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Stormy Daniels Testifies In Hush Money Trial; U.S. Officials: "Pause" In Ceasefire Talks; Biden: Will Halt Some Weapons Shipment If Israel Invades Rafah; Sources: Russia May Intensify Attacks As Ukraine Awaits Aid. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired May 09, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:38]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: It's 8:00 p.m. in London, 10:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv, 10:00 p.m. in Kyiv as well, 3:00 p.m. here in Washington.

I'm Jim Sciutto. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM, and let's get right to the news.

We are falling two major stories today. As U.S. President Joe Biden tells CNN, he will stop supplying certain weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have killed civilians in Gaza in the past if the IDF goes forward and invades Rafah. This as sources tell CNN there is a pause now in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, as Israel steps up that military operation in Rafah.

We do begin though in New York as former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial continues after quite a dramatic and sometimes contentious morning in court. Stormy Daniels, the woman at the heart of this trial and a key witness, returned to the stand this morning to continue a contentious, battling cross-examination.

For three hours and six minutes, Trump's defense team tried to undermine her credibility, poke holes in her story, prove that she was only after money.

Madeleine Westerhout, former director of Oval Office operations, personal secretary to President Donald Trump, is now on the stand.

Katelyn Polantz joins us now.

Katelyn, first take us through this morning and that contentious cross-examination as defense attorneys tried to, well, poke holes in not just her story, but in her credibility.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: In her credibility on the whole, so that they could undercut what her testimony is in this case, the jury will look at, but clearly there was also a motivation from Donald Trump's defense team to try and damage her credibility because of how embarrassing and detailed the testimony was about that sexual encounter that Stormy Daniels testified to, the previous day she was on the stand.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

POLANTZ: So in over six hours of testimony today, it was just Susan Necheles, the defense attorney from Donald Trump, questioning Stormy Daniels quite harshly over and over again not just about the story that she told of this 2006 encounter, trying to find little bits that the defense team believes Stormy Daniels may have changed over the years, whether they ate dinner that night or didn't eat dinner, that was one of the points of contention.

SCIUTTO: Right.

POLANTZ: Stormy Daniels maintains that she has not made it up, that she has not changed the story, that she has been accurate over the time but Susan Necheles also asked her about her work in the adult film industry, at times asking her questions about the work she's done more recently saying she's working in sex clubs, Stormy Daniels corrects her and says, no, that I work in strip clubs now.

Another thing that Stormy Daniels says is that if she were making up the story with Donald Trump, she would have written it better. She's a professional and the work that she did as an adult film actress, a large amount of that is not made up.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. I mean, the question becomes, how much was directed at question the credibility and how much seemed to be going after her character in effect, as a witness on the stand.

POLANTZ: Right, absolutely.

SCIUTTO: Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much, as always.

Here to break down today's eventful testimony are CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson and CNN legal affairs commentator Areva Martin.

Good to have you both on.

And, Areva, I'm going to begin with you.

Clearly, defense attorneys have a job and it's a reasonable job to call into question the credibility of a key witness here. The question is particularly in a jury trial with a woman on the stand, what you felt about how they went about that today, was it too personal? Was it too -- I don't know if demeaning is the right word. I mean, did it become so contentious as to -- as to damage the defense case here?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, I think you said it best job, Jim, there is a job to be done by defense attorneys and Joey Jackson is one of the finest at that job, being a defense attorney, but there is a line beyond which defense attorney shouldn't cross because when they do cross that line, they do or damage to their case, then good. And witnesses can become sympathetic.

I think the first day of Stormy Daniels testimony yesterday, obviously, she was at a very contentious frame of mind herself.

[15:05:04]

She was sparring even with the prosecuting attorney. But today, based on reports that we've gotten, she was much more vulnerable and she definitely appeared as a much more sympathetic witness, then I think the defense attorney should have pulled back with her aggressive cross-examination as Stormy Daniels presented herself as a different kind of witness today. I think jurors are -- you know, they're not oblivious to Donald Trump's reputation with women and how he's treated women over the years.

So it was a delicate balance. I think the defense attorney probably did more harm though so today than good with respect to her case.

SCIUTTO: So, Joey, I wonder what your view is, and I've heard some lawyers say that defense could have stipulated that an affair took place and focused on well, Ms. Daniels, you don't know who paid money, who signed the checks, why they paid the money, which is the essential core of the case here. Do you think it would have been smarter for the defense to take that course? And do you, I think a related question, do you see them serving Donald Trump's interests here more than smart legal practice?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Bingo. Good to be with you, Jim, and Areva. Listen, this was designed specifically and only not for the jury, but for Donald Trump. So let's first answer the question as to what would have been smarter to do. Obviously, what is the case about? The case is about whether or not invoices are falsified, right, records, ledgers, et cetera. What does she know about that? What value can she add for that?

The smart place to make it clear, ma'am, you have no knowledge with respect to how bookkeeping is done. You have no sense of how the Trump Organization operates, do you? You have no information that can aid in this jury in making those determinations, would that be fair to say? Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Next witness.

However, what I think today was about even, Jim, because this cross was done yesterday. You have everything you need. What is the purpose of cross? Not to get too inside baseball, to make your closing argument.

So if the purpose of crosses to make your closing argument, you go in front of the jury and you say she had she hates my client. She hates the president. Well, it said what you have to tell anything other than what's true.

But today, I think what they wanted to do was to try to humiliate her, right, and to try to call into question is relating to the affair because their boss, Mr. Trump, was hopefully, woefully upset, disappointed. How can you allow that? So, they came in not to add any value to the jury of 12, but to add to the jury of one.

There was no need at all to go at it any further. This was done, but they needed to do it because of the fact their boss said so. And that's what today was about.

SCIUTTO: Now, listen, we've seen in other Trump cases where what the boss wants is not necessarily what brings about a good legal outcome.

Areva, did prosecutors, when they came back for redirects sufficiently, get the eyes back on -- the focus back on the real legal issues in affect, that is central to her -- to their case?

MARTIN: I think they did a brilliant job on redirect or we should point out that the prosecuting attorney, though, that was handling Stormy Daniels is also a former defense attorney. So she knows what its like to be on both sides of the case, both as a prosecutor and a defense attorney.

And by keeping her redirect fairly short, she sent a message to the jury that she he had gotten all the testimony she needed from this witness, and that this witness was in fact credible. I think she did a really good job. She didn't overextend which is what Joey talked about in terms of what the defense attorneys did today.

You can exhaust a topic. You can start to bore and irritate jurors. Jurors' times are -- their time is very precious. They don't want to be in that courtroom any longer than they have to be. So lawyers have to be very sensitive to their feelings about their time and not go into extraneous and unnecessary testimony and definitely don't be redundant or repetitive. So I think the cross redirect in this case was brilliantly done.

SCIUTTO: So, Joey, prosecutors, following Stormy Daniels, went back to the nuts and bolts portion of the case. They had -- they had a bookkeeper talked about the checks, who signed the checks, Donald Trump.

Now they have someone who served in the Oval Office to be aware of the timing of when these -- when these payments were made, that being following the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape and how wound up the White House -- well, the Trump campaign at the time was about having a Stormy Daniels story break just in the wake of the "Access Hollywood" tape.

How essential is that to the broader case?

JACKSON: Very. So, lets talk about why, right? Look at the timing issue after "Access Hollywood", do we really need another bombshell story relating to women to affect this election? Of course not, kill it. And I think prosecutors will argue that boy, did he spend a lot of time trying to quash a story that's not true?

[15:10:01]

Boy, did he spend a lot of time relate to say, lets keep her quiet about an affair that never happened that you can go and say, is she kidding me? Let the story come out. I'll attack it. That's what you're going to hear in cross, to the nuts and bolts, Jim, very briefly.

And then and why are you paying out of your personal account? Again, the prosecutors' perspective, why are you writing checks from your personal account that you're having sent to you at the White House via your security personnel, write your head of security to sign and send back in the event that these payments have to do with legal payments predicated on a retainer, don't you have a Trump Org to deal with that?

And so it calls into question, why were you doing this? It calls into question the nature of what this was all about. It calls into question that this was related to hush money. That's going to be the prosecutions argument at the end of the day.

SCIUTTO: All right. So, Areva, what does that leave for prosecutors to do at this point? They have Stormy Daniels big star witness, of course. They had David Pecker. Michael Cohen is coming at some point. We don't know when exactly, but coming soon.

Is that really what's essentially left in the prosecutors' case and what does that tell you about the remaining timeline for the trial?

MARTIN: Well, I think, Jim, we're getting close to the end of the prosecutions case. There may be other bookkeepers, there may be other financial, you know, personnel, individuals involved with the finances in the Trump Organization that have knowledge, a direct knowledge about these payments, how the payments were made, how checks were signed, we've heard today also from another book author, using the words of Donald Trump about how close attention he paid to his cash, how he was involved with all of the transactions that related to his company.

So there may be some additional witnesses in that vein, but ultimately, the big witness that's left is Michael Cohen, for Michael Cohen's to come in and talk about the fact that Donald Trump was intimately involved, was the puppeteer, was the individual literally involved from day one, making this arrangement to kill the story, to get him paid back in the way that he was paid back.

So that's the big ending, I believe for the prosecution is going to be the -- what's going to be back busting testimony from Michael Cohen.

SCIUTTO: And I'm sure some long and quite contentious cross- examination.

Joey, I'm going to ask you this again when the case wraps, but based on where we are, has the prosecution made their case?

JACKSON: They've been making the case. I mean, look, the defense is trying to distance Donald Trump away from any issues relating to how checks were paid, what the intricacies of that process were, did he have anything to do with at, et cetera? But I think you've had witnesses to speak to the fact that this is a micromanager.

This is a guy that knows what's going on. He knows what time it is. And I think that the theory of the case, conspiracy cover up. That's been the theme of the prosecutor since the outset, that'll be the theme to the conclusion of this. And the defense is certainly went at it. They've done their job, they've been doing a value in java trying to predict check their client.

But I think at the end of the day, there's that major connection, the "Access Hollywood" tape number one, Jim, very briefly, the payoff of Stormy Daniels in connection to the election itself and happening in the aftermath of the "Access Hollywood", you have the checks and the ledgers all into evidence. You have Donald Trump personal bank account being paid paying these checks. I think you connect the dots and it would seemingly establish that there was a conspiracy and a cover-up business records were falsified. The intent was to change the outcome of the election to hide it from voters.

And at the end of the day, you could talk about Stormy Daniels, but that's what we're here for, their ledgers, the invoices, the rest.

SCIUTTO: And ultimately, of course, be up to the jury. Joey Jackson, Areva Martin, thanks so much.

We will check back in with our panel.

For new trial developments later in the program, they continue. You can follow them, of course, on the side of the screen.

Still ahead, U.S. President Joe Biden sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN, the ultimatum he is now given Israel over a potential invasion of Rafah. Further update after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:19]

SCIUTTO: Right now, we are learning that ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas are on hold, as Israel ramps up a military operation in Rafah, this according to two us officials. The Israeli war and security cabinets are meeting today as the IDF intensifies movements and bombardment in the southern Gaza city, the satellite images obtained by CNN reveal significant bulldozing, suggesting military forces are expanding from airstrikes to ground operations there. The U.N. estimates nearly 79,000 people have fled Rafah since Monday, more than a million have been taking refuge there.

In a CNN exclusive, U.S. President Joe Biden sat down with our Erin Burnett for a wide-ranging interview, and during that conversation threatened to cut off some weapons shipments to Israel if and when Israel to -- were to launch a major operation inside Rafah.

Have a listen to those comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: I want to ask you about something happening as we sit here and speak. And that, of course, is, Israel is striking Rafah.

I know that you have paused, Mr. President, shipments of 2,000-pound U.S. bombs to Israel due to concern that they could be used in any offensive on Rafah. Have those bombs, those powerful 2,000-pound bombs, been used to kill civilians in Gaza?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.

And I made it clear that, if they go into Rafah -- they haven't gone into Rafah yet. If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.

We're going to continue to make sure Israel is secure, in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks like came out of the Middle East recently.

But it's -- it's just wrong. We're not going to supply the weapons and the artillery shells used -- that have been used...

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Artillery shells as well?

BIDEN: Yes, artillery shells.

BURNETT: So, just to understand, what they're doing right now in Rafah, is that not going into Rafah, as you define it?

BIDEN: No, they haven't gone into the population centers. What they did is right on the border.

And it's causing problems with -- right now, in terms of with Egypt, which I have worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help. But I have made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet they're not going to get our support if, in fact, they're going into these population centers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: He's made it clear. He says part of CNN's Erin Burnett's exclusive interview with President Biden.

[15:20:00]

Let's bring in chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward. She's live from Jerusalem.

Clarissa, first on the ceasefire talks on again, off again. They'd been close, then they were far away. We're told they're on pause. Do we know for how long and do we know why?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATINAL CORRESPONDENT: We don't know for how long. We know that the CIA Director Bill Burns left Cairo today, going back act to the U.S. after multiple stops and a kind of flurry of efforts across the region to try to close the gaps.

We're hearing also from a source with knowledge of those talks that the Israeli delegation communicated to mediators that they intend to continue with what they are proposing to do, are planning to do in Rafah, and that there were still significant disagreements between the two sides on key issues as we have been discussing throughout the week, Jim, the two major issues appear to be relating to the 33 hostages, Israel had obviously wanted to see them freed alive.

Hamas, it added a line essentially saying that if they couldn't find enough alive, that some dead bodies or remains of hostages might also be returned. And then the second major sticking point is this issue of Hamas demanding that Israel remove all of its troops completely and immediately from the Gaza strip, which Israel has said is all also a non-starter.

SCIUTTO: You, of course, aware of President Biden's comments to Erin Burnett regarding weapons shipments to Israel. I wonder what the reaction that you've heard from Israeli officials, but also Israeli citizens to that statement?

WARD: We're seeing some pretty forceful repudiation coming out today from Israeli officials. The one that I think caught them most eyes was from Itamar Ben-Gvir. He's the national security minister. He is part of Biden -- of Netanyahu's hard right coalition. He posted on X simply saying Hamas hearts Biden. That tweet or post was slammed by some other members of the war cabinet like Benny Gantz.

But Benny Gantz also so said, the U.S. has a moral and strategic obligation to supply Israel with the necessary tools to complete its mission. We also, of course, heard significant thinking from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said, Israel is ready to stand alone if necessary, and quote, we will fight with our fingernails if we have to.

We also heard from the military spokesperson Daniel Hagari of the IDF, and he said that Israel has the weapons that it needs in order to carry out its projected offensive in Rafah, didn't give any details about that though. And the question remains, will Israel test the waters and tests that relationship with the U.S. by forging ahead with an offensive that President Biden has made its so clear, he will not stand with.

SCIUTTO: No question. And we're seeing them advanced closer, certainly to those population centers right now.

Clarissa Ward in Jerusalem, thanks so much.

So let's discuss bigger picture now of Mehdi Hasan. He's the founder and editor in chief of the new media company Zeteo.

Good to have you on, sir.

MEHDI HASAN, FOUNDER AND EDITOR IN CHIEF, ZETEO: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: You've been following this war extremely closely. You've been highly critical of President Biden's support for Israel, particularly military support. What's your reaction to this move?

HASAN: It's a good move. Obviously, any restrictions on any weapons going to a government that is accused by many of minimum war crimes at worst, genocide is a good move from the U.S. president and it's not some radical lefty, crazy peaceniks move. Other American presidents have done this. Ronald Reagan restricted arms transfers in 1982, when the Israelis

were killing civilians in Beirut, even used the word Holocaust at the time in conversation with then Israeli prime minister. Biden has gone that far.

But look, the cynics would say, and they will have a good argument and saying you supply them weapon for six, seven months and now you've pause one shipment, you know, drop in the ocean.

On the other hand, if you like me, believe we should be putting pressure on Biden to the right thing, this is a good step in the right direction. And that's CNN interview was a big deal because he admitted that American bombs are killing civilians.

SCIUTTO: There was a bit --

HASAN: First time I've heard him say that.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

HASAN: And he says at the same time, but look, we're not going to send anymore if they go into the population centers. I would point out that all of Rafah is a population center.

SCIUTTO: Right. I mean, it's a -- there are more a million people there. This is an issue with which is all or nothing for most people who watch it, right? I mean, the way it's described and you've experienced a certainly, that if you're not all with my plan, then you're not good enough for me.

HASAN: Yeah.

SCIUTTO: I just -- I just wonder is this the kind of move that could satisfy some of the protesters on campuses, but also voters in states such as Michigan who said, he's gone too far. I'm not going to vote for him.

HASAN: Not in and of itself, I think because people are still being killed in Gaza. And even if the killing, Jim, just to be clear to your viewers, even if the killing would stop tomorrow, Israel pulled out, all forces didn't draw another bomb ever again, every public health expert says thousands of Palestinians are going to die in the coming months --

[15:25:08]

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

HASAN: -- from the famine, from disease, from infection, things that are just baked in now.

So in terms of the killings, the deaths are going to carry on mounting. It's a step in the right direction, right? This is what people wanted. Use your leverage, President Biden acted like he had no leverage, like he's just an innocent bystander. We armed Israel. Israel cannot do anything without our arms. So why

shouldn't the U.S. president stick to his values or commitments, his red line? You covered Syria, Jim. Obama's red line. He got destroyed for not sticking to a red line on chemical weapons.

Biden put down this red line, stick to it. It's an election year. It'll help you domestically, but also help you strategically.

SCIUTTO: And by the way, restrictions on weapons to allies. You look at Ukraine, for instance, the U.S. supplied weapons said, but do not use our weapons to strike Russian territory. You often see that.

From a political perspective though in this country, as you know elections are binary choices.

HASAN: Yeah.

SCIUTTO: And the person on the other side of the ballot, Donald Trump, is someone who he said he will revive the Muslim ban. I mean, he said today that if you -- if you vote for Biden as a Jew, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Clearly, someone who would be more full-throated in their support of Israel. What's your response to saying, okay, Biden, you've been highly critical -- I'm not saying you, but those voters, you've been highly critical of Biden. But look at what the other choices.

I literally tweeted that this morning. I said I defer to know what it by criticism of Joe Biden on his complicit stay in these crimes. But the other guy is this guy who just posted this morning that we should be killing more Hamas terrorists with more guns and bullets going to Israel.

And by the way, the guns and bullets are not just killing Hamas terrorists, they're killing lots of civilians he would be much more closer to Israel. Ben-Gvir, the guy who put out the tweet today saying Hamas, Joe Biden loves Hamas. This is our ally, and that's just going to midst of a government we support.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, in a particularly adolescent way, too, right, hearts Hamas.

HASAN: After Biden helped shoot down Iranian drones, after he gave them billions of dollars.

He's also said on the record, Jim, if Trump was president, wed have a much easier time, right now. So Ben-Gvir is saying that. So yes, the Israeli far-right are counting down the days to a Trump presidency. There's no debate about that, and that's the tragedy of the choice this year is a tough choice for a lot of people.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about the protests here, and the protests as an expression of how this issue is debated in this country today. Again, it's all or nothing, right? You see -- you see it quite often.

Many on the left and right have characterized these protests, Democrats and Republicans, as by their nature, antisemitic. What's your answer to that?

HASAN: Absurd, offensive, and you just mentioned Trump a moment ago, we have a guy running for presidency, who is an open antisemite who says Jews should be loyal to Israel and (INAUDIBLE) to America.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: Who praised -- as I wrote my book, he praised Hitler to his chief of staff.

HASAN: Praised Hitler, he's quoting Hitler right now, you know, poisoning the blood of our country hosted a Holocaust denier. For me, there's that going on, and then there's stuff on campuses -- well, let's be clear. There have been offensive things.

SCIUTTO: Right.

HASAN: No doubt about it. Unfortunately, the history of student protests, as people say, there's been things.

But the core protesters, if you go to the Columbia University divestment folks, web statement, what are they saying? Are they saying anything about Jews? No. Are they saying anything about hate?

No, they're saying we want companies to divest from Israel. We want our university not to supply bombs and bullets to kill kids. We want to ceasefire. We want JVP, a Jewish peace group to be reinstated on campus.

None of that is inherently, intrinsically antisemitic. Quite the opposite. A lot of these protesters are Jewish, disproportionately young Jews.

SCIUTTO: I interviewed some on this program, yes.

HASAN: The idea that the entire protest is antisemitic, that's absurd. It's like me saying all pro-Israel protesters are Islamophobic, they're not, but a fair few of them then some Islamophobic things in recent days.

SCIUTTO: So, Biden has tried to walk that line to say, listen, one, you have a right to protest, freedom of expression, et cetera two, I hear you and I've seen this even when he's been heckled in public -- in public speeches, et cetera, saying I hear you, I understand the motivation, the emotion, et cetera, but some go too far, right.

And of course, you cannot be antisemitic and you can attack the Jewish faith, and you can cannot question that the right of the state of Israel to exist. Do you believe that he and again, this is a fine line that you as a commentator and others tried to do.

HASAN: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: And often failed, not because of your own, I'm saying, because of the nature of the debate. Has he got it right though?

HASAN: But, Jim, he's the president. He's not a pundit. This is my point.

So when a president speaks, you've got to be careful what you speak on, what you choose to speak on. My criticism of Biden often is, oh, you gave a statement on this. What about that?

Like for example, that Israeli government, Ben-Gvir, these guys are fascists and racists. I think they're way more dangerous and their rhetoric is way worse than some college kid.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

HASAN: But the president goes out of his way to go after colleagues. Similarly, there's stuff happening to pro-Palestine protest. At UCLA, you've seen the videos. Palestinian protests attacked by pro-Israel counter-protesters. I didn't hear the president or members of Democratic Party come out and condemn that.

So, yeah, I get it. But she needs to be careful in this.

SCIUTTO: Question before we go.

HASAN: Yeah.

SCIUTTO: Do you believe that the broadest portion of this population actually is capable of more subtlety on this issue than say the Twitter conversation or the conversation in Congress, you know, I'm saying that they can hold two thoughts in their head at ones?

HASAN: I think so.

SCIUTTO: To say that the state has the right to exist, but I think they're going too far in the conduct of the war.

[15:30:04]

HASAN: I think many Americans think that way. I think the funny thing about subtleties, our politics and media is broken in some ways. We're not representing the public.

We did a poll this week at Zeteo, my company, 70 percent of Americans, including majority of Republicans want a permanent ceasefire in a de- escalation of violence.

Is that reflective in Congress?

SCIUTTO: Well, two-state solution.

HASAN: But is that reflective in Congress, that view? It's not.

So, I think wee need to talk more about the fact that, yes, there are subtleties. Yes, there are nuances, but the majority of Americans do not want our taxes going towards killing kids in Rafah. That's just a factor. SCIUTTO: Mehdi Hasan, good to have the conversation, hoping to keep it

up. Certainly going to be more opportunities for sure.

Still to come to this hour, the threat of stepped-up Russian ground and air attacks on Ukraine as Kyiv waits for the bulk of crucial U.S. military aid to arrive. Is Russia seeking to exploit this moment? My new CNN reporting coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

New reporting today on Russia and Ukraine. Multiple officials tell me that Western intelligence believes Russia is seeking to exploit now what it sees as a, quote, window of opportunity to further step up air and ground attacks on Ukraine, to take advantage of the time it will take for new weapons and ammunition from the U.S. to arrive there in significant quantities.

And even with the arrival of that new assistance, one U.S. military official told me it is hold the line at best for Ukrainian forces now. Western and Ukrainian officials view the near-term threat of stepped- up attacks as tied to Russia's plans for a larger offensive early this summer.

This is today. Russia celebrates the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II as well as Putin's fifth presidential term.

CNN's Clare Sebastian has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid unseasonal snow flurries, Russian President Vladimir Putin using this moment to turn up the heat in this war of words with the West, accusing it of distorting history.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Revanchism, mockery of history, and the desire to justify the current followers of the Nazis are part of the general policy of Western elites to foment new regional conflicts.

SEBASTIAN: Putin's third Victory Day since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, another opportunity for his own brand of factual distortion, painting the war in Ukraine is the sequel to Russia's role in defeating Nazi Germany, portraying the West as the aggressor, justifying unimaginable losses under the banner of patriotism.

PUTIN: Russia is going through a difficult period. The fate of our motherland depends on every one of us.

SEBASTIAN: Soldiers fresh from the front lines in Russia's so-called special military operation also treading the damp cobbles of Red Square. And yet this year victory seems more attainable. Russia now has the advantage on Ukraine's front lines, gains on the eastern front in recent months, that biggest in more than a year and a half. Moscow confident enough to show off a selection of battlefield trophies: European and American tanks and armored vehicles, part of a month-long exhibition at Moscow's Victory Park.

At home, Putin now two days into his fifth term is more powerful than ever. And he wants the world to know it.

PUTIN: Russia will do everything to avoid a global confrontation. But at the same time, we will not let anyone threaten us. Our strategic forces are always combat-ready. It was a measured nuclear threat, as ballistic missiles rolled across Red Square, Putin casually coordinated plans for upcoming non-strategic nuclear exercises with close ally Belarus, both leaders emphasizing this is just routine training.

While Western leaders no longer join Russia in marking this shared victory, Putin knows they are watching.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much, Clare, for that report.

Joining me now is Julia Ioffe. She is a founding partner and the Washington correspondent at "Puck".

Thanks so much for joining.

You wrote about Putin's inauguration speech earlier this week, saying it was the speech of a man who knows he is winning, a man who beat the odds yet again, to come out on top. He's in a very different place now than when Russia first invaded Ukraine.

Is he winning in your view, even with the arrival, for instance, of additional U.S. military aid?

JULIA IOFFE, FOUNDING PARTNER AND WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Well, he is. So far, he has yet to be defeated and as you reported and I reported similarly, a couple of weeks ago, it is not just the fact that the aid is going to take a while to get to the battlefield, to the theater of war. It's also that Ukraine is suffering serious manpower shortages. It's just finally passed a law last month expanding the military draft age only by two years.

Ukrainian officials say that that's going to be enough to make up for the manpower disadvantage they have on the battlefield. But it doesn't take effect until basically now and then its going to take another few months to train equip and get all those men to the front.

So in the meantime, Russia is continuing to recruit people, volunteers, not just prisoners anymore. These are volunteers who are signing up by the hundreds of thousands. They're being paid very well. Usually, they're being paid about ten times the average Russian wage.

SCIUTTO: Wow. IOFFE: And Russia, despite all the sanctions that the west has imposed on it is, doing better than ever economically. Everybody I speak to in Russia says that there is more than there's ever been.

SCIUTTO: It's remarkable, really. I've had U.S. officials tell me that really the best Ukraine can do this year is simply hold the line. There's no expectation, no ambition of a major Ukrainian counteroffensive here.

There is expectation though of Russia pushing forward, another big push in the coming weeks. And I wonder how concerned Ukraine on its allies should be about Russia's ambitions and its capabilities.

IOFFE: I think they should be very concerned and they are. You're hearing a very different Volodymyr Zelenskyy than you were a year ago, and two years ago. And you're hearing a very different Putin. The two parades, the victory day parades we just talked today and two years ago could not have been more different.

[15:40:06]

Two years ago, there were many pieces of equipment that were not paraded on Red Square because they were being used in Ukraine. Some of them were deemed to be not fit to be shown. And now you're seeing this kind of, it's funny that he accused the West of Revanchism, but you're seeing this Revanchism literally on parade.

And Zelenskyy is sounding a lot more humble. He's not talking about getting back every inch of territory. He's talking about holding the line. He's admitting that the Russian troops have the advantage on the battlefield. He said earlier today that no one can deny that.

Ukraine's infrastructure has been hit even more badly and damaged even more badly than in that first horrible winter of the war. So, things are worse than ever for Ukraine and better than ever for Russia. And I'll just say one more thing, the fact that we're discussing this on victory day is very significant, because the lesson Vladimir Putin and a lot of Russians learned from World War II was one, that you can lose the war for a very long time, just as the Soviet Union was losing the war against Nazi Germany in the 1940s for years, for a good year-and- a-half, two years, until they finally turn back the tide and we're able to win. So you can lose a war for a long time and still turned around.

And two, you'll -- you can dedicate a lot of bodies, Russian, Soviet bodies do that.

So the toll in World War II for the Soviet Union was 27 million people. That was 15 percent of the Soviet population that was killed in just four years. So Americans wonder how Russians are feeling with about half 1 million of battle casualties in just two years. For Russians, it's not 27 million. It's chump change.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. And listen, they don't have to win elections, either. Don't have to pay a political price for all that.

IOFFE: No.

SCIUTTO: That loss of young men and women.

Julia Ioffe, thanks so much for joining.

When we do come back, we're going to have further updates on Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial developments just in the last several minutes. That's after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:18]

SCIUTTO: Back to the latest from the criminal back to the latest from the criminal hush money trial of Donald Trump's still underway in Manhattan today, the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, she finished her testimony, spent just over six hours on the witness stand over the course of two days.

Now on the stand is Madeline Westerhout. She's the former director of oval office, up over office operations, personal secretary to then- President Donald Trump.

And, Katelyn, as you've been listening to her testimony, what has been the prosecutions goal with her?

POLANTZ: Well, she is the latest and one of the closest links in the chain of this paper trail that they're trying to show to the jury, to Donald Trump himself, the person sitting in the outer Oval Office in the White House, receiving those checks that are being sent to Trump from folks in the Trump Organization for him to sign to take money out of his personal account, not for business expense.

SCIUTTO: While he was president.

POLANTZ: While he was president, yes. And she's -- she's essentially a mirror image of witnesses that we heard earlier in the trial. Rhona Graff was one of the first people to testify from the Trump Organization. That's the person who was sending out the counterpart of Madeleine Westerhout who was at the Trump Organization in New York, sending out these --

SCIUTTO: Right. So, this one end of the chain and this is the other one.

POLANTZ: Right, and this is the 2017 office, personal assistant to Trump in the White House, who's receiving these checks and making sure Donald Trump is personally signing them out of his account, all leading up to the final link in the chain.

We don't know how many more witnesses there are, but we're getting closer and closer to not just Donald Trump, but Michael Cohen.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

POLANTZ: Where is he as the final witness here? SCIUTTO: Coming soon, we think.

Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

Back to our legal analyst, Joey Jackson, Areva Martin.

Joey, why is it important to -- in particular that this not just that she was there and saw the president signing those checks, but he was president at the time?

JACKSON: So the relevance is, is obviously there's a timeline, right, with regard to what the prosecutor is saying. We have the timeline "Access Hollywood", Stormy Daniels, payout of Stormy Daniels, reimbursement of Michael Cohen, check sent directly by the president when he was president.

And so, what established a timeline, but more importantly than that, you get the introduction information and obviously this specific records relating to these checks, relating to these ledgers, relating to these invoices, which was sometimes attack to the checks. And more importantly than that, you have knowledge and intent because you have a president that's not disengaged or otherwise a loop for otherwise relying upon people to do things for him. You're talking about the exchanging and sending via FedEx, right, to security personnel, his security head of security, bringing it to the White House.

You have his White House secretary, right, right outside the Oval Office submitting checks to him in manila envelope, sitting there, having him sign the checks, having him write notes or whatever, pay ASAP, don't pay at all. That shows engagement.

Far from, Trump would know about this or direct knowledge. He doesn't know what's going on. The prosecution will argue, nonsense, he is directly involved and as a result of that, they will argue he's guilty.

SCIUTTO: So, Areva, as I understand it, what they need to establish prosecutors here to get a conviction is, okay, this affair took place, Trump wanted to keep it quiet. It was during the election campaign. It was right in the wake of the "Access Hollywood" thing. You thought I was going to lose this if this affair would have come out and he was involved in paying that money and that then violates federal election law, which makes it a felony.

If I have that right, how far along are prosecutors and proving that succession of arguments?

MARTIN: I think they're very far along, Jim, something very important that this executive assistant testified to today and that is that she was at the RNC. She was at the convention for the Republican Party and there was chatter. There was talk about the Republican Party room moving Donald Trump from the ticket, so that he wouldn't even be on the Republican ticket for the election.

Now, obviously at the time the "Access Hollywood" tape comes out, we're past the convention, but if this executive assistant heard that rumor, clearly, Donald Trump knew that that was rumor and so his concern, his anxiety around the Republican Party, abandoning him if there was more damaging information about his treatment of women or had to be top of mind for him. And I think the prosecution has done a great job of establishing he had every reason to what this story buried and to pay Stormy Daniels off.

[15:50:04]

SCIUTTO: I think people forget that moment. I mean, when the "Access Hollywood" tape came out, folks, were basically -- Republicans as well, writing his political obituary.

Of course, that's not how -- that's not how it panned out.

Joey, the judge told the jury before launch that there perhaps a little bit ahead of schedule now we are, of course, still waiting for Michael Cohen's testimony here. And the cross-examination to follow, where are we in this now? How many more days of the prosecutor's case in your view?

JACKSON: Yeah. I think they're pretty far along. Remember the other day, they noted two weeks, I think certainly they want to undersell and over-deliver, meaning, hey, two weeks, but maybe we take a week or shorter.

And so I think the question now becomes strategically, what do they do? Do they call Karen McDougal? Not because that came after it came before, but not with respect to a timeline, but with regard to a pattern. Karen McDougal, of course, being the Playboy model that Trump allegedly had an affair with, not for really the purposes of the affair, but again, paying to stay silent with respect to her story, so he's going to do that, but Stormy Daniels, he knows nothing about.

So you have to question whether or not they are strategically, they being prosecutors, going to call Karen McDougal, then you have to question when they're going to call Michael Cohen, right? That's the open question.

And I would say, Jim, that they have done everything that is prosecutors have to make Michael Cohen as irrelevant to this case as possible. What do I mean? By having other witnesses corroborate what he's going to say, such that they can argue, you don't have to believe him. He's still guilty.

So, I think we're nearing the end of it. When we end is the open question?

SCIUTTO: Well, I know you guys will be there when it happens. Areva Martin, Joey Jackson, thanks so much.

Still to come, the ongoing tornado threat here in the U.S., at least 300 tornadoes reported in the past two weeks, more possible today. We're going to have a forecast coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

The severe weather threat here in the continues today, around 60 million people across the southern and eastern parts of the country at risk of severe thunderstorms, flash floods, tornadoes at least one tornado reported in the U.S. every day since April 25th.

Meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now from the weather center.

Wow. So many, where and why?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, yesterday, there were 13 separate tornadoes that were reported on the ground.

[15:55:00]

The pictures you see behind me here, this is Tennessee. We had tornadoes from Alabama to Tennessee. I mean, all the way.

But I think I looked at the tornado warnings that were posted, something like 11 separate states had a warning, not confirmed on the ground, but at least a warning, 13 tornadoes confirmed. We have 160 for a wind reports. This is what it looks like, 323 reports of tornadoes just in the past 14 days.

Are we above normal? Yes, 639 so far, we should be at 5:50, and it feels like we're above and we're not going to change a lot of that for today. The threat continues as you said, right now, the weather is either in Georgia and the Carolinas or back out here toward Texas.

Here's a severe thunderstorm watch. We will see rain and hail. Hail the size of a baseball or bigger about three-and-a-half inches in the yellow box, and about four inches in that old red box. Now, toward the Georgia coast from Tybee Island all the way down toward Jekyll and New Brunswick and all the way down here to the south. This is where the wind is going to be pushing as well.

We still have one tornado warning there. There's Brunswick, Georgia. There's Jekyll Island. We'll keep an eye on that one because that still is a rotating storm.

Yesterday, Jim, we had some places with eight to ten inches of rainfall. Tennessee all the way through Georgia and flash flooding is still going on, right now. There'll be some storms across the south overnight. And then tomorrow though, things really do calm down, only one small area.

And everybody here in the weather office is finally saying, really, finally, Friday. Thank goodness. It's been a rough week.

SCIUTTO: It has goodness. Some real damage there.

Chad Myers, thanks so much.

Thanks so much to all of you for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.