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Special Counsel Files Revamped Indictment Against Trump; Georgia Voters Focus on Economy, Reproductive Rights; Palestinian Health Ministry: At Least 9 Killed During IDF Operations; Israeli Hostage Rescued. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 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: It's rewritten the charges against Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This case is probably headed back to the Supreme Court.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israeli hostage Farhan Al-Qadi is taking his first steps of freedom. Al-Qadi was rescued by Israeli special forces who were combing through a network of tunnels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't have a voice unless you use it. It's about being seen and being heard.

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

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Wednesday, August 28th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington, where the U.S. Justice Department is keeping the election subversion case alive against Donald Trump.

FOSTER: Special counsel Jack Smith filed a slimmer indictment against the former president for his involvement in the January 6th insurrection that he's betting will hold up to the Supreme Court's divisive ruling on presidential immunity last month, which granted Trump sweeping protections.

MACFARLANE: Trump is by no means off the hook for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The shorter document still charges him with the same four felony counts that he faced before, which include conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction.

FOSTER: But it removes key parts of the original, including allegations Trump tried to weaponize the Department of Justice and references to co-conspirator for Jeffrey Clark, a Trump appointee to the DOJ who embraced the lies about voter fraud, as well as Trump's conversations with White House officials, because it's believed these actions could now be deemed official and therefore protected under presidential immunity.

MACFARLANE: Earlier, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told CBS News that she's concerned about that immunity ruling.

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KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: I was concerned about a system that appeared to provide immunity for one individual under one set of circumstances, when we have a criminal justice system that had ordinarily treated everyone the same.

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MACFARLANE: Trump has slammed the new indictment, saying it was filed too close to the November vote. He called it election interference and said all of these Comrade Kamala/Biden hoaxes should be immediately dismissed. CNN's Katelyn Polantz picks up the story.

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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: The Justice Department has rewritten the charges against Donald Trump related to the 2020 election, focusing around his role as a candidate as he tried to spread lies of election fraud. So this is the case that's existed for a year in federal court in Washington, DC, and was on hold as the Supreme Court looked at questions of presidential immunity. They said that Trump couldn't be prosecuted or taken to trial on things he was doing while he was president officially after the election, while he was still serving, even on January 6th.

And so the Justice Department has now responded by going to the federal grand jury in Washington and cutting down the charges against him. They've cut out things like what Donald Trump was saying to the Justice Department and officials there about spreading allegations of election fraud across the country. And instead, they are making the focus be about Donald Trump and what he was told by his campaign and what he was telling private advisors of his to do to try and spread this idea of election fraud, especially in battleground states, and to block Congress from certifying his loss of the election.

One of the things, though, that is very important going forward in the coming days, we're going to see a lot of discussion about this is the role of Mike Pence as the vice president. Pence is still in this charging document against Donald Trump, the rewritten pared down version. And Pence is very likely to be a witness both in the coming weeks, in upcoming proceedings that have yet to be scheduled.

And then if the Justice Department is allowed to bring him in as a trial witness before a jury, that's because the Justice Department now says Mike Pence was not always just in the executive branch under the Constitution. He was working for the Congress or he was presiding over Congress as president of the Senate on January 6th. And that's how Trump was trying to pressure him to block the election result.

Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.

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MACFARLANE: Last hour, we asked legal expert Areva Martin, if the case against Trump had been weakened by the revised indictment.

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AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You look at the original indictment, there are about 30 references to the Department of Justice in in this superseding indictment, there are zero references to the Department of Justice.

[04:05:00]

So clearly, the Justice Department, Jack Smith has a very difficult task, moving forward, trying to keep his case alive, given this immunity shield.

FOSTER: Would Trump still be able to use presidential immunity on the basis that he was president?

MARTIN: Absolutely, Max, I think we're going to see this case litigated further. And no matter what determination this trial court makes, we should expect to see this court -- this case relitigated all the way back to the Supreme Court and those six very conservative justices that made this initial determination about presidential immunity, no indication that they would rule any differently. So it's not clear that Jack Smith will ever achieve the desired outcome in terms of holding Donald Trump accountable for the actions of January 6.

MACFARLANE: We heard from Katelyn Polantz there in that report, the importance that Mike Pence, former vice president might play in all of this. I mean, the indictment attempts to reframe Trump's relationship with Mike Pence, emphasizing that he was acting as Trump's running mate. I mean, what do you make of that? And whether or not we will likely see Pence called as a witness?

MARTIN: I think the Justice Department absolutely will want to call Mike Pence again, Mike Pence in his capacity as the president over the Senate as a member of the congressional branch, as opposed to his role as vice president and a part of the executive branch of government. Again, big fight over, you know, what was Mike Pence doing? What capacity was he acting in when he was engaging with Donald Trump over not certifying the vote on January 6 electoral college votes?

Not clear, again, that Jack Smith is going to be able to convince a trial court, an appellate court, and particularly the Supreme Court, that Mike Pence was acting in his capacity as a member of Congress versus as in his capacity as a member of Trump's cabinet.

FOSTER: If Trump wins, he'll be able to get this thrown out, won't he? In the election, it puts a huge amount of pressure on him to, you know, obviously win the election, because this now adds this context, this legal context.

MARTIN: Yes, one thing that's clear is that it's not likely that there will be any trial on the merits of this case before the November election. And if Trump does win, as you said, Max, chances are this case goes away, as will any of the federal cases that have been brought against Donald Trump. He's already made it clear that he is going to, you know, be a dictator on day one. And that includes dictating what the Department of Justice can and cannot do and which cases will survive and which cases will not.

So it's very clear that if he does win, the federal cases are likely to go away. Now, we still have those state charges, particularly in the state of Georgia that are pending against him. We have a state case in New York, those cases, in theory, cannot be dismissed by the President of the United States.

But we can expect that Donald Trump would put tremendous pressure even on those state prosecutors if he is elected president.

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FOSTER (on camera): Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has agreed to her first in-depth on the record interview with a journalist since Joe Biden dropped out for his bid for re-election.

MACFARLANE (on camera): The Vice President and a running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will sit down with CNN on Thursday. Harris has been criticized for going more than a month as Democrat standard without facing the scrutiny that comes from a formal interview with a journalist.

FOSTER: Yes, CNN's Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash, will be asking the questions. You can watch their conversation right here on CNN this Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern, that's 10 a.m. in Tokyo, 3 a.m. in Rome.

Democrats are focusing their efforts this week on the battleground state of Georgia. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz kick off a bus tour today and plan to hold a rally on Thursday in Savannah. It's the first time they've campaigned together in the Peach State, which voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

MACFARLANE: Meanwhile, a source tells CNN Georgia Governor Brian Kemp will help raise money for Trump at an event in Atlanta on Thursday. Until recently, Trump had criticized Kemp for refusing to support his claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

FOSTER: Georgia voters say the economy and reproductive rights are two of the biggest issues there as they cast their ballots for president. CNN's Nick Valencia spoke with residents of a critical bellwether county just north of Atlanta.

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VERONICA KING, GEORGIA DEMOCRATIC VOTER: You could see some on the stage were doing a little bit more -- NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Demure?

KING: Yes.

VALENCIA (voice-over): For Veronica King, the DNC was everything.

KING: I'm texting, I'm like, oh, my gosh, like Lil Jon is coming down.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Sitting under it canopy of trees in Georgia's bellwether of Cobb County, King says she's most excited to see the influence the DNC had on her 19-year-old son. In November, he'll vote for the first time.

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VALENCIA: That makes you excited to see your young son excited.

KING: Yes, yes. And to see people his age want to actually vote and be engaged.

BROOKLYN WATSON, UNDECIDED GEORGIA VOTER: I don't -- I'm not necessarily thinking that it's supposed to be, you know, trendy.

VALENCIA (voice-over): But not every voter here shares that enthusiasm. Twenty- two-year-old Brooklyn Watson voted for Biden in 2020. And although she is leaning Democrat this time around, she says she's still undecided.

WATSON: I don't think I'm looking necessarily for fun. Again, just something that is successfully going to help the economy and the community.

VALENCIA: The enthusiasm from the DNC didn't affect your decision and make you sort of grounded or solidify your vote for Harris?

WATSON: No, not necessarily solidified, but intrigued, yes, to learn more still about her.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Looking at his checking account the last four years is enough for Charles Seamster to have already made up his mind. This November, the Republican said he'll be voting for a better economy, something he thinks Harris cannot deliver.

CHARLES SEAMSTER, REPUBLICAN GEORGIA VOTER: The issues that she talks about now, that's, she's not proven. She's not proven. So, you know, I don't know if she's trusted.

VALENCIA: Do you think Trump is proven?

SEAMSTER: The economy was definitely proven when he was in office.

KATHY SLOUGH, MODERATE DEMOCRATIC GEORGIA VOTER: Her background is phenomenal coming in as a prosecutor, and I think she is for everyone, and in particular the middle-class, and we need diversity. VALENCIA (voice-over): Kathy Slough is the type of Georgia voter that both Harris and Trump are trying to win over. A moderate Democrat, Slough's voted for Republicans in the past, but not this time. She loved the messaging in tone from the vice president at the DNC.

SLOUGH: As a human being and as an individual I think she's looking out for all of us no matter what background.

VALENCIA (voice-over): For the self-described centrist, Mike Wilkinson, the thought of Trump getting a second term is scary. It's also deeply personal.

MIKE WILKINSON, MODERATE DEMOCRATIC GEORGIA VOTER: When the time came for me and my partner at the time to decide about an abortion or not, we chose not to have an abortion. But that was hers and my choice. And there shouldn't be anybody in that room besides the patient and the doctor.

VALENCIA (voice-over): 2020 was decided by less than 12,000 votes. Now that Harris has voters attention here in the Peach State, can she count on getting their votes, too?

VALENCIA: The two big issues on voters' minds here, the economy and a woman's right to choose.

It was interesting to see the mixed reaction among younger voters. I spoke to a group of 20-something-year-olds off camera, all of whom told me they were undecided. But there was one who did tell me that she voted in 2020 for Joe Biden but plans on voting for Donald Trump in 2024 because of the economy.

Another issue that voters are passionate about here, a woman's right to choose. And that's an issue that Vice President Harris could use to pick up some votes in an election that is expected to be close here.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Marietta, Georgia.

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MACFARLANE: Now, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims the Biden administration pressured the social media company to censor some COVID-19-related content during the pandemic. He made the claim in a letter written to the House Judiciary Committee.

FOSTER: In the letter, he says quote: In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree.

MACFARLANE: The White House has responded, saying, At the time, the administration was merely urging the company to be responsible.

In their own statement, they said quote: We believe tech companies should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present. Now, SpaceX is delaying the launch of its Polaris storm mission for at least the next two days because of potential bad weather at splashdown sites off the Florida coast. The mission will carry a four-person team to the highest altitude of any crewed spaceflight since the Apollo program ended more than 50 years ago.

FOSTER: Two crew members will attempt the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens. A helium leak had postponed the initial launch only on Tuesday.

Now, still to come, Israel launched an operation in the West Bank overnight. We'll have the details just ahead.

MACFARLANE: Plus, Ukraine's president says he has a plan to win the war against Russia, but adds that its success largely depends on the U.S.

FOSTER: And later, the Paralympics opening ceremony is in Paris today. And look at how the city's preparing for the event.

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MACFARLANE: At least nine Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank after the Israeli military launched raids and airstrikes overnight. That's according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

FOSTER: The Israeli military says it launched a large counter-terror operation overnight in two refugee camps. Officials say the Israeli military was targeting, quote, Islamic Iranian terrorist infrastructure.

MACFARLANE: CNN's Paula Hancocks is live for us this hour in Abu Dhabi. And Paula, this marks the largest Israeli operation in the West Bank for years. And we understand we are hearing there's been a response from Hamas this hour to what has occurred.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christina and Max, this is certainly a significant operation. We have been seeing for months that there have been these limited operations by the Israeli military into the occupied West Bank. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over recent months since October 7th of last year.

But this is definitely something more significant that we are seeing. Now, we did hear from the governor of Jenin that he said just after midnight. So in the early hours of Wednesday, the Israeli military surrounded the refugee camp and Jenin itself.

He says that he can still hear gunfire ongoing in the area. So it is believed this operation is still going. And he says a third of the city is without electricity at this point.

Now, as you say, we know that nine Palestinians have been killed.

[04:20:00] We hear from the Red Crescent Society, from the Ministry of Health, that those deaths happened from airstrikes, also from strikes on the ground. We hear drones are in the air as well. And when it comes to the Israeli response, so far, we understand there are hundreds, at least hundreds of personnel involved.

We've been told that there are four battalions of the border police alone, including undercover border police. And that doesn't include the military and the intelligence element. So this is a large operation.

Now, one thing I wanted to mention was a tweet we had from the Israeli foreign minister, which was interesting. He gave a reason for this operation, saying that it was to thwart what he called Islamic Iranian terrorist infrastructure, saying that Iran is funding and arming terrorists in the West Bank as trying to create a situation similar to Gaza and Lebanon.

And he said, quote: We must address this threat, just like we're handling terror infrastructure in Gaza, including temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and any step necessary. This is a war like any other, and we must win it.

Now, that is significant. The fact that he's suggesting there could be evacuations in the occupied West Bank, just as there are and have been in Gaza, putting really a connection between those two areas and the potential Israeli reaction to those areas.

Now, we've also heard from the Ministry of Health in the West Bank that at least two hospitals have been blocked by the Israeli military, saying that there have been mounds of dirt, for example, pushed towards those areas. We have seen and obtained video that would back up some of those claims. We've seen some very heavy Israeli military assets in those areas, bulldozers, for example, pushing up infrastructure and pavements and roads in those areas.

And we are still getting information and video coming in, showing the extent of this operation. But what we're hearing from the Israeli side is that they are trying to end the Iranian terrorist infrastructure, as they put it, in this area.

From the Palestinian side and certainly from those in Jenin, one of the key areas that has been targeted, certainly from the governor, they are concerned about access to hospitals, about hundreds within those hospitals itself, given that they're claiming that Israel has restricted all access there.

We heard from the Red Crescent Society as well, saying that their maneuvering of ambulances has been heavily restricted by the Israeli military as well -- Max, Christina.

FOSTER: If this war expands from Gaza to the West Bank, that's obviously a big escalation of that war, isn't it? Does Israel have the resources for that?

HANCOCKS: I mean, I think they certainly have the resources. It would be a significant escalation. The fact that the foreign minister is connecting the two in such a blatant way on X -- formerly known as Twitter -- is significant in itself, mentioning potential evacuation of Palestinian residents, something that we have been seeing for months in Gaza and something we are still seeing, that Gaza residents have been moved.

Sometimes a dozen times from area to area, as the Israeli military tries to clear out civilians, they say, and target Hamas militants that are within that area or tunnels that are within that area.

Now, if that were to be replicated in the West Bank, it would be very significant, very devastating. When you're talking about these refugee camps in Nur Shams, for example, in Jenin, they are densely populated, a very similar situation to what we see in Gaza, where it would be difficult for them to be evacuated.

And of course, there would be a concern if this operation were to be significantly increased by the Israelis, that there would be civilian casualties within that as well. Now, at this point, the Israeli military not specifying how wide this operation is or how long it will go on for. But suffice to say, it is larger than we have seen in some time.

MACFARLANE: Paula, thank you very much.

Just to add to Paula's excellent reporting there, that we have had a response from Hamas in the last hour, calling for a general mobilization and escalation of confrontation in response to the Israeli operations in the West Bank. Although it is hard to see how that retaliation would actually happen, given the scale of what has been occurring in the West Bank, as Paula has outlined there.

[04:25:04]

Meanwhile, the West Bank operation comes one day after the 52-year-old Israeli hostage was rescued in Gaza. Farhan al-Qadi is in a stable medical condition after being held for nearly a year. His brother says he was shot in the leg when he was kidnapped on October 7th, and it appears that the woman was poorly treated and he was operated on without anesthesia.

FOSTER: Al-Qadi spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone, thanking him for getting him home and reminding the Israeli Prime Minister that other hostages are still waiting. CNN's Nic Robertson reports.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): The moments after his rescue, the first to be recovered live from a tunnel, 52-year-old Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, a Muslim Bedouin Israeli, surrounded by Israeli special forces, quickly rushed to a helicopter, much thinner than he was when Hamas snatched him as he guarded a packing facility in a kibbutz near Gaza almost 11 months ago.

His family's agonizing wait almost over, rushing through the hospital to greet his helicopter. Soldiers and medics carefully stretcher-ing him towards doctors and the hospital and his family.

The look on both brothers' faces saying it all, the rescued hostage gaunt but smiling, his elder brother beaming ear to ear.

KHATEM AL-QADI, BROTHER OF FARHAN AL-QADI (through translator): I can't explain these feelings. It's like being born again. God bless and we say thank you to everyone.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The IDF describing the troops involved in his rescue as daring and courageous, saying al-Qadi was found alone without his captors.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, ISRAELI MILITARY SPOKESPERSON: We cannot go into many details of this special operation, but I can share that Israeli commandos rescued Qaid Farhan al-Qadi from an underground tunnel following accurate intelligence.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): At the hospital, the first readout from doctors, al-Qadi is doing well.

PROF. SHLOMI CODISH, CEO, SOROKA MEDICAL CENTER: He appears to be in general good condition but will require another day or two of medical tests to make sure he is still OK.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): In the desert, his Bedouin tribe readying for that moment, home fires lit, traditional coffee brewing, the extended family all coming to celebrate what they and he believe might never happen.

ROBERTSON: Did your brother think he was going to survive?

ABU MOHAMMAD AL-QADI, BROTHER OF FARHAN AL-QADI (through translator): God wrote him another life. He himself doesn't believe that he is back alive. He told me when I saw him that my wish was to see you and say hello to you and then I can die.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): His younger brother telling me al-Qadi and the families road back to full recovery could be a long one.

ABU MOHAMMAD AL-QADI (through translator): It is impossible to erase the memories that he saw there. I personally will not go back to who I was before. I am completely changed.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): As they await al-Qadi's return, they pray. Grateful, they say, no blood was spilt in his rescue, that the war and the suffering may end and all the hostages come home.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Teraphim, Israel.

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MACFARLANE: All right, ahead, Donald Trump talks about voter fraud and world peace during a recent interview and brings religion into the discussion.