighting.

BLITZER: Joe English of UNICEF, thank you so much for joining us. Good luck to you and good luck to all the folks over at UNICEF who are doing very important work. Thanks very much for joining us.

And still ahead this hour, the first charter flight evacuating U.S. citizens from Haiti has just landed in Florida. More than 30 Americans escaping the chaos, stay with us. You're live right here in the CNN Newsroom.

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[11:22:19]

BLITZER: Over the weekend in Russia, President Vladimir Putin claimed a landslide reelection victory, extending his control of the country until at least 2030. There was no credible challenge to his rule. Putin took a swipe at this year's U.S. election as he touted his own win. Listen.

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PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (through translator): Can you consider it Democratic to use the administrative resources in order to attack one of the presidential candidates in the U.S. using at the same time the judicial system?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The Biden administration also weighing in on Putin's win, saying, and I'm quoting now, the results were unsurprising. The elections were obviously not free nor fair, given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Russia this weekend was Putin actually calling the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny by name for the first time in years. Putin also confirmed previous reports that he was actually prepared to swap Navalny for Russian prisoners in the west before Navalny's death last month in an arctic penal colony. Listen to this.

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PUTIN (through translator): As for Mr. Navalny, yes, he passed away. It is always a sad event.

A few days before Mr. Navalny passed away, some colleagues told me that there is an idea to exchange Mr. Navalny for some people who are in prison in western countries. Maybe you believe me, maybe you don't. The person who spoke to me had not finished his sentence yet when I said, I agree. But unfortunately, what happened, happened. There was only one condition for him not to come back. Let him sit there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt. Alex, you had some excellent new reporting on that proposed prisoner swap, which never happened because Navalny either was killed or died or whatever happened at that penal colony. How surprised were you, though, to hear Putin actually mention Alexei Navalny by name?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I mean, very surprising. For years, he had never referenced Alexei Navalny. He'd always spoken about him as that gentleman, that character. It seemed kind of petty. But I think what you're seeing here is a much more confident Vladimir Putin, you know, someone who just won his fifth term for six more years. And so he feels like he's safe and secure, not least because of the fact that Navalny is certainly no more threat to him.

And in that exchange, he went on to say that there's nothing you can do about it. That's life, of course, a lot that he could do about it. He was the one who put Navalny in prison. Very interesting, though, there, Wolf, that he confirmed what we had been hearing, that a deal was being worked on. And he's actually confirming what Navalny's camp had been telling us and saying publicly that the deal was actually quite close.

[11:25:19]

He says that someone came to him from outside the Russian government, proposed this trade, and before the sentence was finished, he had agreed to it. Now, my colleagues, Sebastian Shukla, Tim Lister and myself have reported that one of the people who was involved in all of this was Roman Abramovich. She's a Russian oligarch. He is the former owner of the Chelsea Soccer Club. We don't know exactly what his role was.

But a source close to the Navalny camp said that the Kremlin was delivered a message on February 15th, and then it was on February 16th that Navalny was announced dead. What we understand the parameters of the deal to be, or at least one of the other players, is that Putin wanted back someone named Vadim Krasikov. He's an assassin. He's with the Russian FSB, which is the KGB, the successor of the KGB, and that this deal was being talked about.

So if you believe Putin, it was very close. This is also what the Navalny team is saying. However, I have spoken to administration officials, at least one U.S. official, telling me that no official offer had been made to Russia and the deal was not imminent. But Putin is contradicting that.

BLITZER: Putin is also talking about Russia's war in Ukraine right now. And he's even saying something, you know, very, very worrisome, that there potentially could be a World War II if U.S. or other NATO allies actually send troops into Ukraine right now. I don't know if we have that clip. If we have that clip, I'll play it. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN (through translator): I think that anything is possible in the modern world, but I've already said this, and it is clear to everyone that this will be just one step away from a full scale World War III. I don't think anybody is interested in this. NATO military are present there. We know this. We hear French speech there and English speech. There's nothing good in this. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Those are very serious warnings right there. World War III, those words alone.

MARQUARDT: They really are.

BLITZER: They are scary. What's been the U.S. reaction?

MARQUARDT: Well, it's more saber rattling by the Russian president, and that's not to dismiss it, Wolf. It's very much in the same vein as what we've heard from him on nuclear weapons. Just last week, he was talking about the fact that Russia is ready to use a nuclear weapon if they feel that Russia is threatened. And so this is saber rattling that is very much taken seriously by the West. And it really has conditioned the way that the U.S. and other NATO countries have approached the conflict in Ukraine in terms of the weaponry that is given to Ukraine.

The U.S. has been very careful at sort of steadily growing the size of the weaponry that's given to Ukraine, but putting parameters on that as well, telling Ukraine you're not allowed to use U.S. weapons in Russia for fear of provoking the Russians and escalating this conflict. Now the Ukrainians dismissed that.

But this is very much a concern of NATO's and what he was saying. There is a response to the French President Emmanuel Macron who said that he doesn't rule out the western troops could eventually be used in Ukraine. Now that is not something that the U.S. agrees with or other countries like Germany. The U.S. is very firm to say we are not putting U.S. boots on the ground.

Now there are some foreign troops there, but they're not at the front line. They're not doing the actual fighting. And the argument from the administration is this is why we need to increase the aid to Ukraine so that we don't have to send our forces in there, so that the Ukrainians are doing the fighting. We're giving them the support.

And I think what this really highlights, Wolf, what the administration is going to hope that this highlights is the need for more aid to be sent to Ukraine so they can continue their fight against Russia.

BLITZER: Yes. Some American volunteers who have gone over there, but not part of the U.S. military, they've just gone over to help the Ukrainians in this battle with Russia. We'll see what happens.

MARQUARDT: That's exactly right.

BLITZER: This is all very serious. Alex, thank you very much.

[11:29:07]

Meanwhile, lawmakers behind the bill to ban TikTok are now warning that the popular app poses a national security risk just ahead of the election. But not everyone is on board. I'll speak to Congressman Ro Khanna about why he thinks the bill won't work. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)