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CNN International: Trump Trial Jury Deliberations to Continue Later Today; U.N. Official Says Devastation in Rafah Only Intensifying; Biden Launches Nationwide Effort to Mobilize Black Voters; NATO's Foreign Ministers Meeting in Prague; U.S. Ramps Up Ammunition Production as the War Grinds on in Ukraine. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 30, 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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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After nearly four hours of deliberations, the jury sent in their first note.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nearly two million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in the Gaza Strip, many of them multiple times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No civilian casualties is the right number of civilian casualties.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The threat that Trump poses is greater in his second term than his first. It's clear that when he lost in 2020, something literally snapped in this guy.

(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 Thursday, May the 30th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in New York. Were in several hours. The jury will reconvene for the historic hush money trial of Donald Trump.

Seven men, five women jurors headed by a four-person who grew up in Ireland and their alternates could determine the outcome of the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. Jurors met for more than four and a half hours on Wednesday as deliberations got underway. Before being dismissed, the jury sent notes to the judge asking to hear a readback of critical witness testimony, including from the former National Enquirer chief, David Pecker, and Trump's former fixer, Michael Cohen.

Meanwhile, Trump complained about the witness list outside the courtroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But a lot of key witnesses were not called. Look at your list. Look at the players. And you know who I'm talking about. You can take five or six of them. Why didn't they call those witnesses? They didn't call them because they would have been on our side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the judge didn't ban witnesses, but rather limited the scope of the admissible topics. Jurors also asked to re-hear the judge's instructions about the case and reaching a verdict. CNN's Kara Scannell has further details now from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The historic first criminal trial of a former president and presumptive Republican nominee is now in the hands of a jury.

TRUMP: Mother Teresa could not beat those charges, but we'll see. We'll see how we do.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Twelve Manhattan residents, seven men and five women, deliberating if Donald Trump is guilty of 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in an attempt to influence the 2016 election.

TRUMP: These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged.

SCANNELL (voice-over): After nearly four hours of deliberations, the jury sent in their first note, asking for portions of testimony to be read back from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and former Trump fixer Michael Cohen about a meeting at Trump Tower.

Prosecutors say there was a 2015 meeting there between the two men and Trump, where Pecker allegedly agreed to be the eyes and ears for Trump's campaign and flag any negative stories to Cohen. There were several other meetings there that Pecker and Cohen testified about during the trial.

The testimony will be read back to the jury at the start of deliberations on Thursday. The jury also had a second question before they were dismissed for the day about Judge Juan Merchan's instructions. Earlier, he explained that to find Trump guilty, they must unanimously find that he falsified business records with the intent to violate New York state election law, promoting or preventing the election of a candidate to public office by unlawful means.

The jury does not need to be unanimous about what those unlawful means are. Prosecutors have put forward three theories about how Trump violated election law. A corporate donation or individual contribution exceeding $2,700, falsifying other business records such as Michael Cohen's bank records, and tax law violations.

As it did during his 17 hours of intense testimony and closing arguments, Michael Cohen and his credibility took center stage.

Under our law, Michael Cohen is an accomplice, Judge Merchan said to the jury. Even if you find the testimony of Michael Cohen to be believable, you may not convict the defendant solely upon that testimony unless you also find it's corroborated by other evidence.

[04:05:00]

Cohen, the prosecution's star witness and the only person called who could directly implicate Trump, testified he spoke to Trump twice to get his sign-off just before making payments to Stormy Daniels. He said Trump approved the repayment scheme. Trump's defense painted Cohen as a liar and a thief who could not be trusted, out for revenge on his former boss.

The judge left the jury to deliberate with these parting words.

It is not my responsibility to judge the evidence here. It is yours, Merchan said. You are the judges of the facts, and you are responsible for deciding whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Let's go to criminal defense attorney, former New York prosecutor as well, Bernarda Villalona. Thank you so much for joining us, Bernarda. I mean, first of all, what can we read into the questions that the jury went back to the judge with?

BERNARDA VILLALONA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, these jurors are definitely taking their job seriously, Max. They are definitely looking into the evidence, and as you can see, because of the questions that they posed to this judge, is that they, at least you know that they haven't been able to reach a verdict. But you know that you at least have one person that probably does want to find Donald Trump guilty and another person who wants to find Donald Trump not guilty, or people that are just undecided and need to look at the evidence more. But they're definitely taking the instructions of the judge seriously and the guidance of the prosecutor as it was provided during their closing arguments.

FOSTER: They want to hear, again, the evidence from the former National Enquirer chief and also Trump's former fixer. So what does that tell you about where they are struggling?

VILLALONA: So this is crucial, and you've got to think, this is just the beginning of deliberations. Yesterday was the first time that these 12 jurors were able to speak to one another about the case of what they've been hearing for the last few weeks. And also you've got to think that some of this testimony was at the very beginning.

We're talking about on April 20th, around that time, that David Pecker actually testified. So they need their minds refreshed as to what was actually testified to. So in terms of this initial meeting, I think it's very crucial,

because this is the first time, remember, that Donald Trump, David Pecker, and Michael Cohen are in the same room talking to each other about what this plan is, what this conspiracy is going to be of catching and killing these stories that ultimately led off to the payoff as well as the reimbursement to Michael Cohen.

So it leads me to believe two things. Number one, they're listening to the judge's instructions in terms of accomplished testimony. We know Michael Cohen is an accomplice to this, so they can't just rely on his testimony. They need corroboration, so they're looking for that corroboration. So that's one.

Second, remember that Michael Cohen does have credibility issues. So in order to deal with those credibility issues, the prosecution urged them, look at corroborating testimony. So here, by listening to the testimony of Michael Cohen, what he has to say about that meeting, and listening to the testimony of David Pecker, who was also in that meeting, of what he has to say, they're comparing the testimony of both of them.

But tonight -- this morning, they'll hear that testimony. I assume that there'll probably be another question later on this afternoon, and we'll get a better idea of where this jury stands.

FOSTER: It does show that they're being constructive with each other, doesn't it? The idea that they've honed in on certain questions that they want to discuss, so they're working forwards on something. It's not as if they've reached any sort of deadlock, because if they're in deadlock, we'd probably have different questions, wouldn't we, coming in. They wouldn't be as precise.

VILLALONA: Yes, we're far from that. We're far from that. Well, let me not say we're far from that, because if we have a juror that's on that jury that probably tried to force his way or her way onto the jury, we're having their own ill intentions of reaching a different verdict or a specific verdict, then we just don't know.

But in terms of whether they're deadlocked or not, that's a different process. I think what I want to see this morning, Max, and I was in the courtroom yesterday when that buzzer sounded, it kind of made everybody a bit nervous because it's a loud sound in the courtroom, and you just know that's a message from the jury, that they have a question or a statement that needs to be made in terms of whether they reached a verdict or not, is that I want to know what specific from the jury instructions do they want to hear, because a 55-page jury instruction was read to that.

Do they want to hear the concept of reasonable doubt? Do they want to hear what the law is? Do they want to hear what accomplice instruction is? Do they want to hear about the conspiracy instruction? Because that would give us a better idea of what one person or more than one person is holding on in that role.

FOSTER: OK, Bernarda Villalona, I appreciate your analysis, brilliant as it is every time. Thank you so much. Now to a potential new flashpoint in the war between Israel and Hamas.

It's called the Philadelphia Corridor.

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It's a 14km buffer zone along the border between Egypt and Gaza, and Israel says it's found 20 tunnels that crossed into Egypt, which Hamas has been using to smuggle weapons into Gaza. The IDF says it now has operational control of the area.

Video released by the IDF shows what it says are rocket launchers and other terrorist infrastructure. Egypt denies the tunnels even exist.

Here's more from Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

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REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Hamas took advantage of the Philadelphia Corridor and built these infrastructures a few meters away from the border with Egypt so that we would not attack them. It was in the vicinity of between 10 to 40 meters from the border, so Israel in such way would not attack near the border with Egypt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, Israel's national security adviser is warning the war in Gaza could last another seven months, at least through to the end of this year. That means Rafah likely will not be the final battle against Hamas, as Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace condemned what he called the appalling strike, which killed at least 45 people at a displacement camp in Rafah on Sunday, and he says things will only get worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOR WENNESLAND, U.N. SPECIAL COORDINATOR FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS: Nearly two million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in the Gaza Strip, many of them multiple times, and some 100,000 Israelis have been displaced from communities in Israel's north and south. Agreement on a deal to achieve a ceasefire and secure the release of hostages is blocked, and as Israel rolls out significant ground operations in and around Rafah, the devastation is only intensifying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivering some of his most pointed comments to date on the war in Gaza. He says Israeli leaders must decide if their military campaign is worth the cost in civilian lives. Here's his message to Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It has to ask whether, and especially in the absence of a plan for the day after in Gaza, further incremental gains against Hamas, but gains that may not be durable in terms of Hamas's defeat in the absence of a plan. How that stacks up against some of the, again, unintended but horrific consequences of military action in a place where the people you're going after are so closely embedded with civilians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the Red Crescent says two medics have been killed by Israeli fire in Rafah. CNN's Scott McLean joins us now from Istanbul, and obviously at a time when medics are desperately needed.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right. It also comes at a time when an International Court of Justice ruling has ordered Israel to stop its operation in Rafah, but it carries on. And now the Palestinian Red Crescent says that two medics have been killed while driving an ambulance to pick up injured people and to transport dead bodies inside the city of Rafah.

They say that they came under Israeli fire, and the Red Crescent says that this was a very clearly marked vehicle, and they believe that that Israeli fire was deliberate.

Now, Israel says that it's looking into this, but the IDF offered this explanation so far, saying that a suspicious vehicle approached IDF troops. They say that it raised suspicion and posed a threat to forces that were operating in the area, and says, quote: Accordingly an IDF tank fired toward the vehicle.

The Red Crescent says that these two medics were the 18th and 19th staff members to have been killed since the war began. The U.N. says that more than 250 aid workers have been killed since October the 7th. And earlier this month, Human Rights Watch came out with a report saying that Israel has targeted known locations of aid workers on eight separate occasions -- Max.

FOSTER: And also, obviously you're in Turkey, and Turkey's president has had some pretty harsh words for Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S.

MCLEAN: Yes, what's remarkable here, Max, is if you rewind nine months from now, you would see an image of President Erdogan and Prime Minister Netanyahu actually shaking hands on the sidelines of the United Nations in New York. But since the war has gone on, Erdogan has used increasingly harsh language to describe Israel and its prime minister. He has repeatedly called Israel a terrorist state, compared the prime minister to Hitler, and he's also cut off all trade with Israel until the war is over, a move that, frankly, hurts Turkey more than it hurts Israel.

[04:15:00]

And yesterday he gave this address to the Turkish parliament where he called out the West and also had some of his most creative language to describe Benjamin Netanyahu. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translator): The world is watching the barbarism of a sick man, a maniac, a psychopath, and a blood-feeding vampire called Netanyahu, and they are all watching it on live broadcasts.

Oh, the American state? This blood is on your hands also. You are responsible for this genocide at least as much as Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: Now, Erdogan also said that European leaders were complicit in what he describes as a genocide and also pointed toward Islamic countries for failing to implement the policies that would stop, again, what he describes as Israel's genocide taking place in Gaza. He also called Zionism a, quote, unlawful perversion -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Scott in Istanbul, thank you.

Now, a day after Norway, Ireland and Spain officially recognized a Palestinian state, French President Emmanuel Macron indicated he's willing to do the same. But he says that recognition will only come if the Palestinian Authority makes what he calls necessary reforms. Macron delivered that message on Wednesday in a call with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The French President offered the prospect of recognition and highlighted France's commitment to building a, quote, common vision and security guarantees for Palestinians and Israelis.

Now, satellite images show the floating pier built by the U.S. to help transport aid into Gaza is now almost completely dismantled. It'll undergo repairs for the next week or so after it was damaged in rough seas on Sunday. The pier began operating nearly two weeks ago, but weather conditions forced shipments to stop last week.

Take a look at this incredible scene in Iceland, where for the fifth time since December, a volcano there erupting and spewing lava, which is covering two of the three roads to a nearby town. Ireland's public broadcaster -- Iceland's public broadcaster even, reports that its electricity was cut as a precaution to prevent damage to a power plant if lava reaches high-voltage lines.

Scientists warn the start of this eruption is more vigorous than in previous cases, and authorities have urged residents to evacuate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI TRAUSTI GUDMUNDSSON, GEOPHYSICIST: This is always most powerful in the beginning, but it seems that the fisheries being stretched a little bit further south, that's not a good thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, Iceland's famous tourist destination, a geothermal hotspot, the Blue Lagoon, was evacuated on Wednesday before the volcano actually erupted.

Just ahead, U.S. President Joe Biden tries to win over black voters, whose support has been sliding in the latest polls.

Plus, the balloon battles between North and South Korea are growing more intense. The latest warnings from the region.

And later, Scotty Scheffler out of the rough. Why a judge decided to drop all charges against the world's number one golfer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: U.S. President Joe Biden has launched a nationwide campaign to win over skeptical black voters starting with a rally in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Recent polls show their support for the president is slipping in favor of his Republican opponent, Donald Trump. CNN's Kayla Tausche has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The Biden-Harris campaign seeking something of a reset with black voters, rolling out what it calls a summer of engagement backed by more than $10 million in investment from the campaign.

President Biden told a majority black college in one of these events, kicking off that new effort, that his policies have made them better off in the last four years. And borrowing some new language from campaign memos and ads, he urged them to consider the alternative.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The threat that Trump poses is greater in his second term than his first. It's clear that when he lost in 2020, something literally snapped in this guy. No, I'm serious.

That's why January 6th happened when he unleashed an insurrection. Now, he's running again, and he's clearly unhinged. He calls insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol patriots, patriots. If reelected, he wants to pardon, quote, every one of them. Think about this. What do you think would have happened if Black Americans had stormed the Capitol? I don't think he'd be talking about pardons.

TAUSCHE: The president's aides spent hours fine-tuning some of that language to establish what they see as a sharper contrast between President Biden and his predecessor and now-GOP opponent. Because the worry among advisers and top Democrats is not necessarily that Black voters would vote for Trump. It's simply that they would be so unmoved by either candidate that they would fail to turn out at all.

There's still a very large portion who say they simply don't know. That's one critical reason why the Biden campaign, following the president's speech, held an event to secure voter registration.

Kayla Tausche, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: The last day of campaigning for Mexico's politicians was scarred by a wave of brutal violence against candidates. A warning, this video is difficult to watch.

A mayoral candidate in Guerrero State was gunned down at his final campaign event before Sunday's election.

Video shows Jose Alfredo Cabrera greeting supporters as someone points a pistol at him and fires off several rounds. Cabrera died at the scene.

Violent and sometimes deadly attacks on political candidates have been reported across the country. In recent days, several organizations say this year's election cycle is the most violent in Mexico's recent history.

Now, NATO's foreign ministers are meeting in Prague right now with an eye on their future support for Ukraine. That's happening after Moscow threatened to ramp up its missile production over NATO's growing support for Ukraine's strikes inside Russian territory.

Multiple NATO countries said this week they're OK with Ukraine using weapons supplied by them to hit at least some military targets across the border. The U.S., which gave Kyiv long-range missiles like these, has been opposed to that, but yesterday, the U.S. Secretary of State hinted at a possible shift, saying Washington will adapt and adjust its policies. NATO's Secretary General says he's fully on board with Ukraine's strikes inside Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: According to international law, Ukraine has the right to self-defense, and self-defense includes also the right to strike targets outside Ukraine, including legitimate military targets in Russia.

Some allies have not imposed any restrictions at all. Other allies have, and I have stated that I think now the time has come to reconsider whether it's right to have those restrictions or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, a famous military quote says, infantry wins battles, but logistics win wars. That appears to be the case as well in Ukraine, as NATO estimates that Russia now makes three times more artillery shells than the U.S. and Europe combined. U.S. arms makers are trying to close that gap, and as Oren Liebermann reports, they're helping the US military in the process.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just outside Dallas, Texas, test rounds of artillery ammunition are rolling off a new U.S. production line.

LIEBERMANN: The goal of the U.S. is to produce 100,000 155-millimeter artillery shells like these a month by the end of next year.

[04:25:00]

This facility alone, when it's at full capacity and up and running within the next 12 months, will make nearly a third of that, 30,000 shells a month.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The U.S. has committed more than $51 billion in security aid to Ukraine since the start of the war. The weapons go to Ukraine, but the vast majority of the money comes right back into the U.S. in manufacturing facilities, jobs, and production.

CHRISTINE WORMUTH, U.S. ARMY SECRETARY: I think what we've seen from the lessons learned in Ukraine is that all of us, the United States, our NATO allies need more munitions. We need bigger stockpiles. Conflicts can be more drawn out than we thought.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): And when one weapon from U.S. inventories goes to Ukraine, another, newer weapon, takes its place. Bradley infantry fighting vehicles sent into the thick of the fight will be replaced by the latest models of the armed and armored systems. Counter-battery radars Ukraine has used to defend against incoming fire will make way for newer radar systems.

And ATAKMS missiles that Ukraine has used to strike deep within occupied territory are to be replaced with advanced, longer-range precision strike missiles.

LIEBERMANN: As we send weapons to Ukraine, the U.S. replaces them with either newer variants or newer systems. It is a way of modernizing the US military.

WORMUTH: That's right. I like to say we're not going to replace old with old, we're going to replace old with new. We are modernizing through the support that we're giving to the Ukrainians.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): To feed the Kremlin's war, President Vladimir Putin has placed Russia's economy on a full wartime footing, trying to outproduce the West in what is becoming a grinding war of attrition. Russia spends nearly 7 percent of its GDP on defense, with plans to go even higher, far more than the U.S. or any Western nation. Even if Russian weapons are lower quality, an old military adage says that quantity has a quality of its own.

When Russia burned through its own supply of artillery ammo too quickly, North Korea sent millions of rounds that made their way to the front lines. Iranian Shahed drones have expanded an already deadly Russian arsenal, and the Kremlin wants more. The U.S. effort to produce weapons at the speed of war took precious time to close the gap.

For years, the U.S. relied on decades-old plants like this one in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to make artillery rounds, a World War II-era defense industrial base that suddenly fell far short.

This new artillery plant is part of a surge in weapons production that isn't done yet, with pressure on the U.S. to supply Ukraine's military as it modernizes its own.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): It took two years from start to finish to bring us here, and now we're just in the process of building the munition stockpile that we need, not only to help our allies in Europe and elsewhere, but to deter countries like China and Iran and North Korea.

LIEBERMANN: It's not just artillery ammunition that's being ramped up in terms of its production. The U.S., for example, also wants to produce many more Patriot missiles, 650 a year, up from only 100 now, and that's been a critical munition for Ukraine to withstand Russian aerial assaults. It's not a question of resources, but of political will.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Mesquite, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The verdicts are in for more than a dozen accused of rejecting China's authority over Hong Kong. What kind of sentences the guilty could face? Reaction as well to those verdicts coming next on CNN.

Plus, mixed messages from Donald Trump as he takes the stage with two rap artists with rap sheets whilst campaigning on law and order.

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