Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis Set to Lay Out Details of Her Case Against Former President Donald Trump; Mark Meadows Bids His Case to be Moved to Federal Court; Trump's Legal Team Will Appear in Court in Washington, D.C.; Florida Justice Department Investigates Jacksonville Shooting as Hate Crime; Florida's Gulf Coast Braces for a Possible Hurricane; Trump Team Fundraising Off of Mug Shot, Georgia Arrest; Russia confirms Wagner Boss Prigozhin Killed in Plane Crash; Olympic Gymnast Simone Biles Breaks Another Record. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 28, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Poppy is off this week. Sara Sidner, the one and only, is here.

Let's get started with five things to know for this Monday, August 28th. This morning, a high-stakes hearing in Georgia. Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis is set to lay out details of her case against Former President Donald Trump. It's part of his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows', bid to get his own case moved to federal court.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: At the same time, Trump's legal team will appear in court in Washington, D.C. as part of his other federal election interference case. We're watching to see if the judge sets a trial date for that case, which could happen as early as today.

And in Florida, the Justice Department is now investigating whether the deadly shooting in Jacksonville was, indeed, a hate crime. The twisted writings of the suspect make clear he did hate black people. And when he opened fire at a Dollar General, that is exactly who he targeted and killed.

MATTINGLY: And people in Florida's Gulf Coast are bracing for a possible hurricane. Forecasters are warning Tropical Storm Idalia is picking up strength and could start hitting the panhandle as soon as tomorrow.

SIDNER: And she's back. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles breaking yet another record last night. Biles won her eighth national all-around title at the U.S. Gymnastics Nationals. In her second elite meet since returning to the sport after a two-year hiatus. "CNN This Morning" starts right now.

MATTINGLY: I was interested how you were going to do the back. That's good. The intonation. It was really -- SIDNER: Just the way --

MATTINGLY: It was well done, well written, well scripted, well performed. Sara Sidner, welcome. We are bracing this morning for very big developments in both election subversion cases against Former President Donald Trump. At 10:00 a.m. Eastern, just four hours from now, judges in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. will be holding simultaneous hearings that may give us new details about the timing and the substance in the cases about efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

MATTINGLY: In Georgia, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis will be the first prosecutor to sketch out parts of her evidence and arguments in the anti-racketeering case against the former president and his alleged co-conspirators. This could be a kind of mini trial that plays out as ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows tries to get his state case moved to federal court.

And at the same time in D.C., a judge will weigh arguments from the presidential prosecutor and Trump's defense team over the timing of the federal version of this trial. Jack Smith's office wants to start right after the new year while the ex-president is pushing for way after the election. He wants an April 2026 date. We're covering developments in both cases. We begin with CNN's Senior Crime and Senior Reporter Katelyn Polantz who is outside the federal courthouse in Atlanta.

Can you walk us through a bit, the arguments that Meadows is going to make in front of a judge today?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Of course, Sara. So, this morning, we are going to be seeing this hearing convene. It could take quite a bit of time because there will be witnesses, there will be legal arguments. And the question at play here today is was Mark Meadows, as White House chief of staff, whenever he was facilitating calls from Donald Trump outreach to state legislatures in different battleground states and also that call to Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state in Georgia, was he doing that as a federal official that was part of his job?

Can he show that to a federal judge to make the case that this case should have some additional protection for him moving it from the state court where it's charged by the D.A. Fani Willis to the federal court, or was this something that was more political?

So, what's happening today is there is going to be evidence presented here. Some of that will be witness testimony. That will include the secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, we believe. There are three other people who have also been subpoenaed, one who received an additional call from Trump that was a Georgia investigator, two others who were on that Raffensperger call.

And then, here's just a glimpse of one of the things we're likely to hear in court today. There is some sound from that audio call that Trump made to Brad Raffensperger. Let's take a listen to it for a second. It starts with a lawyer from the State of Georgia speaking and then Meadows' response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:00]

RYAN GERMANY: I'm happy to, you know, sit down with -- or have our lawyer sit down with Kurt and the lawyers on that side and explain to him, hey, here's -- based on what we've looked at so far, here's how we know this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.

MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: So, what you're saying, Ryan -- hold on. Let me make sure. So, what you're saying is you really don't want to give access to the data, you just want to make another case on why the lawsuit is wrong?

GERMANY: I don't think we can give access to data that's protected by law. But we can sit down with him and say, hey, we're looking at this --

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But you're allowed to have a phony election? You're allowed to have a phony election, right?

GERMANY: No, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, that's the sort of conversation from that call that the judge is very likely to be looking at and weighing today, was that something that Mark Meadows was doing as White House chief of staff or was he helping Trump politically, separately, does this case move? And it's going to be quite a litmus test for not just Mark Meadows, for other defendants in the case, potentially even Donald Trump included.

MATTINGLY: Hey, Katelyn, real quick. Are we going to be able see all this play out? There's been a lot of talk about what a state court -- what Georgia doing this will mean for what people can actually see. Is that going to be the case today?

POLANTZ: Unfortunately, Phil, we will not see inside the federal courthouse. There are no cameras in court. What we will be able to see are sketches from courtroom sketch artists, that is one big difference between having these proceedings in federal court if they are moved there versus state court. State court, we get the cameras, you get to see a lot, you get to see judges, you get to see witness. But instead today, we're just going to be sitting inside the court watching, paper and pens, courtroom sketch artists and then delivering the information to you when we can.

MATTINGLY: Busy day, as always. Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

SIDNER: All right. Now to Washington, D.C., where in just a few hours, a judge and the federal investigation into Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the election will hold a hearing in that case. Judge Tanya Chutkan will consider dueling arguments by Special Counsel Jack Smith and Trump's defense team over the date for a trial. Let's go now to CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez who is in Washington for us.

Evan, what does team Trump want to do, and what are we expecting the special counsel to ask for?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Sara. Well, we know that the former president doesn't want this trial to happen any time soon. His lawyers have suggested a trial date of April 2026. The Special Counsel Jack Smith, his team has asked for a trial as soon as January. That's in just a few more -- a few months from now.

We expect that Judge Tanya Chutkan who has already signaled that she wants to set a trial date and she wants to -- she believes that this trial should go on very, very soon, we expect that she's going to probably set something for next year, before the election. That's certainly all of the signals we've gotten from her.

Of course, the former president's legal team has pointed out that he needs time to get ready for such a trial in part because there -- he's facing three other indictments, including another one from Jack Smith down in South Florida where he's facing charges related to the classified documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.

The former president is facing four counts in this case. This is a very narrow case, unlike the one that Katelyn is covering down in Georgia. This cast has to do with four counts, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing the proceedings of Congress and, of course, conspiracy to deny the voting rights of Americans, particularly the Americans in those states in the -- in those states where the former president was trying to overturn the election result. We expect, again, that we might hear a trial date as soon as today from Judge Chutkan. Guys.

SIDNER: All right. Evan Perez, thank you so much. We will be watching to see what happens in that case. Over to you, Phil.

MATTINGLY: This is one of the two weapons that was in possession of the white gunman in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday when he shot and killed three black people at a Dollar General store. You see, if you look at the top right and the bottom right, two swastikas drawn into the AR-style rifle that was used. Vice President Kamala Harris says the deadly is being investigated as a possible hate crime and an act of domestic violent extremism.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is live in Jacksonville. Isabel, the sheriff is saying the two firearms used by the shooter, they were legally purchased here. What more do we know about what precipitated this rampage, and what's happening in the aftermath?

ISABEL ROSALES: Right. They were both legally purchased from a private -- from two gun dealers, and there was no criminal history here with this shooter. But, Phil, there is outrage and heartbreak with this community as the shooter, an outsider, traveled to this predominantly black community. The first place he ended up wasn't this Dollar General, but instead, a historically black school.

[06:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SABRINA RAZER, FAMILY MEMBER OF VICTIM: I thought racism was behind us, but evidently, it's not. He was a coward. You went in there and shot these innocent people for nothing. You didn't even know.

ROSALES (voiceover): Family members of victims reacting to the racially motivated mass shooting in Jacksonville Saturday that took the lives of three black people.

Angela Michelle Carr, 52 years old, Anolt Joseph, or A.J., Laguerre, Jr., 19 years old, and Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, 29 years old.

ROSALES (voiceover): Sunday, authorities revealed new details about the events leading up to the shooting. Investigators say before the gunman opened fire at a Dollar General store, he showed up in the parking lot of a historically black university nearby and was turned away by security for refusing to identify himself.

DR. A. ZACHARY FAISON JR., PRESIDENT AND CEO, EDWARD WATERS UNIVERSITY: So, our campus security officer did confront the perpetrator and the perpetrator immediately got in his vehicle and started to drive away.

ROSALES (voiceover): Minutes later, the gunman arrived at the Dollar General. Deputies released this edited surveillance video showing the shooter opening fire on the first victim in her car in the parking lot. The edited clip then shows the gunman entering the store where he shot the second and third victims. Shortly after, investigators say the gunman texted his dad.

SHERIFF T.K. WATERS, JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF'S OFFICE: The suspect texts his father and says, use a screwdriver to get into my room. The father enters the room and finds a last will and testament of the suspect along with a suicide note on his laptop.

ROSALES (voiceover): Eleven minutes after the shooting started, officers entered the store and heard a gunshot, presumably when the gunman shot and killed himself, according to deputies. Investigators are now combing through his writings.

WATERS: The manifesto is quite frankly the diary of a madman. He was just completely irrational, but was he rational -- what is his rational thoughts? He knew what he was doing.

ROSALES (voiceover): Authorities say the shooting who lived with his parents in Orange Park (ph) had no criminal arrest history. He legally purchased and owned the two guns used in the mass shooting. The Justice Department is now taking part in the investigation, calling it a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Father, today we pray for healing. Healing for the families, healing for generational curses. ROSALES (voiceover): Sunday, friends, family and community members gathered at a vigil for the victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just thought it would be appropriate to bring A.J. a little something.

SABRINA RAZER, FAMILY MEMBER OF VICTIM: Jerrald was the fun, loving young man. He was very active in my granddaughter's life. She loved her daddy and he loved her. He didn't miss the beat in her life.

ROSALES (voiceover): One state lawmaker says, she's having a hard time processing the senselessness of it.

STATE SEN. TRACIE DAVIS (D-FL): That was someone planning and executed three people. So, from years ago to listening to people say, you know, as a black people we've come a long way. After what happened yesterday, I question that and say, have we really?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES (on camera): And city leaders are working to raise money to help out the victims' families pay for their funerals and also to help pay for their needs. And meanwhile, while we learn from Sheriff T.K. Waters, a black man, that the shooter had no criminal history, we also learned that in 2016 there was a domestic call with no arrests. And that in 2017, this shooter was Baker Acted, meaning that he was involuntarily detained for 72 hours during a mental health crisis. Phil.

MATTINGLY: All right. Isabel Rosales for us down in Jacksonville, thank you.

SIDNER: All right. Much of the State of Florida, by the way, including the City of Jacksonville, bracing for Tropical Storm Idalia, which is rapidly gaining strength. Our weather team is tracking this system's movements at this hour.

MATTINGLY: And just how much money is Donald Trump raising off his arrest in Georgia and from that very mug shot? It's in the millions. We're going to tell you more when we get back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to spend a lot of time in a courtroom and not on a campaign trail. And my concern is, we cannot have Kamala Harris as president. We can't chance this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Well, it's Joe Biden that's running, but that was Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley talking about Trump's legal and political calendar colliding. Today, a judge in Atlanta and another judge in Washington, D.C. will hold hearings in two of the cases involving the former president. He is not expected to attend either.

In the Atlanta case, we are expecting Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, to preview for the very first time in court the details of her sprawling racketeering case against Donald Trump and his 18 co- defendants. It will be Willis' first chance to enter some specifics about prosecution's case into the public record.

Joining us now, CNN senior political analyst, he's rearing to go by the way, John Avlon, former assistant U.S. attorney of the southern district of New York, Sarah Krissoff, and Maura Gillespie. She was the deputy of chief of staff for former Congressman Adam Kinzinger and the founder and principal of Bluestack Strategies. Good morning to you all.

I'm going to start with the easy question this morning because it is 6:18 a.m. and that's what I can do at 6:18 a.m. What should we expect to happen at today's hearings? Should I start with you, John?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR ANCHOR AND POLITICAL ANALYST AND AUTHOR, "LINCOLN AND THE FIGHT FOR PEACE": Sure, why not.

SIDNER: Sure.

AVLON: Good morning.

SIDNER: Good morning.

AVLON: Look, this is going to be the first sort of preview of the case that Fani Willis is going to bring, and that's interesting because we haven't heard sort of an, you know, in-court presentation by the principal making the case against Donald Trump and his co- defendants, and that's what we can expect today in addition to, you know, some further discussion around Mark Meadows' attempt to move his -- you say he should be tried under federal statute, but that's the preview. That's where the attention should be. That's the headline.

MATTINGLY: Sir, to that point, you know, I think the -- there's been an assumption that Mark Meadows may have been the first but isn't going to be the only one who is trying to move the case from state to federal. But in talking to lawyers about this, there's not a ton of case law here, there's not a lot of precedent. What should people be thinking about the actual likelihood that Meadows and then perhaps Trump later on could succeed here?

[06:20:00]

SARAH KRISSOFF, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Yes. This is really an unprecedented area of the law. There's a lot of case law and removal, per se, but it's usually in the civil context, not the criminal context. So, we're really in uncharted territory here, frankly, and the judge has an opportunity to make some new law.

So, first, the question is, you know, should Mark Meadows' case be removed to federal court and be tried in a federal where the federal procedure is applying? And if that is the case, if the judge decides that's the case, should all of the defendants be then tried in federal court or will the case be divided up with some tried in state court and one or more tried in federal court?

SIDNER: Sarah, can I ask you just a quick question about why moving to federal court is so important to Meadows? I mean, if it's in Atlanta, if the -- you know, the federal court there, wouldn't it be the same jury pool? What is he looking to do and what are others looking to do?

KRISSOFF: So, I think there's sort of a belief that the federal court is a little bit more apolitical. You have -- while the judge here that's presiding over this removal process was appointed by Obama, there is sort of an apolitical nature to the court. The federal procedures would apply. So, I think that is of particular appeal to Meadows and perhaps Trump if he makes this move as well, to seek removal, which I expect he'll do, depending on the outcome of today's procedure.

And I think there is also, you know, probably an appeal to sort of taking Fani Willis out of her sort of comfort zone, out of her home territory, so to speak, and putting her in a courtroom where she's probably not as comfortable.

MATTINGLY: More on the political side of things, the Trump team is very happy to announce how much money they've raised in the days after the president -- former president showing up for his arraignment. I think $4 million plus on Friday, in total, more than $7 million. You know, clearly, this is playing well with the base. It has every single time this has happened, up to this point, there have been four of these. But I guess the question is, when you look at the calendar, when you look at the convergence of the legal with the political, how much money this is going to cost as well, is this -- does this end up actually being a net benefit on the money side?

MAURA GILLESPIE, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, FORMER REPRESENTATIVE ADAM KINZINGER: He's already eating through so much of his campaign money to cover his legal bills. And, again, it's really hard to watch as this self-proclaimed billionaire who arrived in Fulton County on his jet that says Trump, his huge plane, and yet he's asking his donors, his supporters, his loyal fan base to pay for his legal bills.

The juxtaposition of watching him fly in on his big plane and then also be begging them for $5 donations, it really does -- it makes me sad for his supporters who are blindly, you know, giving to him and they will continue to have to because they're mounting up this year. I believe in the first six months of the year, he's already spent well over $20 million on his legal fees and is eating into his campaign funds and is continually, as we've seen, fund-raising off of this.

SIDNER: And it's also interesting, he keeps changing lawyers as well. It's kind of an interesting trail of lawyers that have been left behind. I do want to talk about what some of the presidential candidates, the GOP presidential candidates have said. Chris Christie waited no time and minced no words. Here's what he said about the Trump announcement, the campaign announcement of raising all this money off that mug shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's almost nothing anymore that he could do that would surprise me in terms of the ongoing grift. You know, Donald Trump promised the country, when he ran in 2016, that he would drain the swamp. Really, all he did was rearrange the swamp.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: OK. So, that has been something that a lot of people have talked about, the swamp and trying to, you know, rid the D.C. of the swamp. But to Chris Christie's point, he's been one of the only ones who has been really strong coming up against Donald Trump. Will other Republicans follow?

AVLON: You're starting to see, beginning in that debate, some Republicans move towards the Christie position. Christie typical -- you know, using big -- tough words like grift.

SIDNER: Yes.

AVLON: Right? Really. And by the way, later in that interview got into really specifics about family members and money coming from foreign entities, right? But the basic point is like he is fleecing his supporters to pay for his legal bills, which is a fact. What's interesting, to your point, is that Nikki Haley started to make similar noises, really saying, that, look, this is a distraction, he's the least popular politician of the country and he's fleecing his supporters.

So, this is an issue. This is a president -- this is a legal defense fund masquerading as a presidential campaign. This is (INAUDIBLE) serious, serious thing that's happening to the country and the Republican Party. And his donors are paying for it willingly.

SIDNER: Legal -- say that again? That was really good.

AVLON: It is a legal defense fund masquerading as a presidential campaign.

[06:25:00]

MATTINGLY: But to John's credit, this is not just another great Avlon line, which he like comes at 6:00 in the morning, like remarkably prepared for them and it drives me insane. But also, it's factual, right? When you look actually look at the FEC filings, when the tens of millions of dollars that they spent on legal funds, which were not only wrecking just the Super PAC money that they had, that they are trying to ask for it back, but also the campaign money.

And if you're a Republican looking towards a general election, where you know the Democrats are going to raise a billion plus dollars, $2 billion is the target for the Biden campaign, and you're watching this money just go out the door, Avlon actually has a point here. AVLON: Shockingly.

SIDNER: I mean, actually. Wow. Give the man a medal. John Avlon, thank you so much.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, guys.

SIDNER: Thank you, Maura. Appreciate you guys.

MATTINGLY: Well, next, we're going to take you live to Russia where investigators just confirmed that Putin's ally turned foe, Yevgeny Prigozhin, did, in fact, die in a plane crash. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: That's the front cover of "The Tampa Bay Times" this morning, preparations are under way as Tropical Storm Idalia rapidly gains strength, hurricane and storm surge watches are in effect along the state's West Coast, including Tampa Bay.

Now, Idalia is threatening to hit the state as a major hurricane. We want to get right to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. And, Derek, as you're looking at this develop, how destructive could this storm be?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST AND AMS CERTIFIED METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Phil, you know, when the National Hurricane Center uses the explicit language, rapid intensification over the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, we all know the potential there. We have all seen this play out before.

This is what you need to know at home. A major hurricane is expected along the Florida Gulf Coast upon its arrival and this is your last full day to prepare for the storm, especially into the Southern Florida Peninsula. And by the way, this is not just a Florida storm, we have to keep an eye on this in Georgia and into the Carolinas for Wednesday and Thursday.

Here's the latest, 65-mile-per-hour winds.

[06:30:00]