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CNN This Morning
Trump Facing 34 Felony Counts in Hush Money Scheme; Progressive Johnson Beats Moderate Vallas For Chicago Mayor; "Large and Extremely Dangerous" Tornado Hits Missouri. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired April 05, 2023 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:30]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good very early morning, everyone.
We have a lot going on. We're glad you're with us.
Let's get started with the five things to know for this Wednesday, April the 5th, 2023.
Donald Trump defiant after pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. During a speech last night, he vowed to fight the charges and railed against the prosecutors and the judge.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'll let that sink in. What you just said. That is a lot.
And look at that. So there's celebration, at least in Chicago. There's a new mayor in the Windy City.
CNN projects that progressive Brandon Johnson has won the runoff in Chicago. He's going to join us live right here on CNN THIS MORNING at eight o'clock hour, 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
A seat change for Wisconsin. CNN projects liberals will now hold the majority on the state Supreme Court. That is a significant flip that could have major implications for abortion rights and future elections.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is set to meet with the president of Taiwan in California today. It's a rare meeting on American soil, and China is already threatening to retaliate.
Also, on the eve of the Masters, Tiger Woods questioning his future at Augusta, telling reporters he, quote, doesn't know how many more he has left in him.
LEMON: Wow.
COLLINS: CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
(MUSIC)
COLLINS: You got to know when you hear a comment like that from Tiger Woods. If you've got Augusta tickets this year, you're really happy.
HARLOW: Yeah, that's the takeaway.
LEMON: Yeah, I was just saying, I feel like Tiger this morning. I don't know how much more I have been --
HARLOW: Don't say that.
LEMON: Five a.m.
HARLOW: Tomorrow, we're back to 6:00 a.m. Tomorrow, we're normal.
LEMON: OK. Well, that's great.
COLLINS: A lot of news is going on, that's why we're starting so early.
LEMON: Yeah, crazy.
COLLINS: Of course. So everything we're talking about, the superseding headline today, Trump is now a criminal defendant.
Just hours after his arrest and arraignment in New York City, the former president gave a defiant speech at Mar-a-Lago last night. It was filled with grievances and multiple false claims. He railed against the charges, attacked the judge, and also cast himself as a victim of political persecution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election. And it should be dropped immediately, immediately.
I have a Trump-hating judge, with the Trump-hating wife and family. They can't beat us at the ballot box, so they try and beat us through the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The former president actually spoke very little when he was in court yesterday. You can see him there. Two of the words he did say, not guilty. He pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Prosecutors are accusing him of orchestrating a hush money scheme to cover up alleged affairs with a porn actress and a Playboy model, a Playboy model, leading up to the 2016 election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: President Trump? President Trump? Will you come and speak to us, President?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Trump looked somber, and he ignored our shouted questions at the courthouse yesterday on the 15th floor.
Notably, the judge did have a message to both sides yesterday, counsel on both sides, saying to stop making inflammatory public comments that could put people in jeopardy or affect the outcome of the case.
All of that came just hours later, about six hours later, Trump blasted that same judge, the judge's family, and the district attorney.
CNN's senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid is here with us now.
Paula, we want to talk about Trump's response, obviously, what happened there, but let's talk about the indictment in the main takeaways for people who were not watching, as all of this was coming out of the courthouse yesterday.
PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It was interesting to see the charges, finally, in this historic case, one of the big things that's missing here, though, is the crime that makes these 34 counts of falsifying business records a felony. They did not specify what exactly the larger crime was. That was a surprise to me and many other legal experts.
We may not get answers for a while because of the next hearing in this case is not until December, and then if there is a trial, it would likely be in the heat of the 2024 campaign. If there is a conviction, it's going to be a long road for appeals.
LEMON: Do they have to specify?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REID (voice-over): According to the Manhattan district attorney's office, former President Donald Trump was at the center of an alleged catch and kill scheme to suppress negative stories about him in order to influence the 2016 presidential election and to benefit his electoral prospects.
Trump appeared in a New York courtroom on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
[05:05:05]
Speaking at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night, he lashed out at the district attorney, the judge in the case and the indictment itself.
TRUMP: And I never thought anything like this could happen in America, never thought it could happen. The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.
REID: According to Manhattan prosecutors, the alleged scheme involved Trump, his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and the then head of American Media Incorporated, David Pecker. During an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower, Pecker said he would act as the eyes in the ears of the campaign by alerting Cohen to negative stories about Trump, according to court documents.
CYRUS VANCE, JR., FORMER MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I found that the document actually quite detailed. I mean, it is a speaking indictment, and it has quite a bit of detail about the history and laid out the facts underlying then the various counts that are listed.
REID: Before the 2016 presidential election, payments were made to at least three individuals to suppress their negative stories involving Trump, including alleged affairs with adult film star Stormy Daniels and playboy model Karen McDougal, according to court documents. Trump denies both affairs.
ALVIN BRAGG, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: These are felony crimes in New York state. No matter who you are.
REID: Cohen has also pleaded guilty to federal crimes pertaining to this indictment.
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I will continue to speak truth to power. I will continue to provide transparency to the American people. It's amazing how once again, Donald is trying to shift all of the blame, which he's so good at. It's always somebody else's fault.
REID: Trump's lawyers vowing to fight the charges.
JOE TACOPINA, ATTORNEY FOR FORMER PRESIDENT: A motion to dismiss is coming on several grounds. Prosecutorial misconduct, selective prosecution for sure will be two of them. Legal insufficiency is another one.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
REID (on camera): The judge in this case has not imposed a gag order on the former president or anyone else. But he did warn the participants in this case, not to say anything that would incite violence or impact the proceedings.
Of course, the former president then went on to call the judge, quote, Trump hater. But since Trump is now a candidate for the presidency, any restrictions on his speech really raised constitutional questions. So once again, former President Trump taking us to constitutional controversies that have really never been visited before.
LEMON: People may have heard me trying to jump in when your story was about to run, asking, do they have to show an underlying crime? Because everyone's saying they didn't show an underlying crime, they didn't show an underlying crime.
REID: So, in order to charge falsifying business records as a felony, you have to show that those records were falsified, as part of a larger crime, right? Falsifying business records is usually just a piece of a crime, a mechanism if you will, and here they haven't specified what that crime is.
Many people assumed that it was a violation of federal election laws similar to what Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to. But at the press conference, the district attorney suggested it was
state and federal laws. But look, you're not going to be able to conceal this for long, because the defense attorneys have a right to know what exactly it is their client has been charged with.
LEMON: That was my point. I mean, at this point. At some point, they're going to have to show what the crime is and improved adjustment at this point in the process.
REID: Exactly. I mean, the judge didn't chastise them for not including that, but as we go forward, and they file their motions at some point, they will have to disclose that and that's why it's hard to really assess the case because we can't really see all of it.
LEMON: Got it. Well, there we go. Paula -- Paula, we'll be seeing a lot of you. Thank you very much.
REID: Let's talk more about this, this because sources are telling CNN that Trump was upset at Mar-a-Lago at a post arraignment, and surrounded himself with allies and admirers.
Kristen Holmes is in West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago.
Kristen, good morning to you.
So we saw the -- I guess you can call it blustery speech last night, so break down the attacks and the lies here.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Don, that's right. So what we know right now is that the former president was, as you said, upset. He gave this uncharacteristically short and characteristically defiant speech, and he talked about not just the New York case, but he also talked about all of the local and federal investigations that are going on right now.
Take a listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I got a local racist Democrat district attorney in Atlanta, who is doing everything in her power to indict me, over an absolutely perfect phone call.
This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election. And it should be dropped immediately.
This lunatic special prosecutor named Jack Smith, I wonder what it was prior to a change, who others of his ilk say he's even worse than they are. He's only looking at Trump, yet Joe Biden took massive amounts more documents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, of course, we can break each of these down. The first one he's talking about the case in Georgia. He talks about that quote/unquote, perfect call, which we know has made him incredibly angry. He's talking about the call, which he asked Brad Raffensperger to find more votes, and in that case, we have learned sense that there are several other recorded calls.
Now, this second one was about the New York indictment, saying that he was -- that this was only brought to interfere with the 2024 election. This is something we have heard, and again, we know that he is going to make this New York case political as we've noted yesterday, during Trump's arraignment, his team put out a fundraising email with a manufactured mug shot on it to try and raise money.
So if that gives you any indication of where they're trying to head with the defense in that case. And the last one, we're talking about these Department of Justice special counsel investigations, there are two, one into January 6th and one into those documents. And the really interesting thing done was how long he spent on that documents case. You could tell he was very fixated on it during this airing of grievances.
LEMON: Yeah, and we'll see if he continues to speak and sort of defy what the judge admonished him on yesterday.
Thank you very much, Kristen Holmes in West Palm Beach, Florida.
HARLOW: All right. Let's dig into the indictment itself, the specific charges and notably as we were just talking about, what we don't know.
Joining us now is former Manhattan assistant district attorney Jeremy Saland.
Jeremy, good morning.
JEREMY SALAND, FORMER MANHATTAN ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Good morning.
HARLOW: I find it really surprising that they didn't lay out here, what the underlying crime is, because that's how you make it -- that's how you make these 34 counts. It would be misdemeanors. Felonies and they're, as Paula said, aren't prosecutor's going to have to lay this out? Because how can defense put forward their motion to dismiss without knowing what they're fully trying to dismiss?
SALAND: Absolutely, I expected to see the charges because generally speaking, you don't see falsifying business records as the only count in an indictment --
HARLOW: Right.
SALAND: Because usually, it's a mechanism to really commit a greater crime. Whether that's a larceny, attacks, crime or here, a crime related to campaign finances or something along those lines. So I expected to see that.
That being said, during the discovery process, they are going to have to set forth those crimes.
HARLOW: I know. But why wouldn't you lay it out? And this is the first -- this is the first time a president former president has ever face criminal charges. Why would you not lay it all out there?
SALAND: It gives me pause. It gives me concern. I would like to think and I do at this stage believed that they in good faith obviously had that evidence that they think they have that can substantiate and ultimately prove beyond a reasonable doubt these crimes.
But yes to your point. Why not share now? Even if you don't put it in the indictment with some specificity, I recall during that press conference, the answer is really avoided.
LEMON: Is that part of the strategy though possibly? This is -- and I've been reading the analysis about why not showing a crime? This is "The New York Times" saying and others, do prosecutors need to convict Mr. Trump of a second crime? It says no, they must only show that there was intent to commit or conceal a second crime. Prosecutors do not have to charge Mr. Trump with any secondary crime or proved that he committed it.
But prosecutors have not yet said definitively what crime or crimes they intend to rely on to escalate the charges to a felony level so they don't have to show just an intent, that that is absolutely a fair statement. But again, back to what I said initially, you generally don't see falsifying business records, the sort of the means to commit a greater crime by itself.
SALAND: You see that with another offense or other offenses, so even if it's not pleaded in the indictment, I would expect to know what that is, because you're going to have to come and share that because he has a right to defend himself. And because of the nature of who were dealing with, the former president, the public should know that this isn't political. We want to know what it's about. Share that with us.
COLLINS: The timeline here is obviously important, too, because there's not another court date until December. The judge mentioned yesterday, maybe a trial in January, 2024, Trump's attorney, said it would at least be spring 2024. That's when he's going to be going to Iowa to New Hampshire.
He's going to be all over the place in the middle of this campaign. Do you think this is something based on what you saw yesterday that a judge will dismiss maybe?
SALAND: I think that's a big leap. It's way too early to make that determination.
COLLINS: When will they make that determination?
SALAND: So, generally, what's going to happen now with the next few days, whatever discovery has already been provided in the weeks ahead, more discovery will be shared.
So the defense will know, well, what -- this is what we're facing. These are the -- this is the evidence.
So between now and then, it could be 30, 40 days, maybe even longer to get those first motions in. Could that be what's called the Clayton motion -- which is a motion to dismiss the interests of justice -- legal sufficiency, prosecutorial misconduct? Who knows what they're going to pull out, but they're going to throw everything they can to try to get this dismissed in the weeks and months ahead.
HARLOW: Remember what John Bolton told you a few days ago, as a Republican who does not want to see Trump as president again, that this -- they should expedite this all in the interest of the public, and given that now very long timeline?
COLLINS: Well, and they obviously -- they think that would be helpful to him. But Trump's legal team yesterday, the new attorney, he just added was saying January 2024 is way too soon to start for a case for this. We have to go through all the discovery and look at everything that you guys have assembled.
[05:15:05]
SALAND: I think if you -- if you want to take the president out of this equation, that December date is incredibly long. Normally, you're talking maybe four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, maybe longer, that it's an extremely long adjournment for that next stage of the process.
HARLOW: There's also -- I know we got to go. There's a new law in New York that a few years old that means that defendants get a lot of more discovery --
SALAND: Absolutely.
HARLOW: -- and they get to see a lot more evidence, which is really interesting in this case.
LEMON: We do have to go. But why is it extremely long?
HARLOW: Yeah.
LEMON: Well, I think, because the nature of who we're dealing with. It's former president of the United States. You got an expansive time, absolutely.
COLLINS: And the judge was saying yesterday, Trump needs to show up for all of his appearances, including that December date. We shall see.
LEMON: All right, Jeremy. Thank you. We'll see you soon. Appreciate it.
HARLOW: Happening right now, live pictures of Jonesboro, Arkansas, where a tornado watch right now is in effect. Storms developing this area could bring intense wind gusts. We're live on the ground there.
Also this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands up in the air, make some noise for Brandon Johnson!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The city of Chicago has now elected progressive Democrat, Brandon Johnson, as their mayor. The change he's promising to bring to the nation's third largest city, what his victory means next.
LEMON: It's interesting. The odds were on balance.
HARLOW: Were they?
COLLINS: It wasn't -- it was pretty close.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:20:23]
LEMON: Right. Well, let's just projection. Can you believe it, an election?
New this morning, a big night for liberals in the upper Midwest with victories in Wisconsin and Chicago. CNN projects progressive Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson beat his more moderate opponent, former school superintendent Paul Vallas, in a runoff heavily focused on crime.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON JOHNSON (D), CHICAGO MAYOR-ELECT: Tonight is a gateway to a new future for our city, a city where you can thrive regardless of who you love or how much money you have in your bank account.
PAUL VALLAS (D), FORMER CHICAGO MAYORAL CANDIDATE: So, tonight, even though of course we believe every vote should be counted, I called Brandon Johnson and told him that I absolutely expect him to be the next mayor of Chicago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Omar Jimenez joins us now, covering -- he's been covering this risk.
Good morning to you.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
LEMON: I thought -- I mean, it was close. I thought the odds were on balance. But how did Johnson pull this off?
JIMENEZ: Yeah. Some of the some of the polls coming in might have had Vallas on top. But really, when you look at Johnson (AUDIO GAP) endorsed by the Chicago teachers union turned out to be a very powerful force in this.
But there was a key demographic or a few demographics to look at after the race that got to this runoff. So when they beat incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, he and Vallas, Lightfoot took a lot of the Black neighborhoods in Chicago. Congressman Jesus Chuy Garcia took a lot of the Latino neighborhoods on the southwest side of the city, and so coming into this runoff, there was a lot of significant vote out there for these two candidates to try and win over. In this case, it seems it may have been the difference for Brandon Johnson.
But now he has the tough task of actually leading Chicago, including folks in the police union who voted for Vallas. Take a listen to Johnson's message there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSON: I value you and I want to hear from you. I want to work with you. And I'll be the mayor for you, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Yeah, I got you.
JIMENEZ: And when you expand this nationally. This is really a battle of two. Democratic ideology is one of them progressive, one of the moderate. So, of course, it's big for Chicago. But you've got to think there's a lot of Democrats across the country looking at these races.
COLLINS: Yeah, looking very closely to see. You know. What does it mean? Especially after what happened in Los Angeles.
The other race that I'm obsessed with from last night, I mean, we had two remarkable moments last night was what happened in Wisconsin and that highly consequential Supreme Court contest, for Janet Protasiewicz came walk away victorious and what this means for Wisconsin and just, you know, a state that has long been this Republican, you know, fortress kind of and what her election last night means.
JIMENEZ: Well, it has a lot of implications for the fight over abortion access in that state, which, of course, an abortion ban went into effect after the fall of Roe v. Wade and the conservatives have led the bench in the Supreme Court there for 10 years. Then you had a conservative judge retired.
So you have this opportunity and the liberal judge, Janet Protasiewicz, which was able to capitalize on this, and we actually have a very specific case in the coming months of the state challenging this -- the ban on abortion.
So, again, it could have major implications very quickly. It also became the most expensive state judicial race in history there --
HARLOW: Forty-million bucks or something.
JIMENEZ: So many people invested and politically, I think it shows that voters are still motivated by abortion, even still nearly a year after Roe v. Wade fell.
COLLINS: Yeah, and what does it mean for gerrymandering? Because she will still be in this position when they redraw all the district --
HARLOW: Nine years, right?
COLLINS: It has massive implications.
LEMON: I was going to say, what are the implications do you think around the country?
COLLINS: Well, I think just for Wisconsin, obviously, it played such a critical role in the election last year, obviously likely will in 2024, but when it comes to the redistricting, that could be one of her most significant impacts that she has, and she hasn't tried away from that at all.
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
LEMON: And Omar will be following it.
COLLINS: Yeah.
JIMENEZ: I'm going to try.
COLLINS: Thank you, Omar.
And also a reminder to viewers. Brandon Johnson is going to join us here in the 8:00 a.m. hour, fresh off his election win.
HARLOW: We do want to update you on what is happening, some really severe weather across the country right now. Just moments ago, the National Weather Service confirmed a large and extremely dangerous tornado, those are their words, in Missouri. This is happening in Glen Allen, about 90 miles south of St. Louis.
Meteorologist warning the twister was moving to the Northeast, just one of several tornado watches and warnings we're keeping an eye on for you this morning. Derek Van Dam is in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Again this morning where there have been active tornado watches and warnings, even on top of the destruction you're standing in front of.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, we're under a tornado watch, where I'm located in Little Rock. And, remember, this damage that you saw behind me was from a long track tornado that caused winds 165 miles per hour, but that was on Friday.
[05:25:04]
So this is a storm-battered region, a very storm weary region, and they don't want to see any more, but unfortunately, they have to contend with what's coming at them. Let's get to my graphics because it's a very fluid and active situation.
Poppy mentioned this extremely particularly dangerous tornado on the ground. Well, that has since lifted, and we are now at a severe thunderstorm watch. But nonetheless, we have millions of Americans stretching from the Chicago suburbs all the way to northeast Oklahoma, and then the tornado watch that is currently on going from where I'm standing in Little Rock, all the way to southern portions of Illinois.
This is particularly concerning because what's happening is the storms, the super cells that are forming within this area are taking advantage of the environment across this region, you can see the Carbondale and Cape Gerardo storm system that's now a severe thunderstorm warning.
Let's get in a little bit closer. Give you some detail and what that looks like, kind of a 3D volume scan and this is a supercell thunderstorm. So we can see the tops of these storms reaching 30,000, even 35,000 feet in the air. That tells a meteorologist that we need to take this storm very seriously.
There has been rotation, currently not warned as a tornado, but at any moment in time, this thing could drop yet another dangerous tornado. We've already seen some homes that have been damaged in Bollinger County and Missouri.
So, Poppy, very active, fluid, ongoing situation as we continue to track these storms.
HARLOW: All right, thinking of everyone in the path.
Derek, thank you very much.
LEMON: Donald Trump, excuse me, now facing 34 felony charges. This is only the beginning of the legal battle and political fallout. More on what to expect, that's next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN: Once he got inside the courtroom, Trump is formally charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, which are class E felonies. Yep, Trump was like, of course, they were very classy felonies. Some would say the classiest of felonies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
