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CNN This Morning

New Poll: Trump Still Holds Lead In Race Despite Legal Troubles; Fulton County DA: "We're Ready To Go" As Charging Decision Expected By September 1 in Probe Of Trump, His Allies In Georgia; Fifty-Four Killed In Attack On Political Convention In Pakistan; Pro- Coup Protesters In Niger Show Support For Putin As They Voice Anger Over France's influence In Nation; Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 31, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: And in third place.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, I'm going to light a vanilla candle and it's going to be a game changer. After midnight, the house comes alive.

JIMENEZ: Disney's Haunted Mansion debuted in third with $24.2 million. Fun times at the movies.

Thanks for joining us, everyone. I'm Omar Jimenez. CNN this morning starts right now.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: It's Monday, big week ahead. Good morning, everyone. We're so glad you're here. Welcome back.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for having me.

HARLOW: How was the week?

MATTINGLY: It was good. It was good. What did I miss? Lots of news?

HARLOW: Nothing. No.

MATTINGLY: Lots of news.

HARLOW: Yes. There'll be lots of news this week as well. Let's get started with five things to know for this Monday, July 31st. So this morning, twice indicted former president Trump is bracing for potentially more charges, but it's not hurting his polling.

Look at this, a New York Times CNN poll shows him with a dominating lead, 54 percent of likely Republican voters picking Trump.

Also happened this morning, a Mar-a-Lago maintenance workers set to appear in court, Carlos de Oliveira is accused of telling another employee that, quote, the boss wanted security footage deleted. Trump denies directing staffers to delete anything.

All this is Trump's team is creating a new legal defense fund to foot his allies' legal fees. This coming as we learned that Trump's leadership PAC's spent more than $40 million on legal fees since the start of the year.

HARLOW: An American nurse and her child kidnapped in Haiti. They were abducted from the campus of a Christian Humanitarian Organization. Now, the State Department says they're in touch with Haitian authorities.

MATTINGLY: And that summertime sickness may be more than just a cold. Health officials are seeing signs of a new COVID surge. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

And we're going to start this morning with that property manager who allegedly said, quote, the boss wanted the surveillance video servers deleted at Mar-a-Lago. He will be in the Miami courtroom answering to three criminal charges.

Carlos de Oliveira is the third person indicted in the classified documents case alongside former president Donald Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta. Prosecutors say de Oliveira met up with Nauta in June of last year to scope out the surveillance cameras around the storage room where documents were moved in and out.

They say De Oliveira then asked a different employee. What are we going to do about the boss's requests to delete the footage? Now, this comes as we wait for more potential indictments against the former president. We're waiting for a charging decision and the federal investigation into January 6, as the special Counsel's office gets ready to meet with a key witness in the fake electoral scheme.

HARLOW: And then there's Georgia where new security barriers are up now outside of the Fulton County Courthouse as a district attorney there confirms that by September 1st, he will decide whether to charge anyone for the efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FANI WILLIS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: The work is accomplished. And we've been working for two and a half years, we're ready to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So exactly what does that mean? What will happen? Will any of this also impact the former president's poll numbers? This New York Times Siena College poll shows 54 percent of likely Republican voters say he's their pick. We've got the story covered from every angle from Miami to Atlanta to here in New York.

Let's begin with our colleague Randi Kaye. She is outside of that Miami courthouse where we are expecting to see the MAR a Lago property manager in just a few hours for his arraignment. What can we expect today?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Good morning to both of you. Well, it's another courtroom and another co-defendant as this federal case against the former president continues to grow. We are expecting the property manager, Carlos de Oliveira to appear in court here in just a few hours to answer the charges against him and those include conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements and two counts of destroying or concealing an object. All of this, as a former president denies doing anything wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Donald Trump slamming the special prosecutor's team.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are crooked people.

KAYE: As he learns of new legal threats he and his employees may face.

Newly named codefendant, Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos de Oliveira, is set to be arraigned today in Miami.

A superseding indictment alleges he, along with Trump aide, Walt Nauta, attempted to delete security camera footage at the club after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for it.

According to the indictment De Oliveira told one of the resort's IT workers, the boss wanted the server deleted. CNN has now learned that IT worker, Yuscil Taveras, has received a target letter from federal prosecutors.

Taveras reportedly met with investigators after Trump's first indictment in June. It's unclear if he's cooperating with the investigation, but sources say some of the new allegations against Trump were based at least in part on information Taveras provided.

[06:05:01]

Trump facing additional charges for mishandling classified documents maintained his innocence on social media, claiming his legal team voluntary handed over the tapes to the special counsel, and that he never told anybody to delete them.

De Oliveira separately charged with lying to the FBI about moving boxes of classified documents from Trump's residence to a storage room.

CHRIS CHRISTIE, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is bad stuff. And, you know, you can't say there was no underlying potential crime here.

KAYE: The superseding indictment giving Trump's opponents an opportunity to go after the front runner.

CHRISTIE: It's pretty brazen. These guys were acting like the Corleones with no experience.

KAYE: Other candidates treading more cautiously over the indictment, as Trump remains popular with the GOP base.

NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: None of us want to be talking about indictments. I don't even know if it's the third, fourth, or fifth indictment right now. But what I can tell you is it's a distraction.

KAYE: Most use the issue to steer the conversation to the future.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One of the right ways to do that is to pardon the former president of the United States from what is clearly a politicized prosecution.

KAYE: Even Trump's top rival, Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, weary of engaging.

DESANTIS: I want to spend less time litigating that, because that's really looking in the past and more time focusing on the future in terms of what we need to accomplish as a country.

KAYE: At a GOP party dinner in Iowa, direct criticism of Trump drew a rebuke from the audience.

WILL HURD, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison. And if we elect -- I know -- listen, I know the truth. The truth is hard.

KAYE: Closing out the dinner, Trump steered clear of the new charges against him.

TRUMP: If I weren't running, I would have nobody coming after me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And Carlos de Oliveira is expected to appear in court here this morning with his lawyer, John Irving, that is a D.C. based, Washington D.C. based attorney. We have also been able to confirm that Irving's law firm was paid nearly $200,000 in 2022 by Trump's super PAC, Save America, as well.

Poppy, back to you,

HARLOW: Randy Kaye, thank you for the reporting. We'll watch their very closely today.

Meantime, new overnight, CNN has learned that another employee from Mar-a-Lago received a target letter, previously in the classified documents probed. The Special Counsel superseding indictment that we got last week includes detailed correspondence between Carlos de Oliveira and someone referred to throughout the indictment as employee number four.

Let me read part of it, "De Oliveira told Trump employee for that, quote, the boss wanted the server deleted. Trump employee four responded that he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the right to do so. It continues De Oliveira then insisted that Trump -- to Trump employee four that the boss wanted the server deleted and asked what are we going to do about it?

We now know who employee number four is. They are Yuscil Taveras. That's a Mar-a-Lago employee who oversees the property's surveillance cameras and we know that he received a target letter from federal prosecutors after Trump was first indicted in June.

Kara Scannell is here with more. Just want to be clear for our viewers, it's not a new target letter that he got on Friday or something. It's been there. The question is, what is it mean? Does it mean he's going to be charged? Does it mean he's going to be a fact witness that he's going to flip? What do we know?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't exactly know the answer to that question just yet. I mean, he received his target letter after Trump was indicted in the first time. And we also know, after he got that target letter, he changed attorneys.

So it is possible that that makes the difference here of why he was not indicted alongside De Oliveira. But it's something that we just don't know. But obviously, he is at the center of these allegations here. And they chose not to indict him at this time. But someone who was engaged in what the prosecutors say was this allegedly obstructive conduct, who -- there's no evidence that any surveillance tapes were deleted.

So whatever he did with that information, nothing was ultimately deleted, but someone who is a -- an important person here, someone who could potentially be a witness if this goes to trial.

MATTINGLY: Again, as an outside of this watching this from afar, you're our legal expert, you know all the things. So if this is a different question, I apologize, but I'm trying to piece together the timeline, which is the first indictment comes then the target letter to Yuscil Taveras, the superseding indictment, has new information in it. Taveras has not been charged. Taveras has changed lawyers to a lawyer that is not being paid by Trump's super PAC, by my understanding.

I'm just trying to connect dots here. I know you're saying that we don't have specific information of cooperation, but doesn't this seem to look like he may be cooperating?

SCANNELL: Yes. I mean, that is the kind of fact pattern you expect to play out for someone who is cooperating because he doesn't get charged in the superseding indictment where there was an opportunity I mean, they were bringing -- they were charging De Oliveira.

[06:10:58]

They use the name Trump Employee Number Four which is usually what prosecutors do when they don't want to -- you know they're not going to identify someone that they're not going to charge with a crime. And they also don't call this person a co-conspirator or an unindicted co- conspirator. They're choosing to identify the person as an employee. So that would signal a sign that he is unlikely to be charged. But with all of this, we just don't really know until it happens. HARLOW: So Phil's point, which is a great one to tie those things together. David Schoen, last week, on Friday, who is Trump's former lawyer in the second impeachment hearing said, so much rest on the credibility of employee number four in this.

And so now we know the name, we didn't know that. And so this is where defense counsel will really focus in to and making their counter argument. However, way this goes, what about Bernard Kerik? A lot of people here in New York know his name, of course, former New York City Police Commissioner, he's going to speak with the Special Counsel in a few days.

He was part of turning over a lot of those documents we talked about last week from conversations that he had had was a big ally of Trump. Why does this matter?

SCANNELL: Right. So Bernard Kerik was working for Rudy Giuliani, who at the time was Trump's attorney, and he was kind of the quarterback for all of these efforts to dig into allegations of fraud in the election. So he was essentially Giuliani's investigator.

And the reason why he will go in is because they want to know what exactly he was following up on and looking into and, you know, his attorney was on CNN yesterday. And, you know, he was saying that it would be, you know, idiotic for the special counsel to bring charges before speaking with Bernie Kerik, but that is because their argument is that, you know, he was running down all of these legitimate concerns or questions. And so obviously, this wasn't a corrupt intent.

But, you know, the counter narrative of this is that there none of these election fraud claims were legitimate, the courts were throwing them out, you know, there were affidavits by people that, you know, just were never substantiated.

But, you know, he's one of these witnesses that he was involved in this effort. He's someone that Smith's team would want to talk to, to want to understand exactly, you know, what conversations he had, obviously, he turned over those documents. They already spoke with Rudy Giuliani.

But, you know, as this investigation, if anything we've seen it is so expansive and they're almost leaving no stone unturned talking to nearly everybody. You know, that interview his lawyer said is in the next week, but you know, Smith's team can operate on their own schedule. They don't have to wait to talk to him. He's not, you know, the centerpiece of this investigation in order for them to decide when and if they're going to bring charges.

MATTINGLY: There's a lot we don't know, it feels like. But, you know, most of the things. Kara Scannell, thank you.

Now over to Fulton County, Georgia, where District Attorney, Fani Willis, is reaffirming that her office plans to announce charging decisions by September 1st. Willis telling a CNN affiliate over the weekend, quote, the work is done. We're ready to go. CNN, Sara Murray, fresh off of from one-hour documentary on this very topic that aired last night live in Atlanta outside Fulton County Courthouse.

Murray, what is your sense of things? You've covered this so closely. What's your sense of things right now in terms of timeline when this may actually happen?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Phil. I still think that we are in the sort of weeks' away window rather than the days' away window. But it's very clear that preparations are ramping up. You can see behind me that barricades are already starting to go up around the Fulton County Courthouse.

Today is the day when much of Willis' team is going to begin to work remotely another security precaution that they're taking.

And our local affiliate, WXIA, caught up with Willis at a Baptist School event over the weekend where she was very clear that the brunt of her work on this case is already done. And that people may not be super thrilled with the upcoming charging announcement she has to make. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIS: Some people may not be happy with the decisions that we're making. And sometimes when people are unhappy, they act in a way that could create harm. The work is accomplished. And we've been working for two and a half years, we're ready to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now obviously, they're concerned about people who may be unhappy with whatever these charging decisions are, is what's precipitating this enhanced security. And I suspect we're going to see a whole lot more of this in the coming weeks, guys.

HARLOW: Maybe it's just me, but I was surprised to hear the candor there. I mean, she didn't lay out what's going to happen. But what she said especially in the latter part of the sound that you played was a bit surprising.

I guess we're in that window now between now and September 1st, right, when she said a charging decision will be made. Any sense of what week, how soon, how close to September and more like August?

MURRAY: Yes. I mean, one thing about that interview is she's not saying whether anyone actually is going to face charges. I mean, obviously we expect that she's going to seek indictments, but we'll see.

I still think that we are probably a week or two away from her making whatever these announcements are. There's a hearing in this case on August 10th that has to do with some of the Trump legal teams arguments to disqualify Fani Willis from the case and to throw out a lot of the evidence that she's collected. [06:15:02]

Frankly, I would be surprised if she decided to press ahead with an indictment before that hearing. Of course, she's the district attorney. It's up to her discretion. But I'm betting we still have a teeny bit of wiggle room and we're going to see a lot more security between now and when that announcement actually comes, guys.

MATTINGLY: All right. Sara Murray live for us outside the Fulton County courthouse. Thank you.

HARLOW: The death toll in Pakistan has risen to 54 this morning after a suicide bomber attacked a political convention there.

MATTINGLY: And a new threat from Russia overnight. A top official saying Moscow may be forced to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine's counter offensive is successful. The latest from the battlefield coming up next.

HARLOW: Welcome back this morning. An investigation is underway after a suicide bomber killed at least 54 people. This happened in northwestern Pakistan, more than 100 were injured in the attack, targeting an Islamist party's political convention.

Local police say the explosives detonated near the convention stage. Ivan Watson joins us now.

Tragic, so deadly, and no one has claimed responsibility yet, is that right?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is true. And as you pointed out, the target was this Islamist political party gathering. That party is part of the governing coalition in the Pakistani national government. The results are so devastating, at least 54 people killed, 12 of those victims are under the age of 12.

Now, tragically, Pakistan has this very long and deadly history of political violence of suicide bomb attacks. And there are a number of different groups that have been involved in some of these.

Just January of this year, the Pakistani Taliban was implicated in a suicide bombing that hit a mosque in a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar with dozens of people dead and injured. And ISIS has been implicated in one of the deadliest suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan's modern history. That was back in 2018, targeting another political party.

And what this is doing is in a country that's no stranger to violence, Pakistan is believed to be heading towards national elections this fall. And the tensions are just going to ramp up, it's believed. So when a deadly attack like this raises the specter of additional violence on the horizon. Poppy.

[06:20:01]

HARLOW: Ivan Watson. Absolutely guys, thank you for that reporting for us.

MATTINGLY: Also this morning, the political crisis is growing in the West African nation, Niger. Regional leaders have issued sanctions following the truth. The president of nearby Chad also met with coup leaders and with ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. Hoping to find some kind of peaceful solution.

You can see it there. Meanwhile, thousands turned out in support of the coup. They shattered support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, while (inaudible) played out in front of the French Embassy.

CNN's Larry Madowo joins us live from Nairobi, Kenya. Larry, we saw the E.U. condemnation, obviously, U.S. has been vocal about their condemnation as well. The most interesting development, at least for me, over the course of the weekend, was the 15 nation block of Western African states, really condemning and actually threatening the potential use of force. What's actually happening right now on the ground?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Phil. ECOWAS, that's the Economic Community of West African States, has said that this military junta in Nigeria has one week to restore President Bazoum or they will use force.

So that's fighting words from the regional bloc there. They've isolated the country of no-fly zone. They've issued travel bans and all that. But you see the military junta, short while ago essentially say that France is planning military strikes to free the president they deposed that claiming that France has been meeting with former officials of the government they deposed to get military and political power to remove them from office and reinstate President Bazoum.

But you see this huge anti-French anger in the country. On Sunday, huge protests, thousands of people outside the French Embassy trashing it, breaking windows, setting window on fire, because many images support this coup to be clear.

They support the military taking over because they feel that the last president was an ally of the U.S. and France and a puppet of the West. And they especially are angry at France, a former colonizer of the country that they see as keeping them in this impoverished state, despite it being a very rich country. Listen to one protester.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We also came out to tell this little Macron from France that Niger belongs to us. It's up to us to do what we want with measure or we want. We deal with who we want and how we want. We are only support for the army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: There's -- a it's a rich nation, rich in gold and uranium and lots of other minerals, but one of the world's poorest countries.

In a short while ago, the -- rather overnight, the president of neighboring Chad has been meeting with the coup leaders and the deposed president the first time we've seen him. And it's interesting that he's mediating in this role, trying to avoid this military intervention by the regional bloc in West Africa that insists this has to stop.

It has to be returned to constitutional order in Niger, because this risks destabilizing not just Niger, but across the region with suffers from huge amounts of terrorist attacks from armed groups affiliated to both ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Yes, major geopolitical implications here. Larry Madowo, keep us posted. Thank you.

HARLOW: And take a look at this video out of Beijing, at least two people have died, more than 31,000 evacuated as a typhoon has lashed China's Northeastern region. The typhoon is the strongest storm to hit that area in 17 years.

Since making landfall on Friday, it is affecting more than 880,000 people. It has caused nearly $60 million in property damage, that's according to Chinese state media.

MATTINGLY: Before President Trump's political action committee spending $40 million on his legal fees, what his donors know and how his Republican presidential rivals are responding, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We also spend more than 20 million attacking me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:26]

MATTINGLY: Former president Trump's political action committee has spent more than $40 million. That's million with M, on legal fees this year alone. That's according to a source familiar with the matter. And that's also more than double what it spent last year.

The political action committee which raises most of its funds through small dollar donations from Trump's supporters is expected to report to the FEC this morning, as the former president's legal battles continue to mount.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live in Washington this morning. Kristen, that's a big number. It's a huge number. And I think it's easy to kind of get numb to that reality. But it's also the small donor element of it. They're the primary driver of Save America PAC's funds, for the most part, at least as far as I understand. They feel like inside the campaign, this is going to have any impact on those supporters.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, when you talk to members of the campaign felt, they believe that their donors know exactly what is going on in terms of Trump's legal issues. And the people who are donating to the former president are going to continue doing so because they support him. And there is no evidence that that is going to change.

Obviously, it is very clear, all over the news, that Trump is facing these multiple investigations that small dollar donors are aware.

But I do want to point out something that we reported months ago, which was the donating structure that shifted just a few months ago, very quietly at the beginning of Trump's campaign back in November, that donating structure was that most of the money actually 99 percent of the donations that were given to the campaign, went to the campaign, and one percent went to Save America PAC.

Then, quietly, that shifted to 10 percent of donations going to Save America PAC with 90 percent going towards the campaign. And when we talk about just how big that number is, that $40.2 million. That is just for the first half of the year.

And to be clear, this is not just covering Trump's legal fees. This is covering all of the associates', former current employees, aides who got wrapped up in these investigations.

And we have learned that because of this, Trump's team is creating a legal defense fund. Now it is not entirely clear who exactly is going to fall under this fund, but it's obviously to offset some of these enormous legal fees.

And we are told that this will not affect Donald Trump. This will not cover his legal expenses. But again, this is for those witnesses, those associates.

As you'll remember, in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, both of his co- defendants are people who are represented by lawyers who have been paid an enormous amount of money from that Save America PAC.

But just to give you the details we do know about the legal defense fund, it is going to be called the Patriot Legal Defense Fund, and it is going to be run by Trump's law long-term political adviser, Michael Glassner, again, waiting to see what those details actually look like, but they are clearly hemorrhaging money here when it comes to these legal fees.

[06:30:00]