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CNN International: Funeral Procession for Ebrahim Raisi Underway; ICC Seeks Arrest Warrants for Hamas and Israeli Leaders; Chaos in the Trump Hush Money Trail. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 21, 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: The official point of view is this is a time of mourning, but it is also a time to highlight the message that there is stability in Iran and that there will not be any disruption to the running of Iran.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For crimes being committed, we should move forward. Nobody is above the law.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's happening is not genocide.

BIDEN: There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to talk to you about decorum in my courtroom. You don't say geez, you don't give me the side eye.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After four weeks of testimony, prosecutors rested their case in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial.

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

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Tuesday, May the 21st, 9 a.m. here in London. That's 11.30 in Tabriz, Iran, where a funeral procession for President Ebrahim Raisi is now underway.

Large crowds have turned out to pay their respects to Raisi, the country's foreign minister, and seven others who were killed in a helicopter crash over the weekend. The northwest city of Tabriz is the first stop for the funeral procession, followed by ceremonies held in other cities in the days ahead. The country is observing five days of national mourning.

A video released earlier by Iran's state media shows the caskets carrying the late president and the country's foreign minister. Raisi's helicopter crashed in a remote mountainous area of Iran's East Azerbaijan province. The country's military chief has now appointed a commission to investigate what caused the deadly crash.

The United States is rejecting claims by Iran's foreign -- or former foreign minister that its sanctions kept Iran from accessing parts of aviation, well, aviation parts that they required. Former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif told state media that the U.S. is partially guilty for the helicopter crash that killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday.

Washington is denouncing those allegations, calling them baseless. U.S. national security spokesman saying Iran's aviation safety is Iran's responsibility alone. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also spoke out.

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LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The United States had no part to play in that crash. And so that's a fact plain as something.

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FOSTER: In fact, the U.S. says Iran asked for its assistance after the helicopter crash. And according to the State Department, the U.S. told Iran they would have helped but were not able to because of, quote, logistical reasons.

CNN's Paul Hancocks following developments and joins us live from Abu Dhabi. Just take us through these pictures, Paula, because these are obviously being relayed to us, aren't they, effectively, by state media. So what do they tell us and what do they not tell us?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Max, what we're going to be seeing over the next few days is a country in mourning. What state media is going to be broadcasting is three days, really, of this funeral procession. It will hit a number of cities.

These nine bodies will be transported to different cities. At the moment, they are in Tabriz. This is the city in northwestern Iran that was closest to the location of where the helicopter went down.

Now, we know there was a procession that started in Martyrs Square recently this morning, and it was going to end up in prayers at the Tabriz prayer hall. But then these bodies will be transported to the holy Shiite city of Qom. We know also that they will be going to Tehran, the capital.

And this is where on Wednesday you will see probably some of the biggest crowds when it comes to showing respects to the late President Raisi. There will be in the Grand Mosalla Mosque, there will be prayers for these nine individuals who were on board that helicopter that went down on Sunday. And then the body of the late President Raisi will be going to Birjand, where he was the special representative for the Ayatollah, and then on to Mashhad, which is where the Imam Reza Shrine is.

[04:05:00] That is where we will see the Ayatollah, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He will be leading the prayers for Raisi there, and then there will be the burial later in the day.

So this is three days that we will see of the funeral procession and ceremonies across the country. There have been five days of mourning that have been called for from the Ayatollah. We know for seven days there will be no arts or cultural events. Wednesday is a national holiday to make sure that the whole county can be part of these processions.

Now, of course, we know that the whole country will not be part of the processions because there is a significant amount of the population that does not support Raisi. In fact, a large number of them despise Raisi. They have been on the wrong side of his highly conservative and controversial policies in the past.

But what the state will be keen to show the world at this point, and their own people, is a president who is being mourned. We will see hundreds, thousands of people in the streets of these different cities showing their respects. And this is really the public message that Tehran is trying to give through its officials at this point as well, that at the same time as they are mourning these leaders who were killed in that helicopter crash, they have all been at pains to say that there will be no disruption when it comes to the running of the country.

We have heard this from the top. We've heard this from the Supreme Leader. We've heard it from the acting president as well, saying that there will be no disruption.

And just the very fact that within hours of the bodies being found at that helicopter crash site, there was already an acting president and an acting foreign minister put into place. So there really is this keen desire, it appears, in Tehran at this point to show stability within the country -- Max.

FOSTER: Paula, Abu Dhabi, thank you.

Joining me now from San Francisco is Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Thank you so much for joining us.

Just in terms of the images that we're receiving out of Iran, these are deliberately being sent in the sense that we're not seeing any of the celebrations in Iran about this. And they are there, according to all the reports. We're seeing the mourning and that's deliberate on the side of the authorities.

BEHNAM BEN TALEBLU, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Yes, indeed, it is a pleasure to be with you. In essence, the government of the Islamic Republic is yet again looking to manipulate images. However limited they may be from the street to show breadth and depth of support for Raisi.

When you know, just looking at social media, when you know, just looking at the fact that there were fireworks within hours of official confirmation of his passing, when you've seen really a deluge of videos coming out online of Iranians felicitating the news of his demise, that this is where the regime is trying to project strength where it knows there is weakness.

And just one more thing about a regime like the government of the Islamic Republic, it can ill afford exogenous political shocks on a good day. And particularly after the 2022, 2023 Women Like Freedom protests, and the fact that it had parliamentary elections with a record low turnout, that's a record low, even official rate of turnout.

These images that you're speaking of are likely designed to make up for that record low turnout.

FOSTER: It's all about managing things, isn't it, at this point, because they've got to manage these images coming out, project this stability of the regime. They've also got to find new people to replace the foreign minister, the president who reinforce the regime and won't disrupt what's currently there.

TALEBLU: Well, that's right. But despite the Islamic Republic being a revolutionary regime, the people that are filling the position of president and foreign minister are really more agents of the status quo. They're really more agents of the ultra hardline Islamist authoritarian right inside the Islamic Republic.

Mohammed Mokhber and Bagheri Kani, you know, these are individuals whose resumes read like the consummate insiders of the Islamic Republic, whether their ties to the family of prominent Iranian clerics on the side of Bagheri Kani or whether their ties to the Supreme Leader's business empire and the IRGC, such as Mokhber. In essence, these are individuals who are not here to change things or mix things up. They're more designed to keep things as they are.

Caretakers, managers, but managers designed to keep Iran on the same path, which is repression at home and aggression abroad.

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FOSTER: The late president was seen as a front runner, wasn't he, to replace the Supreme Leader, which is where the power really lies. The Supreme Leader is getting older all the time. They have to think about the succession plan.

So will the president that is appointed next likely be the supreme leader? Because that really does increase the importance of this moment.

TALEBLU: I'm glad you mentioned this debate because sometimes those in the audience might think that the president in Iran has the same powers of the president of France or the president of the United States of America, where that's simply not the case. Power really does indeed lie with the supreme leader of Iran, and that's a title meant to be taken quite literally inside a governing structure like the Islamic Republic. Iran's current Supreme Leader is Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and this individual has been the Middle East's longest serving autocrat and he's an octogenarian.

In fact, last month he turned 85 years old. It was long rumored and in fact assessed by lots of outside experts that President Raisi was pushed into the position of president in 2021 so that that could become a stepping stone for him to become supreme leader.

But historically, the position of president is not at all a stepping stone into bigger or greater things. Many of Iran's presidents have been censored or moved into political obscurity. But I can tell you one thing right now, that if you did believe that Raisi was on the short list to become Iran's next supreme leader, that short list just got a lot shorter.

FOSTER: OK, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us with your insights and we'll be following that period of mourning in the next few days.

TALEBLU: Thank you.

FOSTER: Now to the announcement from the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court seeking the arrest of top Hamas and Israeli officials. Karim Khan is asking a panel of judges to issue warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas leader as well, Yahya Sinwar. Now, Israel's defense minister and two other Hamas leaders are also targets.

Khan says they should face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity for the October 7th terror attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. The announcement came in an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. The decision puts Mr. Netanyahu in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the late Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

U.S. President Joe Biden denounced the move as outrageous.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me be clear, we reject the ICC's application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. Whatever these warrants may imply, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.

And it's clear, Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection. But let me be clear, contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what's happening is not genocide.

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FOSTER: Benjamin Netanyahu is condemning the ICC decision to seek arrest warrants as a travesty of justice.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the decision by the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor to seek arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is certainly sparking a lot of controversy inside of Israel. Outrage and condemnation from across the political spectrum. The Israeli prime minister himself, of course, but also his political rivals, including the leader of the opposition, all of them condemning what they view as the International Criminal Court applying some kind of moral equivalency here by carrying out this decision to seek arrest warrants against both Israeli and Hamas leaders in the same breath.

We've heard from the Israeli prime minister who said that this is not only an attack against him, but he views it as an attack against the state of Israel.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): With what audacity do you dare compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world. With what audacity do you compare between the Hamas that murdered, burned, butchered, raped, and kidnapped our brothers and sisters, and the IDF soldiers who are fighting a just war that is unparalleled, a morality that is unmatched. As the prime minister of Israel, I reject to discuss the Hague prosecutor's comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas.

DIAMOND: And the Israeli prime minister also calling this a, quote, disgrace and a distortion of reality, vowing that it will not deter Israel from continuing to carry out its war in Gaza, and it will not deter Israel from accomplishing its goal, as he has laid it out, of defeating Hamas.

But this notion of moral equivalency, of carrying out this search for arrest warrants on both Israel as well as Hamas, is something that Hamas actually picked up on themselves as well.

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In their statement reacting to this request for warrants, Hamas says, quote, that it strongly condemns the attempts of the ICC prosecutor to equate victims with aggressors by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders without legal basis.

Now, what is ultimately clear here is that the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for war crimes as well as crimes against humanity on both sides.

On the Hamas side, they focus in particular on the murder of civilians on October 7th, the taking of hostages, the sexual violence that has been committed by Hamas against hostages as well as against women on October 7th.

As it relates to Israel, there's a focus on the targeting of civilians as well as using starvation as a weapon of war.

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FOSTER: CNN's Jeremy Diamond reporting for us there.

Now, it's important to note the request for the arrest warrants must first be approved by a panel of, of course, judges. Here's part of Christiane's exclusive interview with the chief ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan.

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I want to ask you about the so-called political nature that many people will claim. Prime Minister Netanyahu has already said ICC charges would be a scandal on a historic scale, an indelible stain on the idea of justice. Israel's commitment to international law is unwavering.

And Netanyahu has also said it would be an anti-Semitic hate crime. Now, we haven't heard anything from Hamas about how they would react. What do you say to that?

There must have been a huge amount of pressure on you from all sides to do and not to do.

KARIM KHAN, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT CHIEF PROSECUTOR: Well, this court, Christiane, is the childhood of Nuremberg. It was built because of the awful pictures that haunt us today of the Shoah and the gas chambers and then the Balkans and the list goes on. And we have to look at the evidence.

And the way I very simply try to do things is look at the evidence, look at the conduct, look at the victims and airbrush out the nationality. And if a crime has been committed, we should move forward. Nobody is above the law.

No people by dint of birth or passport, religion, nationality or the color of their skin have a get out of jail free card, have a free pass to say, well, the law doesn't apply to us. This is a moment when we see in the shadow of Ukraine an increasing cacophony of noise of double standards and selectivity. And what we're trying to do is not go with a tide of emotion but take our time, move as effectively as we can, but be guided by evidence.

And every human life, every baby that is killed, whether it's a baby that's cruelly abducted by Hamas and killed or a baby that's been bombed or killed or has died in incubators because of no electricity or water or food in Gaza, for them, for their families and humanity, it's a tragedy. And this is why we have a court. It's about the equal application of the law.

No people are better than another. No people anywhere are saints. And so we have to apply a yardstick of legality to conduct.

We've done that. And this is why we've made the applications that the judges must determine.

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FOSTER: Let's bring in CNN's Scott McLean with more reaction to these warrants.

So it's going down terribly with Israel. And it's this sense that they are being given what they describe as a false equivalence with a terrorist group.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you heard that precise argument coming from the Israeli president. You also heard it coming from the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, saying that it is not fair to compare the democratically elected leaders of Israel with a terror group like Hamas.

You have also heard, as Jeremy Diamond explained there, outrage from across the political spectrum, from the defense minister calling it scandalous to the opposition party leader and war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, who, by the way, is in the midst of a very public spat with the prime minister, accusing the court of moral bankruptcy.

The list goes on and on. You even have the former prime minister, Naftali Bennett, calling on countries to defund the ICC.

You also have Hamas here taking issue with it being compared to Israel. They said that these charges against Israel or this seeking of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders come seven months late. They actually want to see more warrants being sought for other Israeli leaders and for soldiers who have carried out some of what's happened in Gaza. And they want, of course, the warrants against Hamas leaders to be canceled.

[04:20:00]

We know that the United States has rejected these ICC charges against Israel, making the same argument that there is no equivalence to be made between Israel and Hamas. They also argue that there is no jurisdiction because Palestine is not an internationally recognized state and Israel is not a signatory to the ICC's jurisdiction.

We've also just gotten reaction from the German foreign ministry, and they're kind of walking this line here, you know, criticizing this moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas, but also saying that they support the ICC and saying that Israel has the right to defend itself, but there are also obligations that it needs to follow when it comes to humanitarian law.

We've also heard varying levels of outrage from other countries, like the Czech prime minister who called this appalling when it comes to the Israeli charges. The Italian foreign minister said, again, unacceptable to compare Hamas and Israel.

And you have the British prime minister repeating the U.S.'s argument about jurisdiction and also saying that these charges are not helpful in getting aid in, hostages out, and some kind of a ceasefire deal made.

This could also make for uncomfortable reading for leaders around the world who are, or in some cases, are not ICC members. You'll remember that the Russian President Vladimir Putin, he is facing ICC charges since they were leveled against him. He has not traveled to a country that is a signatory to the ICC's mandate. Last year, he had to skip a summit in South Africa because of the risk for his arrest there.

Now, when it comes to Israeli leaders, perhaps they could test this if these charges are approved.

There's also a question of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader. He is currently stationed primarily in Qatar, which is not a signatory to the court. But then you have Turkey, where he often visits. He was here last month, most recently, that we know of publicly, at least. And Turkey, while it is not signed up to the court, it has also called for the ICC to prosecute Netanyahu. It feels quite the opposite about Hamas leaders, though.

It does not view them as a terror group. And so it could make for an uncomfortable situation, though, for Turkey, where you have Western leaders fundamentally uncomfortable with its relationship with Hamas, and now with arrest warrants potentially hanging over Hamas leaders, it could make that discomfort even worse -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Scott McLean in Istanbul, thank you so much.

Now, dramatic moments in an historic case that is quickly winding down. Why the judge cleared the courtroom With Donald Trump's hush money trial?

Plus, Americans were allegedly involved in a brazen, failed coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo. What U.S. officials are saying about the claim just ahead.

And later, after nearly two months, a massive cargo ship that hit a bridge in Baltimore has been moved back to the port. Details ahead.

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FOSTER: Prosecutor in the hush money trial has rested and the defense is expected to wrap up later today, but not before some fireworks. A key defense witness managed to antagonize the judge. However, lawyers for Donald Trump also, or may also, have scored a major win by getting star witness Michael Cohen to admit to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization.

CNN's Kara Scannell has the details.

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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After four weeks of testimony, prosecutors rested their case in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial. Just after their star witness, Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen concluded more than 17 hours of dramatic testimony over four days. Trump's attorney Todd Blanche intensely attacked Cohen's credibility over multiple days, trying to paint him as a liar who's motivated by money.

MICHAEL COHEN, TRUMP'S FORMER FIXER AND ATTORNEY: I just want to get through this so that I can start my own life again.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Blanche got Cohen to admit that he stole from the Trump organization. Cohen confirmed he paid a tech company $20,000 instead of the $50,000 that was owed by Trump. But Cohen asked Trump to be repaid the full amount, which was doubled to cover taxes.

Ultimately, Cohen admitted he kept around $60,000 for himself.

Blanche asked: So you stole from the Trump organization?

Yes, sir, Cohen replied.

Cohen said he was angry about getting a low annual bonus.

Earlier in the trial, Cohen told prosecutors he requested the full reimbursement because that's what was owed and I didn't feel Mr. Trump deserved the benefit of the difference. On Monday, Cohen admitted it was wrong to have taken the money.

Cohen defended his character during testimony to Congress in 2019.

COHEN: I understand. I have lied, but I am not a liar. And I have done bad things, but I am not a bad man.

SCANNELL (through translator): After cross-examination concluded, prosecutors tried to clean up some of the damage done to Cohen's credibility. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked about repayments Cohen received from Trump for the $130,000 in hush money he provided to adult film star Stormy Daniels, which is the crux of the case.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is why I'm here, because we called in a legal expense payment to a lawyer.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Cohen testified that despite the 11 checks referring to a retainer agreement, he said no agreement existed because there was no legal work that I was to be paid for.

Prosecutors played an audio clip for the jury of Cohen talking about Trump to Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson about the payment.

COHEN - DAVIDSON RECORDING: And I can't even tell you how many times he said to me, you know, I hate the fact that we did it. And my comment to him was, but every person that you've spoken to told you it was the right move.

SCANNELL (voice-over): After the prosecution rested, the defense started calling witnesses, including Robert Costello, who once served as a legal advisor to Cohen. Costello was visibly frustrated as the judge sustained several objections from the prosecution, audibly saying, geez, and rolling his eyes. Judge Merchan became so angry, he briefly cleared the courtroom and addressed Costello.

Cara Scannell, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: Costello may be back in the stand later today. He testified on Monday that Cohen told him numerous times that Trump knew nothing about the hush money payments, but Costello's behavior has already got him into trouble with the judge. Legal analyst Terri Austin was in the courtroom and elaborates on the tense exchange.

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TERRI AUSTIN, HOST AND LEGAL ANALYST, LAW AND CRIME NETWORK: The witness said, geez, and, you know, ridiculous in response to some of the objections that were being sustained. And the first thing the judge said, and this was in front of the jury, was, excuse me, excuse me. And everybody fell quiet because I've never heard the judge say anything like that.

That's when he excused the jury. That's when he said to Costello, I want to talk to you about decorum in my courtroom. You don't say geez, you don't give me the side eye.

And we were sitting there and that's when the judge said, are you staring me down? And he cleared the courtroom. There was so much confusion. We didn't know what to do.

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FOSTER: Well, the defense has signaled it's likely to rest its case in the hours ahead, which indicates that Trump himself won't testify. Closing arguments are expected to happen next week and then the case will be in the hands of the jury.

While still to come, Julian Assange wins the right to appeal, we'll break down Monday's court ruling, allowing the Wikileaks founder another chance at fighting extradition to the U.S..

Plus, Iranians mourn the death of the late President Ebrahim Raisi.

Just ahead, a look at what's next for the country as it grapples to fill the huge political gap in leadership.

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