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Georgia Appeals Court Disqualifies Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis from Prosecuting Trump; CEO Murder Suspect Waives Extradition, Will Be Taken to New York; Lawmakers Have Less Than Two Days to Avoid Government Shutdown. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 19, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You are live in the CNN newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin this hour with breaking news just into CNN. The Georgia prosecutor leading the state's election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump is now disqualified.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is here with more. Katelyn, what can you tell us about this? This is just coming in. In the last several minutes. This is a big development.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: A big development and a big development that Donald Trump has wanted for a long time. That case against him in Georgia, the criminal case, where it's accusing him and several others of a racketeering conspiracy related to the 2020 election, it's already been paused. Now, it's not even backburner. This is a case that will be dead in the water because the Georgia court of appeals is now saying that Fani Willis, the leader of the prosecution against Donald Trump, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, she should be disqualified from being able to bring that case.

The Georgia Court of Appeals is saying that it's a significant appearance of impropriety caused by the conduct of a public prosecutor. That is Willis, how she behaved, how she was speaking about the case, about Trump publicly, about how she was having a relationship with the top prosecutor that was concealed in this, a man named Nathan Wade, all of that.

Previously, the trial level judge had looked at and said, Fani Willis can stay on this case. We're not dismissing the indictment, but the court of appeals is now taking another look and saying, no, the trial judge was wrong. Fani Willis should be disqualified from continuing to lead this case.

It would be a long process, or it will be a long process to replace her, which is why I say this case is dead in the water now without Fani Willis, the person who was leading this case against Donald Trump in Fulton County. And just to keep tabs on how many cases there are against Donald Trump criminally, the other two in federal court, January 6th and classified documents, those are dismissed. And then the additional case in New York City, where he was set to be sentenced, that sentencing is now not happening.

So, as Donald Trump enters the presidency, each of these courts that is handling a criminal case is essentially removing that issue from him to have to deal with in any period of time in the near future.

ACOSTA: All right. Katelyn Polantz, yes, thanks for that added perspective.

Let me bring in CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. Elie, what can you tell us about this case down in Georgia, the Fulton County case, alleging election subversion against Donald Trump and a whole cadre of other co-defendants Katelyn Polantz was saying that potentially this case is just completely dead now? Is that the case? Is it completely dead? Or is it possible you could have another prosecutor come in and take it over?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Jim, for all practical purposes, it's over. This case was already in deep trouble because of the conduct of the district attorney, Fani Willis, and now it's all but over.

So, just to remind people, this is one of the four criminal indictments that had been brought against Donald Trump, the allegations that Fani Willis made here and the Fulton County D.A.'s office made here related to Donald Trump's effort to subvert the 2020 election. There are many other defendants beyond Donald Trump in this case.

Now, during the pre-trial process, Donald Trump and some of his codefendants alleged that the D.A., Fani Willis, had a conflict of interest. She had a relationship, which she later admitted, with Nathan Wade, a person who had been brought in from the outside to be the lead prosecutor on this case.

There were a series of televised hearings on this issue last year, during which Fani Willis and Nathan Wade both testified, yes, we had this relationship, but it didn't start until after Nathan Wade became the lead prosecutor.

And then with regard to the allegation that their finances had been intermingled, because Nathan Wade was being paid a lot of money to work on this case, the testimony was essentially that they split the costs on everything and they did it all by cash.

[10:05:02]

Well, the trial judge here found that there were significant questions about the truthfulness of Fani Willis' testimony. The trial judge said, quote, the odor of mendacity remains around this case. He said, there's real questions about whether her testimony was untruthful, that's a quote, untruthful from the trial judge. But nonetheless, the trial judge said, well, we can solve this if Nathan Wade leaves the case. And that's what ended up happening. But, clearly, the court of appeals has now decided that's not sufficient. They lay substantial blame at the feet of the elected district attorney, Fani Willis.

And now, as a result, this case, it's not quite dismissed, but it means that Fani Willis and her office will be disqualified from handling it. And as a practical matter, it now goes into a sort of purgatory for an undefined amount of time. It's not coming back. It's over.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Elie, I guess that this begs the question, had Fani Willis stepped aside sooner when all of these questions were being raised when there was all of that controversy, we all covered this, had she stepped aside sooner, handed this off to somebody else, is it possible that we would not be at this point, that that case could still be alive?

HONIG: There are a lot of things Fani Willis could have done differently, I think, to avoid this ruling. Number one, she could have stepped aside way earlier, as you said. Number two, obviously, I mean, she has acknowledged it was a mistake to have an affair with the lead prosecutor on the case, have a relationship with the lead prosecutor on this case.

And separately, and I'm looking to see if this is in the opinion, I believe it is, because I know it's one of the issues that was briefed to the Georgia Court of Appeals, the D.A. made statements outside of court that the trial judge found were, quote, legally improper. For example, she went in front of a church while this case was pending, and she said, essentially, the reason these defendants have brought these motions, standard legal motions, is because they're playing the race card.

And the defendants, Donald Trump and other defense lawyers, argued that that violated the responsibilities and ethics of a prosecutor. And the trial judge, oddly, said those statements that Fani Willis made out of court were, quote, legally improper, and then he did nothing about it. He said essentially too bad, there's no remedy.

So, still going through this court of appeals opinion, I'm interested to see if they also opine on that as well.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Elie, I mean, we should remind our viewers, this is the case during which Donald Trump submitted himself to the Fulton County jail for a mugshot, I mean, that infamous mugshot that is going to be remembered by so many of us for a very, very long time. But for all intents and purposes, he is not going to be -- he's not going to have his day in court to defend himself against these charges that were coming out of Fulton County, which, I mean, to refresh our memories, but Elie, these were very serious charges when they first came out.

HONIG: Yes. So, these charges came out, Jim, in the summer, August of 2023 and it was actually the fourth of the four indictments to drop. And what this case charges is that Donald Trump and I believe 18 others, I think there was 19 total defendants, including people like Jeffrey Clark, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and others, were part of what's called the racketeering enterprise. It was a state level, Georgia state level racketeering charge, which essentially charged that Donald Trump was at the head of this organization that existed in order to try to overturn and steal the 2020 election.

The allegations that the D.A. made largely overlap with the allegations that Jack Smith made in his federal case in Washington, D.C. That's already been dismissed on a different basis. Let's remember, just to try to keep this all straight, the two Jack Smith federal cases have both been dismissed voluntarily by Jack Smith, because now that Donald Trump's been reelected, Jack Smith acknowledges he cannot proceed with the prosecution.

There was a bit of a separate question about the two state cases. They're still arguing over whether the Manhattan hush money case can proceed to sentencing. That's ongoing. And then this is the fourth case. This is the Georgia state level case. And for now, it's not even going to matter what Trump's status is as president-elect. For now, the court of appeals has basically taken this whole case off the track. Separately, by the way, they're not going to be able to proceed once Donald Trump gets sworn in on January 20th. So, this case was going down the tubes either way, but I guess this expedites it.

ACOSTA: Yes, it's going down the tubes pretty quickly here, Elie, no question about it.

Let me bring in Paula Reid. Paula, you've been following all of these cases as well. And time and again, it seems Donald Trump is escaping his day in court, reaching a final conclusion, a judgment in any of these cases. It's kind of extraordinary.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It's incredible, Jim. I remember two years ago and speaking with Trump's lawyers when it wasn't clear if Trump would be facing a federal charges. They told me that they were most concerned about what was going on in Georgia because, of course, a state level case is outside the scope of a presidential pardon. They said that was a case at that time that concerned them the most. And as you and Elie were just talking about at the beginning of this year, then former President Trump, he was facing four criminal cases.

And, of course, he was tried and convicted in New York in the so- called hush money case. But as of now, it's unclear if he'll ever be sentenced in that case.

[10:10:00]

We're currently waiting for the judge, Judge Juan Merchan, to rule on a motion to dismiss another effort by the Trump team to try to get that conviction tossed based on the fact that he's president-elect.

We know the two very serious federal cases that Trump was facing are now going to be dismissed, or have been dismissed. And then, of course, the only other outstanding question, was this case in court? I'm going to talk to you a little bit more about what's going on with the case down in Georgia.

Now, once the case was filed, a lot of legal experts and my sources on the Trump legal team said this was an unusual way a RICO case to pursue this kind of matter and they were confident that eventually they could beat it in court, but here, doesn't even look like they'll have to ever do that, because here, the D.A., Fani Willis, being disqualified. So, it truly extraordinary victory for the Trump legal team's crusade over the past two years to just delay, delay on behalf of their client in the hopes that he would be reelected.

Now, he is a convicted felon. He was convicted of 34 counts in Manhattan earlier this year. But as I said, it's unclear if he'll ever even be sentenced on those charges.

ACOSTA: All right. Hard to keep them all, I guess, in order, but you've both done it beautifully. Elie and Paula, thank you both very much. Elie, I think you're going to stay with us because we have more breaking news.

Just minutes ago in a Pennsylvania courtroom, murder suspect Luigi Mangione waived extradition. He is now expected to be taken back to New York to face charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. This week, a Manhattan grand jury indicted Mangione on 11 charges, including first-degree murder and murder as an act of terrorism. And sources tell CNN that he will also face federal charges.

Let's get right to that story. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is outside a New York courthouse where Mangione could appear in a little while from now, and Danny Freeman is outside the Pennsylvania courthouse. He just left that hearing.

Danny, what can you tell us? What did you see?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure thing, Jim. I just stepped out of court just a few moments ago. This hearing pretty much went as we expected. It was a little less than an hour-and-a-half. And that headline that you noted there, Jim, at the top is that Luigi Mangione has officially and formally waived extradition. The expectation is that he will be heading back to New York.

And I'll just note one of the things to come out specifically in open court on the record is that he will not be and he will be returning to the state correctional institution that he has been for the past two weeks since he was apprehended not too far from here at that McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Jim, I'll give you just a little bit of color from what we saw inside. We saw Luigi Mangione. You, I believe, saw the footage of him being taken into the courthouse in an orange jumpsuit. He was clean shaven today. There was no outburst as he was walking in, like we saw last week. And when he was in the courtroom, he did speak only a little bit, but it was really just yeses and nos, making sure that he understood what the judge was saying when essentially he was waiving this extradition process. One of the things I'll note, Jim, is, again, I was in court with him the first time in the same building over a week ago, and that first time, this is before the outburst, he seemed pretty frazzled. He seemed very, very uncomfortable where he was when he was here. Today was a very different appearance and look from Luigi Mangione. He seemed calm during much of this hearing.

A lot of the proceedings that we saw was actually a lot of waiting. There was basically a lot of the defense attorney here in Pennsylvania and the D.A.'s office working out paperwork for a good hour or so. And Luigi Mangione was sitting at the desk by himself at the defendant's table just waiting. He was smiling at times. He was chatting at times with some of the sheriff's deputies as well, but mostly and his head down, reading and writing on some of the papers that he had in front of him.

But, again, the word that came to my mind when watching him again in contrast to that outburst, and the first night I saw him in court, was he seemed calm today.

And then the other thing I'll note, Jim, is that the judge was very clear. He said to Luigi Mangione and his defense attorney, Tom Dickey, who we've seen on our air over the course of the past two weeks, he said, do you understand this right that you're waiving this? And you understand that you're waiving this extradition? And his attorney turned to Luigi Mangione and said, is that what you want to do? Luigi Mangione said very clearly, yes.

So, that is the process right now. All the paperwork has been signed. And I'll tell you from inside the courtroom, it was a small courtroom, the majority of people who were in that courtroom were media. But in the first row of the courtroom, Jim, there was a line of NYPD officers clearly ready to take Luigi Mangione.

And that's really what brings us to where I am right now. We're at the courthouse. We're on the back side of the courthouse where we've seen Luigi Mangione come in every time. This is basically where we're expecting to see him exit this time again. But this man you're looking at, we believe, has New York plates, so he may be on his way to New York in a short amount of time now that he is officially and formally waived extradition, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Danny Freeman in the right spot, when all of this happens, Danny, keep us posted on anything that develops on your end.

[10:15:05]

We appreciate it.

Shimon, what happens next on your end?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, the NYPD Those officers that Danny was just talking about, have to take him into custody. So, we've been seeing him in that orange jumpsuit. That's going to go away. I assume his attorneys have brought him a change of clothes. We're seeing a very different Luigi Mangione and his appearance, as Danny has described, So, I think we're going to be seeing even another side, a different side of Luigi Mangione when he appears here at some point.

We do think he will be making his way to New York City. We have been told that he will be flown here. Where he's going to be flown to his unclear. You know, this is all moving very quickly and really just an unprecedented process here too, in which the NYPD is doing this by flying him here. And then we expect now that at some point he will appear at a Manhattan court to face a judge on the indictment of murder one and murder two and the other charges.

We expect to see his New York lawyers here when he makes that appearance. They will have a conversation with him. And then he will ultimately plead. And then we will see where that goes and then the process begins.

The thing that I want to point out here is we will get perhaps maybe some indications during the court proceeding if where this defense is going, are they ready at this point to say that they want to -- want a psych examination of Luigi Mangione, his defense attorneys. Are they at a point where perhaps -- so all of that. So, that's what's going to be happening here today.

ACOSTA: Okay. All right, and, Shimon, I don't mean to cut you off there. I know you're trying to finish the plot, but I do want to note to our viewers something that they're seeing on screen now that you may not be able to see on screen where you are Shimon, and that is, it looks like, and the control room, feel free to chime into my ear, correct me if I'm saying this incorrectly. That is Luigi Mangione. He has just been loaded into the back of this police SUV, and he is now being driven off out of that courthouse in Pennsylvania. That is just happening now. It is happening as you're watching it.

The suspect in the murder of Brian Thompson, the healthcare CEO at UnitedHealthcare, that is Luigi Mangione right now in the back of that police SUV presumably on his way back to New York, as he has just waived his right to, I guess, protesting extradition. And he is now going to be extradited to the state of New York. And so you're watching that unfold as we speak.

Danny Freeman, if you're still there. Danny, what can you tell us? What are you seeing?

FREEMAN: Yes, Jim. I'll just say that you can see on your screens right now, this is the New York plates, black SUV. We just saw Luigi Mangione get into the back seat. And you can see with the help of some local officials, including Pennsylvania State Police, they are taking Luigi Mangione away from the courthouse, presumably to be now on his way to New York.

I got to say, I am pretty stunned that this happened as quickly as it did. I mean, it was only a few moments ago, Jim, that we were inside of that courthouse and that extradition waiver was officially signed by the judge, by Luigi, by his attorney and approved by the D.A.'s office as well. And, again, only a matter of minutes, less than a half hour after that, there he was getting into that black SUV with New York plates on his way, presumably back to New York to face these much more serious murder charges that we've been talking about for the better part of the past a couple of days or so.

And I'll just tell you, I mean, this is a, this is an alley that is not used to this much media presence. You can see the roads have been closed off, but there are also you can see down the street, Jim, there are people who are just there to watch this process play out, ordinary people watching Luigi Mangione be extradited back to New York.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Danny, you were watching all of this while I was talking to Shimon a few moments ago. Did he have any kind of an outburst as he was coming out of the courthouse like we saw the other day, or this was pretty much getting into the back of that SUV and off he went?

FREEMAN: No. Amazingly, Jim, as you saw, it was basically as we did, it was quiet. It was without fanfare, and it was very, very different, as you noted, from that outburst the other day. And that really has been a lot of what we've seen over this -- over the course of the past morning during this court appearance is a common --

ACOSTA: All right, very good. I think we might have just lost your audio there, Danny. But in the meantime, Danny and Shimon, thank you very much.

Again, you're looking at video right now from moments ago. That is Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO. He is being loaded into the back of this police SUV.

[10:20:01]

This just happened several minutes ago in Pennsylvania. And as Danny was just saying a few moments ago, not the same kind of scene that we saw, what was it, about a week ago, when he was having that outburst almost in the same exact spot when he was taken into custody.

So, a very different scene, Luigi Mangione now heading back to New York to face charges for that murder of Brian Thompson. We're going to stay on top of that, all the other breaking news out of Fulton County.

And, of course, right now, lawmakers are scrambling for a backup plan up on Capitol Hill to keep the government funded past tomorrow after Donald Trump and Elon Musk pressured Republicans to scuttle a spending deal. The latest efforts to avert a government shutdown, that's next.

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[10:25:00]

ACOSTA: Right now, lawmakers up on Capitol Hill are racing against the clock to reach a new deal to avoid a government shutdown. They now have less than two days left to meet a deadline. At the end of Friday at midnight, there was a bipartisan deal in place, but President-elect Donald Trump scrapped the agreement less than 24 hours after it was revealed. That move has left congressional leaders scrambling to find a plan B.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, are you frustrated with the president-elect?

SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): I'm frustrated with his team to not have engaged sooner than this.

REP. ANDY HARRIS (R-MD): I think the speaker could have handled this differently. At this point, I'm still supportive of the speaker, but I will tell you that voices both inside the House Freedom Caucus and outside the Freedom Caucus have been very disappointed at what's happened this week.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Well, at this point, there is no other deal and this compromise, this bipartisan compromise, I think, was sensible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN's Manu Raju is up on Capitol Hill for us. Manu, I guess there's another elephant in the room, and that is Elon Musk was also whipping up a lot of opposition to this legislation, something we really haven't experienced before, to have a tech CEO, somebody who owns X, doing what he did yesterday, but it appears to have pulled the rug out from under this deal, along with Donald Trump raising opposition to all this. What's happening now?

RAJU: Yes. This is crisis time once again in Washington, frantic round of negotiations that are happening in the speaker's office at the moment, all trying to meet Donald Trump's demands, try to figure out a way out of a crippling -- potentially crippling government shutdown that could be prolonged if they cannot figure out a way out of this, and try to get the votes because the fact is the Democrats still control the Senate. They still control the White House and they had a deal as of middle of this week that came out, Johnson cut a deal with the White House, with congressional leaders, to keep the government open until mid-March. It had a whole host of other provisions.

But because of the opposition of Elon Musk and those late demands by Donald Trump, that has upended everything, now trying to figure out how to move ahead.

Now, Donald Trump's late demand to include the toxic fight of increasing the national debt limit has only complicated things further. Remember, a debt default probably wouldn't happen until middle of next year, but Trump is now signaling he doesn't want to deal with that in his term. He wants to deal with it now. So, now they're trying to appease Donald Trump, appease Republicans, and try to figure out if Democrats could go along. And Democrats are signaling they're in absolutely no mood to negotiate.

Now, I caught up with the number two House Republican, Steve Scalise, as he was leaving the speaker's office last night after a round of negotiations, and I asked him about Trump's demand to raise the national debt limit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Is the debt limit going to be part of this?

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): We're not there yet. We're still having conversations with our members, with a lot of other folks too, just to make sure that everybody's on the same page. But we are still talking about some good ideas that will address some of the issues I want to raise today.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

RAJU: So, quite a side race with the president-elect. He came out and this is a deal that you guys cut, and the president-elect is --

SCALISE: We're working with he and the vice president to address some of the -- he wants to start the process on his own footing and we want him to as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And there's just a lot of questions and finger-pointing about how the speaker of the House and the president-elect could not be on the same page on something so consequential, why Trump came out at the last minute to scuttle this deal that Democrats and Republicans had really not heard much of Donald Trump weigh in on until just last night?

And Democrats right now are huddling, Jim, behind closed doors trying to figure out their strategy, because their votes will be needed, not just in the Senate, but also in the House. And Hakeem Jeffries is telling his members they're in no mood to negotiate. They're in no mood to bail out Speaker Johnson. And they're making a plea for unity here. And Johnson yet hasn't yet to engage with Jeffries on all this.

So, huge questions on what remains, and time is ticking, 11:59 P.M. tomorrow. That's the deadline to avoid a government shutdown.

ACOSTA: Yes, we have it up on screen right now, 37 hours, 31 minutes and 15 seconds. The clock is ticking and this chaos that you mentioned, Manu, just a sneak preview, I suspect, of coming attractions.

Manu Raju up on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California. She also serves on the House Budget and Appropriations Committee. Congresswoman, thank you very much for joining us.

So, what does Congress do now?

REP. BARBARA LEE (D-CA): Well, first, let's put this in context. This was a bipartisan agreed upon deal to move forward and keep the government open until March. It is really very clear to me that a non- elected billionaire, Elon Musk, has weighed in now and has put forth a message on Twitter from his phone that it's okay to shut the government down and --