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CNN International: Closing Arguments Ahead in Trump Trial; Israel Faces International Outrage Over Deadly Rafah Strike; Watches and Warning Continue After Deadly Weekend of Storms; Thousands Ordered to Evacuate Amid Safety Concerns in Papua New Guinea; Spain Pledges Over $1 Billion in Military Aid to Ukraine. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 28, 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: Trump's lawyers and prosecutors will square off, trying to win over the jury of seven men and five women.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They may well try to pitch much of the jury on their closing, that Trump was really relying on his lawyer in this instance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ANC can fill stadiums, yes, but it also has a formidable ground game.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the ANC's electoral support every year is going down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, it's difficult for me to talk. I don't know if it's going to be the last time that I'm going to be here in front of all of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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 28th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in New York City, where closing arguments will soon get underway in the historic Donald Trump hush money case.

Jurors have been away since last Tuesday due to the U.S. Memorial Day weekend, and they'll likely begin deliberating the fate of the former U.S. president on Wednesday. But first, prosecutors will try to weave together weeks of testimony and evidence from these 20 witnesses to convince jurors that Trump is guilty of falsifying business records with the intent of influencing the 2016 election. Much of their case hinges on the testimony of Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer.

There's no time limits on the summations. Both sides could use visual aids to drive home their points. The defense will present their closing arguments first, and Trump has been complaining on social media about his team not getting the last word.

He also posted that he'll go before the judge to, quote, see whether or not he'll become a common criminal. Former White House counsel John Dean weighed in on the defense team's possible strategy during those final remarks.

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JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: All throughout this trial, there's been an effort by the defense, by the Trump team, to slide in the fact that he was really relying on counsel, that Michael Cohen was a lawyer, so he thought this was all OK because Cohen would do it the correct way and the legal way. That argument got taken off the table very early with the what evidence could come in. They may well try to pitch much of the jury on their closing that Trump was really relying on his lawyer in this instance.

I think that's one of the wild cards, and one of the judge who hates to interrupt a closing will find himself confronted with having to object to or when the government objects to it, he'll sustain it and they'll not be able to make that argument.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Now, Trump could get 20 years in prison if convicted. CNN's Kara Scannell has a preview of today's closing arguments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump watching NASCAR in North Carolina this weekend, while his hush money trial approaches the final lap in New York.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to win North Carolina?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We believe so. I think by a lot.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Trump's lawyers and prosecutors will square off trying to win over the jury of seven men and five women. Prosecutors called 20 witnesses over five weeks and in their closing arguments, they're expected to tie testimony together with a paper trail of text messages, phone calls, and the records at the center of the case. The 11 invoices seeking payment pursuant to a retainer agreement, a dozen vouchers and 11 checks most signed by Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump, how do you feel with your lawyer's closing?

TRUMP: I feel very good. I think we have a great case was put on. There is no crime.

SCANNELL (voice-over): During the trial, the jury heard from former members of Trump's inner circle, the publisher of the "National Enquirer," David Pecker, campaign aide Hope Hicks, and his former fixer and personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who is the only witness to directly tie Trump to the coverup. Trump's attorneys are up first in closings and are expected to attack Cohen's credibility, arguing to the jury that they cannot find Trump guilty based on the testimony of a convicted liar.

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TRUMP: Michael Cohen is a convicted liar and he's got no credibility whatsoever.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Cohen was on the witness stand for five days, telling the jury Trump called adult film actress Stormy Daniels' story a disaster for his campaign and directed Cohen to take care of it. Cohen testifying he spoke with Trump twice to get his approval just before wiring the $130,000 payment to Daniels' attorney to block her story of an alleged affair with Trump from becoming public to influence the 2016 election. Trump denies the affair.

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY AND FIXER: 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): He told the jury that Trump signed off on the repayment scheme in a meeting at Trump Tower with former Trump Organization CFO, Allen Weisselberg. Cohen walked the jury through the 34 allegedly falsified documents testifying there was no retainer agreement. The money was payback for the Daniels deal.

COHEN: This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year while he was president. The president of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Trump attorney Todd Blanche has used Cohen's own words to bolster their defense that Cohen would say anything to take Trump down and is out for revenge.

COHEN: I truly (BLEEP) hope that this man ends up in prison.

SCANNELL: Trump's lawyers are also expected to highlight the witnesses that the prosecution did not call, including Weisselberg, who was in that meeting with Cohen and Keith Schiller, Trump's former bodyguard, who was with Trump during the campaign. Closings are expected to go all day Tuesday. On Wednesday, the judge will instruct the jury on the law, what prosecutors need to prove in order to win a conviction, and then the jury will begin deliberations. The jury of seven men and five women will continue until they reach a verdict.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

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FOSTER: The U.N. Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting in the hours ahead. As a deadly Israeli airstrike in Rafah sparks growing international outrage. Gaza officials say the strike on Sunday killed at least 45 people and injured more than 200, mostly women and children, at a camp for displaced Palestinians.

According to a U.S. official, Israel claims an explosion from the strike ignited a fuel tank nearby, starting a fire which raced through the camp, though that explanation hasn't been confirmed. The Israeli military says it's investigating the strike, which it claims killed two senior Hamas officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had this reaction.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Despite our best effort not to harm those not involved, unfortunately, a tragic mistake happened last night. We are investigating the case.

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FOSTER: Condemnation from around the world has been swift, with protests in a number of cities. U.N. agencies, aid groups and several governments are calling on Israel to respect last week's ruling by the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel to immediately halt its offensive in Rafah. All this comes as Spain, Ireland and Norway each plan to make a formal declaration today recognizing a Palestinian state.

A White House official called the Rafah strike heartbreaking, adding the U.S. is actively engaging with Israeli officials to determine what happened. In a statement, a National Security Council spokesperson said, in part: Israel has a right to go after Hamas and we understand this strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists, but Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians.

Nada is here with us now. I mean, they're pointing to this fuel tank that was there. Surely that should have been part of the intelligence gathering beforehand.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is certainly what we're hearing from many humanitarian organizations. This was an area known to be housing thousands of civilians in these tents. It is densely populated and, crucially, this was a safe zone.

This wasn't one of the areas in Rafah that the Israeli military had previously ordered to evacuate to Gaza's coast. So there should have been a focus on the civilian impact here. Clearly, that was not the case.

And this has drawn fierce criticism from members of the international community, including, in particular, the United Nations. We've heard from the U.N. Secretary General, Antonio Guterres. He not only condemned Israel's actions, but also reiterated there is no safe place in Gaza. He added this horror must stop.

And, of course, following that statement that we just heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing this, in his words, as a tragic mistake.

We had this statement from the U.N.'s humanitarian affairs chief, Martin Griffiths, saying: Whether the attack was a war crime, in his words, or, quote, a tragic mistake for the people of Gaza, there is no debate what happened last night was the latest and possibly most cruel abomination. And that to call it a mistake, as Netanyahu did, means nothing for those killed and grieving.

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Now, of course, we are expecting to see later today an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, where we are expecting further condemnation and growing pressure for Israel to halt its actions in Rafah, as was ordered by the International Court of Justice.

FOSTER: Because there have been several of these mistakes, and the more often they happen, the less they -- the more they question, you know, whether or not there is a criminal case to answer. In terms of these key European countries now recognizing a Palestinian state, where are we with that?

BASHIR: We are expecting Spain, Ireland and Norway to formally recognize the state of Palestine. They'll be joining 140 other countries in doing so, and we've heard from the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, who said that his intention in doing this is to achieve lasting peace, in his words, between the Israelis and Palestinians. Take a listen.

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PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER: At the meeting of the Council of Ministers that will be held today, the Government of Spain will approve the official recognition of Palestine as a state. With this decision, Spain joins the more than 140 countries that already recognize Palestine. This is a historic decision that has a single goal, to contribute to achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

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BASHIR: Now Sanchez went on to say that the state of Palestine must be viable with the West Bank and Gaza connected by a corridor, and with East Jerusalem as its capital. But the question around the viability of a Palestinian state has really become a point of focus, because when we're talking about the occupied West Bank, what we have seen in practical terms is the erosion of that framework, particularly as well, as international -- as members of the international community continue to push not only for a ceasefire, but for a lasting two-state solution. And what we've seen over the course of the war, over the course of more than seven months now, is the expansion of these illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which essentially is eroding any framework for a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank.

In fact, in March we heard from Israel's far-right finance minister announcing the further seizure of land in the occupied West Bank. So there are real questions as to whether this can actually be viable, regardless of the recognition by these nations of the state of Palestine. FOSTER: OK, Nada, thank you so much.

47 million people across the U.S. are bracing for severe weather today after a weekend of deadly storm systems and tornadoes. Parts of Texas run the risk of harsh storms in the coming hours, in addition to flood warnings, excessive heat warnings and heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service.

It comes after a weekend of more than 600 storm reports and more than 100 tornado warnings. You can clearly see the funnel cloud in this video, taken in Missouri on Sunday, the busiest severe weather day of the year so far.

Ed Lavandera spoke with Texas residents who survived a tornado, now faced with cleaning up what they have left and what the storm left behind.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Across 20 states, there were more than 630 locations reporting storm damage on Sunday, making it the busiest severe weather day of the year.

In Texas, seven people were killed when a tornado ripped through this subdivision near the small city of Valleyview. Benito Esparza raced here Saturday night to help his brother's family. The family was inside their home when the tornado, packing 135-mile-per-hour winds, catapulted them more than 100 yards away.

LAVANDERA: He says he's really tried to control his emotions.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): His brother survived, but his sister-in-law, Laura, and their two children, Miranda and Marco, were killed.

LAVANDERA: This is the remnants of his brother's family's home. This is where they ended up, and his brother was left over in this debris over here, and his sister-in-law, the three of them were already dead. And he took his brother, loaded him up into his truck, and drove him out of this neighborhood to get him to the hospital.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): In Arkansas, eight people were killed by the violent storms. In the town of Rogers, Tony and Landon Roberts grabbed their two children and raced for cover as a tornado took aim at their home.

TONY AND LANDON ROBERTS, ROGERS, ARKANSAS RESIDENTS: Tried to make it to the hallway. That's the most central part of our house, and that's when we realized we didn't have a roof. There was water and debris coming through the attic fan.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The common theme of all these storms from Texas to Kentucky is the near brushes with death and injury, residents escaping with harrowing stories of survival.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me and my wife and our 4-month-old, we hopped in the tub, and it just sounded like a train. LISA ARNDT, MEHIVILLE, MISSOURI RESIDENT: All of a sudden, my husband screamed, Run! And we grabbed the dog and ran down to the basement, but before that, I saw the water swirling around and hitting our window.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right in there.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Back in Valley View, Texas, Frank Garcia's father built this cinder block storm shelter by hand. They ran inside as the tornado approached.

LAVANDERA: And you could feel the tornado hit.

FRANK GARCIA, VALLEY VIEW, TEXAS RESIDENT: And then out of nowhere, you just hear the wind start wailing hard. And at that point, we knew that we were going to have some damage.

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I mean, for sure, but I don't think I realized, you know, the whole magnitude of everything until you start walking out.

LAVANDERA: Pretty terrifying?

GARCIA: Definitely going to leave a scar in this town for a bit.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): When they saw the shattered remnants of their home after the storm, they knew the shelter saved their lives.

LAVANDERA: So now thousands of people are left cleaning up the pieces. This was the home of Mike Gonzalez. He was inside that home when the tornado struck here in Texas. He survived, was able to walk out with his wife. But soon, the destruction like this will look like this. And that is what many residents here have done, simply bulldozed everything in piles and burned it here in pits. That is what the cleanup process is looking like right now.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, in Cook County, Texas.

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FOSTER: Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate a remote region in Papua New Guinea, where a massive landslide is feared to have buried more than 2,000 people. Officials say the area remains unstable, with huge rocks and debris still falling four days after the initial landslide, which was on Friday. Those conditions are making recovery efforts more dangerous as crews struggle to reach the area.

For more, let's go to CNN's Anna Coren, live in Hong Kong. So the rescue efforts, I mean, they're limited anyway, aren't they? Because they haven't got the kit they need, and now they're being asked to pull out altogether.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Max. And the reason being is that this landslide, even though it's four days old, it is active and growing. So the Defense Forces of Papua New Guinea have been brought in to evacuate more than 7,000 people due to the threat of life.

They already believe that more than 2,000 people have been buried. You know, this village, it was densely populated. It is in an isolated rural part of the highlands in the north of Papua New Guinea.

But there were shops there, more than 100 homes, a church, a school, a gas station, and a highway going straight through this village. Considered the lifeline of this region. Well, that has now all disappeared.

That highway has been completely buried. And this is a huge problem for officials in the region. It has cut off further communities, and they're going to have real problems getting aid to them.

We understand that there is aid trickling in from the U.N., NGOs, Australia and New Zealand. They're also sending in technical experts in engineering to help with this disaster. But we spoke to one UN official a few hours ago, Max, and he said this is a community that is still very much in shock.

Take a listen.

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MATE BAGOSSY, UNDP HUMANITARIAN COORDINATION SPECIALIST: We talked to a lot of the population members, affected communities. They are in total shock, understandably so. And they are mourning, they are dead, and they are looking forward to receive some assistance, which is already coming.

But I think the main question is, right now, the population is caught between the trauma of what just happened and the uncertainty about the longer-term future.

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COREN: Max, only six bodies have been recovered, which is staggering, and I think we look at the, you know, videos and the pictures of the scene, and I think the scale of the disaster is hard for us to fathom. You're talking about nine hectares, that's 90,000 square meters, covered in this earth, this rock and debris. Some of the boulders, Max, have been described the size of shipping containers. That is what these emergency workers and villagers are having to deal with.

FOSTER: Anna, in Hong Kong, thank you.

Still to come, a billion dollars in new military aid could soon be on its way to Ukraine as President Zelenskyy secures a much-needed deal with Spain.

Plus, controversy at the Vatican, where two Italian newspapers report the Pope used an anti-gay slur during a recent meeting.

And later, a tennis titan makes an early exit from the tournament he loves the most.

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FOSTER: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Brussels this hour. He just signed a new security deal with the Belgian Prime Minister for more than a billion dollars in military aid this year. It includes 30 F-16 fighter jets, tanks, military training with the promise of more aid over the next decade. President Zelenskyy thanked Belgium for its unwavering and long-lasting support for Ukraine.

Spain is also promising Ukraine more than a billion dollars in new military aid, including air defenses, a top priority for President Zelenskyy. He was in Madrid on Monday to sign a new security deal with the Spanish Prime Minister.

CNN's Melissa Bell has the details.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Spain has become the 10th country to sign a bilateral aid deal with Ukraine, pledging a billion euros worth of extra military spend. This after the G7 had called for Western allies to strike just these kinds of deals. This particular aid package likely to focus very much on the air defense systems that President Zelenskyy's been so desperately calling for, even as Russia has upped its attacks on civilian infrastructure over the course of the last few days in and around the city of Kharkiv.

We saw, of course, on Thursday, a series of attacks that led to the ruining of a printing press. On Saturday, it was a hardware store, with many hundreds feared to have been in and around the building when the strike took place. The death toll continuing to rise on Monday, even as Ukrainian officials say they've only sifted through a small part of the rubble that now remains.

Those assaults on civilian infrastructure coming even as Russian forces continue to press their advantage militarily.

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The Ukrainians say they've seen over the course of 24 hours no fewer than 15 strikes on the front lines of Kharkiv region, a reminder of Russia's aim of continuing to pile pressure on that new northern front.

President Zelenskyy urgently asking for Western help and increased help with his air defenses. We've also been hearing from President Macron speaking in Dresden as part of a three-day state visit and calling for peace and the unity of Europeans in continuing to back Ukraine at what many consider could be a crucial turning point in Moscow's favor.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: Protesters in Taiwan trying to stop a controversial bill that could force the government closer to China. We're live in the region for you.

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FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. Here are some of today's top stories.

Closing arguments in the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. President will begin in just a few hours. The jury in Donald Trump's hush money trial will then retire to consider a verdict. If found guilty, Trump could face up to 20 years in prison.

Cyclone Remal has killed at least 17 people in India and Bangladesh. The storm hit West Bengal in India, where low-lying areas were flooded after the storm dumped several inches of rain. Powerful winds downed trees and power lines. Millions are still without electricity and mobile phone service.

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