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Jury Selection Begins In Trump's Hush Money Trial; Israel Weighing Response To Iran Attack; Scottie Scheffler Wins 2nd Masters In Three Years. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 15, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

HUGO LOWELL, POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER, THE GUARDIAN: And Trump, in his New York civil fraud cause, has been making all sorts of statements previously about his case, and one wonders if he'll make the same sort of comment today and in the weeks ahead.

You know, those are the kinds of comments that as Trump -- you know, the Trump lawyers are looking at and thinking these could be problematic because he could run up against the gag order. Just on Saturday and Sunday, he was making these comments that seemed to hit at potential trial witnesses, which is prohibited by a gag order. And I think that is the, potentially, the most problematic thing that could come out of Trump this week.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, and what should we be looking for in the jury selection process? I mean, I was talking to Joey Jackson about this earlier and he said maybe they'll ask have you ever been to a Trump rally and that sort of thing. I mean, it might be interesting to see how that plays out.

LOWELL: Look, they're trying to seat 12 jurors and six alternates and we will go through the regular process of jury selection, which is basically, the potential jurors are given a questionnaire and they'll have to respond to questions. They're not going to be asked about their actual political affiliation but they will be asked about where did you get your news source from. Do you look at CNN? Do you look at MSNBC for your news? Do you go to The New York Times?

And the crux for the Trump lawyers is to find the one juror they think could be a sleeper. The one juror who could hang the case because they're not particularly convinced by the evidence. And that's the sort of person that the prosecution is trying to avoid seating on the jury because that could upend the entire case.

And so I think what we will see is a lot of questions directed at trying to establish what exactly people's political leanings are.

ACOSTA: Right. And on Friday, Trump said he's going to testify in his own defense. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you plan to testify in your trial in -- do you plan to testify in your trial in New York?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah, I would testify, absolutely. It's a scam.

REPORTER: Is it risky for you to testify?

TRUMP: Oh, no, I'm testifying. I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: He says he'll tell the truth.

LOWELL: He says that. We will see. As you know, Jim, Trump has a history of making comments that come back to bite him later. Typically, self-incriminating comments for the case at hand. And his lawyers, from what we understand, have been urging him not to take the stand and to not testify. But at the end of the day, the person who is going to make that decision is Trump alone.

And I think there is an interesting thing about Trump here, which is all defendants say before high-profile criminal cases and before high- profile trials that they will testify. They want to clear their own name. With Trump, there is the added bravado, right? Because if it turns out he doesn't testify, by saying ahead of time that he wanted to but maybe his lawyers prevented him so from testifying, that gives him an out with his MAGA base.

He always wants to look defiant and he always wants to look bold, and if he ends up not testifying he can always blame it on someone else here and save face, so --

ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, I have to think that he's not going to be able to resist testifying but we'll have to wait and see.

And, I mean, outside of Trump, Hugo, who are you looking for to testify in this case? I mean, obviously, we're probably going to hear from Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

But somebody that I think would be very interesting to hear from is Hope Hicks, who -- you know, even though you see her around the former president, you see her in Trump's orbit, you don't hear from her that much. She doesn't do a lot of interviews. You don't -- she doesn't talk to a lot of reporters publicly. And so that would be fascinating to watch.

LOWELL: Yeah. Hope Hicks is someone who was in the inner circle during the first part of the presidency, as you know.

And people like Madeleine Westerhout, who was the former director of Oval Office operations who sat outside the Oval Office and effectively saw what paper came across Trump's desk.

You know, the one person I'm really interested to see testify when we really get into the trial is David Pecker because David Pecker, the head of National Enquirer who facilitated the first round of catch- and-kill payments with Karen McDougal. You know, he had a falling out with Trump. Prosecutors always want trial witnesses who can get on the stand and can represent that they were previously friends with the defendant in the case but had a falling out and can be, therefore, quite credible because they can say look, these people who are otherwise friends.

And in David Pecker's case, it's significant because the only reason that David Pecker wasn't involved in the second round of catch-and- kill schemes with Stormy Daniels was that Trump stiffed him on the original $150,000 that he was supposed to pay for the Karen McDougal story.

And so I think that's going to be a really interesting person to see testify at this trial.

ACOSTA: Yeah, and we mentioned Michael Cohen. He was on MSNBC over the weekend. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER DONALD TRUMP ATTORNEY: One of the things that Donald and his legal team are trying to do is every day, it's to discredit me. And they think that that's a winning strategy for getting a -- an overturn of whatever conviction that a jury may or may not determine. That's not the way that you run a trial. Have your own defense. The defense is not to attack the witness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:00]

ACOSTA: I mean, Hugo -- I mean, a huge part of this defense strategy seems to be to go after Michael Cohen. We saw some of that telegraphed in Trump's Truth Social post. He's going after Michael Cohen. Now, he's been given a gag order. That's going to be a big part of this.

LOWELL: Yeah, I think so. Cohen has a history of lying to Congress and lying to federal investigators. And he, himself, was charged on separate tax counts related to the whole situation. And so, it's an easy target -- an easy opening for Trump's lawyers to trying and impeach him and his credibility on the witness stand.

But here's the problem with that strategy -- which, kind of, Michael alluded to a little bit -- which is when you have all the documents as the Manhattan D.A.'s office does -- if you have all of the receipts and the invoices, which is the underlying charge here -- remember, it's falsification of business records in furtherance of campaign election financial violations. When you have the receipts, it's very difficult to then say well, the witness is lying but the receipts are not. And I think that's the fundamental problem that Trump's going to run into.

And his principal strategy is going to be trying to delink the campaign finance violation allegations from the underlying falsification of business charges. They know they probably can't get away with the falsification of business records but they think they might be able to sway the jury on the campaign finance front.

ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, and that's a -- that's a huge lynchpin to this whole case, Hugo.

And how much pressure is on Alvin Bragg? I mean, this might be the only trial that happens before the election.

LOWELL: Yeah, huge. You know --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LOWELL: -- of all the criminal cases -- and there are four criminal cases brought by the special counsel Jack Smith. One on the classified documents holding in Florida, and one on the federal January 6 trial in Washington. This may be the one that goes first and may be the only one that goes first. And when Americans go to the ballot later this year, they may have to base their voting decisions on what they saw in this trial.

And if there is any part of this trial where Trump is seen to be victorious, maybe he is able to knock down the felony allegations to misdemeanors if Trump successfully convinces the jury that there is no campaign finance violation, for instance. Then I think that will be treated as a win. It will be treated as a win by Trump's team.

And I think that will severely take the sail -- the wind out of the sails for Biden -- the Biden campaign -- which have been trying to make this case the whole part of that campaign. They're trying to compare now Biden to Trump and saying well, Trump, he's mired in all these criminal and legal problems, but Biden is not.

But if Trump gets off even a little bit here, I think, politically, that's a big gift to him.

ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, Hugo, there -- I mean, that is -- that is a big part of this. Because, I mean, when you talk -- and I know you talk to people in Trump world from time to time. I talk to them from time to time. They were worried about -- they have been worried about the January 6. They have been worried about the Fani Willis case down in Georgia. Obviously, the classified documents case is a -- is a big concern. You don't ever really hear them talk about this case as being a huge concern for them.

But what do you hear?

LOWELL: Yeah, I'm hearing much of the same thing.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LOWELL: Look, it's -- there's always been the thinking inside Trump world that if there was one case that had to go before the trial, they want it to be this case -- and for various reasons, right?

Number one, it's kind of early on still. There's still six months or so to go until the election, so they think they can effectively spin the news cycle between now and then. And they also think it's similar enough to come of the civil cases that they can muddied the distinction in the public's eye.

You know, the American voter -- the average voter is probably not in the weeds of all of these civil and criminal proceedings. And with Trump having just come out of the New York civil fraud case where that was about inflating his asset values; the E. Jean Carroll defamation case where he had to pay a big punishment fee, in essence. And when you take all these three cases together it all kind of sounds the same. It all sounds like Trump's fudging his books a little bit.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

LOWELL: And when you take it at that sort of description, I think it all starts to meld together. And if the Trump team can get away with the one trial, they want it to be this because politically, it's the easiest to explain away.

ACOSTA: All right, Hugo Lowell. Thank you very much. Great to see you this morning. Much appreciate it.

In the meantime, Republican infighting is tying up aid to Israel and Ukraine after Iran's weekend attack on Israel. Speaker Mike Johnson is facing mounting pressure to bring an aid package to the House floor but hardline conservatives don't want it to be included in -- with the funding for Ukraine.

President Biden spoke with top congressional leaders on Sunday about the Middle East. Here is what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said about that call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The best way to help Israel and to help Ukraine is pass the supplemental this week, and I've called on Speaker Johnson to do that. There was a consensus on the phone among all the parties that we had to help Israel and help Ukraine. And now, hopefully, we can work that out and get this done next week. It's vital for the future of Ukraine, for Israel, and the West.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, on Sunday, Johnson said the House will try to pass additional aid to Israel this week but details are still being finalized.

[05:40:00]

Joining me now is Axios congressional reporter Stephen Neukam. Stephen, I mean, what do we expect? What do we know what's in this package that Speaker Johnson says he hopes to pass this week?

I mean, one of the issues has been this push-and-pull between different lawmakers. And, I mean, on the House Republican Conference side and on the Democratic side there are progressives who don't want more aid to Israel. There are obviously very conservative members in the House who don't want aid going to Ukraine.

This is kind of a mess to untangle here.

STEPHEN NEUKAM, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Yeah. Well, at this point, we don't know much --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

NEUKAM: -- about what the speaker -- what path he's going to go down. As the majority leader said -- Chuck Schumer -- the Senate has a 90- plus billion-dollar national security supplemental passed. It's ready to go through the House. That's a nonstarter for many House conservatives.

The speaker is already facing enough pressure from his right that I don't think that that's the path that he's going to go down. But we're going to have to see if he wants to move Israel alone, if he wants to do an Israel-Ukraine package. Obviously, though, former President -- former President Trump has floated the idea of a -- of a loan for the Ukraine aid. So there's a couple of paths ahead of him that he could take.

ACOSTA: And how does the calculus change after what took place this weekend?

NEUKAM: I think it certainly pushes more urgency on the Israel front. I think that worries probably a lot of people on Capitol Hill who have already been worried about the Republican, sort of, reticence to moving Ukraine aid. I mean, if you talk to defense hawks and folks who have been to Ukraine and spoken to President Zelenskyy, they know that the situation is dire on the front lines and that American aid is sort of the number one thing that needs to come there.

But I think this breeds new life into the idea that they need to get Israel aid done as quickly as possible.

ACOSTA: Yeah, and I also wonder how Speaker Mike Johnson's appearance with Trump is going to affect things. I mean, when I was talking to some Democrats earlier this past week, there was some opening it seemed that if Johnson got in trouble, OK. If he included aid to Ukraine. Yeah, we might help Johnson out if his speakership is in jeopardy.

But I have to wonder how those same Democrats feel this morning after he went down to Mar-a-Lago, stood with the former president, and they were airing all of these bogus notions about election integrity and so on. I mean, I have to think that might change things a little bit.

NEUKAM: It's an interesting calculus.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

NEUKAM: I think from the speaker's perspective, he needs help on his right flank. He has --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

NEUKAM: -- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is actively trying to get rid of him. Has filed the motion to vacate. It's unclear how much support amongst other conservatives she has.

So he's trying to shore up support on his right flank but I think that there is sort of a domino effect of how Democrats see that. Obviously, the election denial is something that is front of mind as we move into November, so we'll have to see.

ACOSTA: All right, Stephen Neukam. Thank you very much. We'll all be watching. Much appreciate it.

Coming up next, a warning from the U.S. to Israel about possible retaliation against Iran. Plus, why golf is about to become less of a priority for two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler after that amazing final round yesterday at the Masters. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:47:42]

ACOSTA: This morning, there are growing fears of a widening regional conflict in the Middle East, prompting this from the U.N. Secretary- General.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate. Now is the time for maximum restraint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The Middle East plunged into uncharted waters when Iran launched a barrage of missiles toward Israel late Saturday. The attack in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on Iran's embassy complex in Damascus earlier this month.

Israel's government is determined to respond. But according to CNN analyst Barak Ravid, they've delayed action following a call between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Joining us now to talk about this, CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.

Kim, Barak is telling CNN that this open conflict that is going on within Israel's war cabinet on how to respond to this attack.

What do you think? How are we going to see this play out? Because obviously, there is going to be this -- you know, this hunger to respond to what Iran did over the weekend. But at the same time, they kind of dodged a bullet.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yeah.

ACOSTA: And one has to think does that -- does that enter into the calculus here -- enter into their calculations? DOZIER: Some members of the Netanyahu war cabinet wanted to strike back even as the Iran attack was underway. Others -- you know, once the bombs had all fallen and hadn't done very much, there was a bit of an impetus to take the wind, as Biden reportedly said to Netanyahu in that phone call. But the challenge is how do you leave it unanswered?

So I think in the near term, Israel is going to hold its fire because it was proven how much it needs allies and partners to shoot all of those missiles down.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

DOZIER: But Israel's deterrence has always depended on hitting back twice as hard as they get hit so that no one dares to strike them again.

[05:50:00]

So, look, they sent people back to school early. They reopened the country. So the signal is right now, they are not planning anything. But I think you're going to see them plotting something -- hitting another IRGC -- you know, Quds Force official.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

DOZIER: And that's the dangerous part because then what will Iran do?

ACOSTA: Well, and I have to wonder. I mean, they -- Iran warned over the weekend that they will respond with even more force if Israel retaliates.

And you have to ask the question, I suppose, how does Israel continue to focus on taking out Hamas -- that is something that they've talked about wanting to do -- if they're now focused on a potential -- I mean, war with Iran? I mean, if this becomes a tit-for-tat kind of situation, do they dodge a bullet? Do they take the win every time, like Joe Biden said over the weekend? It becomes a lot more difficult.

DOZIER: Well, Israel has always been expecting some sort of war with Iran --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

DOZIER: -- but they thought it would probably also include Hezbollah firing its 150,000 some-odd rockets, much of which can reach all of the major city centers in Israel. Plus, Houthis out of Yemen, et cetera.

I think what you're going to see is a pause where they figure out can we get allies with us to someone center Iran? Iran hasn't paid for this in any way. A stiff statement from the G7. But the problem is that Iran has now set itself up for any strike against its interest. It says it will respond with an attack on Israel again. And the next time it responds --

The missiles and the drones arrived in a staggered way over a five- hour period. They could have stacked them up to land altogether. That had a much greater potential to overwhelm Israel's air defenses. So --

ACOSTA: Yeah, it was almost as if Iran did this to send a message. To say OK, this is what we can do, knowing they were going to be shot down. Because if they had fired everything instantaneously and there had been damage and there had been deaths, that might have triggered more of a response from the U.S., the U.K., and perhaps others.

DOZIER: And whether or not they meant that, the next time they launch such an attack they won't make the same mistake. So the next confrontation could be more deadly and that is what could escalate. Because Israel is not going to sit on its hands twice after an attack -- an attack like this.

ACOSTA: And this is how national security spokesman John Kirby reacted. Let's play a little bit of that if we have it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY SPOKESMAN: And think about what they threw at Israel.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "STATE OF THE UNION": Right.

KIRBY: Several hundred drones and missiles over the course of a few hours. And what damage did they cause? Not very much. I mean, it was an incredible effort by Israel but also it shows that Iran is not the military power-weight that they -- that they claim to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I mean, based on what John Kirby was saying there it's almost as if it's not what you and I were saying a few moments ago about it being a warning shot and they knew that some of the stuff was going to get shot down. Kirby is almost making it sound as if, OK, here is our assessment of what Iran can do. And that's kind of what we saw over the weekend.

DOZIER: Yeah.

ACOSTA: What do you think of that?

DOZIER: Kirby is saying they're hand-fisted. But I just --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

DOZIER: -- have watched Iran over decades, like many Iran watchers. The Quds Force is a learning organization. They won't make the same error the second time. And they might also, next time, bring in those allies, like Hezbollah, to also launch its attacks. And that would spell major casualties inside of Israel.

ACOSTA: Yeah, and Biden -- the administration tried to frame this over the weekend as a win for Israel because there was so little damage. I mean, you have to -- and he stressed to Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in any kind of offensive action against Iran. What does that say about where things stand right now between the president and the prime minister? It almost sounds as though -- I mean, if we weren't in this -- in the middle of this back-and-forth that they've been involved in over Gaza and Hamas, that perhaps the response might have been a little different from the president. It's almost as if he's saying Bibi, cool your jets.

DOZIER: Well, I think --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

DOZIER: -- he is saying Bibi, cool your jets because --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

DOZIER: -- you don't want it to escalate into some sort of nuclear- armed conflict.

ACOSTA: Right.

DOZIER: Because both Israel and Iran potentially have those weapons. We know Israel does. Iran could put them together very fast.

But Netanyahu will still feel the pressure to strike back at some point. Then again, inside Israel, they are taking this as a win. From the perspective of the people there, this is the way the Israeli Defense Forces are supposed to work to keep them safe. So there's a little bit of exoneration for the failures of October 7.

ACOSTA: Yeah. They see this as perhaps the system worked --

DOZIER: Yes.

ACOSTA: -- this past weekend, unlike what happened on October 7.

All right, Kim Dozier. Great to see you as always. Thanks so much.

DOZIER: Thanks.

ACOSTA: I really appreciate it.

All right. Scottie Scheffler -- he has cemented his status as the number one golfer in the world after winning the Masters for the second time in three years.

Andy Scholes joins us now from Augusta, Georgia. Man, Scottie can play some golf, can't he?

[05:55:02]

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Jim, Scottie Scheffler is on one dominant run right now. You know, last month, he became the first golfer ever to win back-to-back Players Championships. Now, he is a Masters champion for the second time in three years. And Scheffler is the first favorite to go into this tournament and then win it since Tiger back in 2005. And he was tied for the lead halfway through that final round and that's when Scheffler just showed why he's the best ball-strike in the game. This shot on nine here nearly rolled in for an eagle. Scheffler had four more birdies on the back nine. He would cruise to a four-shot victory.

Now, he had said he would leave the Masters on Sunday if his wife Meredith went into labor. The couple is expecting their first child later this month. And I asked Scheffler if he was worried about that at all with the lead on the back nine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER, 2-TIME MASTERS CHAMPION: No, no. You know, I guess that's a -- that's a testament to what good -- how good of a headspace I was in. I wasn't thinking about that much. I was doing my best to stay in the moment and stay calm and execute shots.

When it comes to having a kid, every single person says that it changes your life and it's the most special thing in the world. So I cannot -- marriage has been such a tremendous aspect of my life and I cannot even imagine what being a parent is going to be like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yeah. Scheffler, at 27 years old, is the fourth-youngest ever to win two Masters behind only Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Seve Ballesteros.

Now, Tiger, meanwhile -- oh, well, he had a rough go of it after making his record 24th-straight cut here in Augusta. He ended up 16 over for the tournament, which was the worst score ever in his career.

But despite a tough weekend, Tiger -- well, he was happy with his performance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS, 5-TIME MAJORS CHAMPION: It was a good week all around. I think that coming in here and having not have played a full tournament in a very long time, it was a -- it was a good fight -- a good fight on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, yesterday didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to. It doesn't take much to get out of position here and unfortunately, I got out of position a lot yesterday and a couple of times today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yeah, it's just the third time Tiger has completed a 72-hold tournament since his car wreck three years ago.

And Jim, I'll tell you what. I followed Tiger for much of this tournament. There -- he -- no one commands a gallery and a crowd quite like Tiger Woods.

ACOSTA: Oh, yeah. SCHOLES: He got standing ovations and all the cheers everywhere. He almost gave us a magical moment yesterday on 16 when he almost rolled it in from the bunker. The place was just going nuts. The people here just love Tiger. I like to say nothing gets more -- grown men more emotional than watching Tiger Woods play golf.

ACOSTA: I get emotional seeing him make this kind of comeback. I mean, it's great to see him back out there. And we all thought, my goodness, was he ever going to get back on a golf course after that car accident? So it's really great to see him back out there.

All right, Andy. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Just ahead, unprecedented security for an unprecedented event -- the first former U.S. president to face a criminal trial. Plus, the Israeli military formulating some options for a response to Iran's weekend attack.

(COMMERCIAL)