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Israel Vows to 'Exact a Price' after Iran Attack; Jury Selection to Begin in Trump Hush-Money Trial; Trump's Team to Use NYC Trial to Try to Delay Classified Docs Case. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 15, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: It's Monday, April 15. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump is about to experience what he tried to avoid for so long: a criminal trial.

[06:02:48]

Trump's attorneys attempting to use the hush-money trial as an argument for delaying his classified documents case.

Israel ready to strike back after an attack by Iran until the prime minister got a phone call from President Biden.

It's 6 a.m. here in Washington also, also 6 a.m. in New York. Good morning, everyone. I'm Jim Acosta in for Kasie Hunt. It's great to be with you on this Monday.

In the meantime, Israel is vowing to exact a price after Iran's large- scale aerial assault over the weekend. Israel's war cabinet set to meet in about an hour from now to discuss how to respond. The U.S. and other members of the United Nations Security Council urging Israel to use restraint.

President Biden pledging an ironclad commitment to Israel's security, but he has also made it clear the U.S. will not participate in any offensive operations against Iran.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live in Jerusalem with more. Jeremy, good morning.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim.

Israel's war cabinet is set to meet in about an hour from now to discuss a potential response, a military response to Iran's large- scale and unprecedented attack on Israel over the weekend.

We know that yesterday, the war cabinet met for nearly five hours, deliberating, debating what Israel's response should be. And ending that meeting, ultimately, without coming up with a decision.

I'm told by an Israeli official that the decision effectively hinges on questions of timing and of scale. How big should Israel go in its response to Iran and to what extent would that risk the possibility of escalating this conflict even further?

It has yet to be determined by the Israeli war cabinet whether this will be more of a measured response or more of an all-out response from the Israeli military.

In the meantime, Jim, I'm told that the Israeli military has been tasked with coming up with additional options for the Israeli war cabinet to consider as it mulls next steps.

This response from Iran was the first -- this attack by Iran is the first time that they have carried out an attack from Iranian soil directly on Israeli soil. And in the days before this attack, Israeli leaders made very clear that such an attack would result in an Israeli attack on Iranian soil.

[06:05:07]

But now the question is, what will they do? And to what extent this could potentially escalate the situation further, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

In just a few hours from now, history will unfold in a New York City courtroom, when Donald Trump becomes the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges.

Jury selection starts this morning. The search for 12 impartial New Yorkers and alternates expected to take a week or more.

Prosecutors alleging Trump falsified business records to hide the reimbursement of hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, payments that were allegedly made to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

The former president trying to make the case that he's going on trial for the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT/2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The entire world will witness the commencement of the very first Biden trial. They're all Biden trials. You know that, right? And I'm proud to do it for you. Have a good time watching.

When I walk into that courtroom, I know I will have the love of 200 million Americans behind me.

And I will be fighting for the freedom of 325 million Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Let's bring a CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig; CNN politics senior reporter Stephen Collinson; Republican strategist Matt Gorman; and former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield. Guys, busy morning, busy day. Elie, we got a look last week at the jury questionnaire.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

ACOSTA: How are they looking to root out the candidates? I mean, this is going to be a challenge, I mean, for these prosecutors. It just takes one person to grind this to a halt.

HONIG: It's going to be a challenge both ways. First of all, from Trump's perspective, this is not a great jury pool for him, right? This is Manhattan only. No Bronx, no Brooklyn, no Queens, no Staten Island. Manhattan only, a borough, a county where Donald Trump got 12 percent of the vote in 2020. So he's worried about that.

But you're right, prosecutors -- I've been in this situation -- are terrified about one lone juror sneaking through who could hang a jury. You need all 12 in order to convict.

The questionnaire is really interesting, because what the questionnaire is trying to do is get at, first of all, which way do you lean. It doesn't come out and just ask it. I kind of wish it did just say like, did you vote for "A" or "B," or are you Republican or Democrat?

But there's all these other proxies for that. Have you ever participated in political activity for or against Trump? Have you ever contributed, that kind of thing.

But he asks a couple important questions. It says, whatever way you lean, can you still be impartial in this case?

Now some people are going to say, I can't be impartial. I just lean too strongly. That's it. And they're going to be out.

But then there's going to be a lot of people who say, I do have feelings, but I can put those aside and still be impartial. And that's where the instinct kicks in. That's where the judge is going to have to ask, do I believe this person?

And more importantly, the parties who have a limited number -- ten each, ten strikes each -- they're going to have to make the decision, do we use one of those ten precious strikes to remove this particular person? It's a guessing game.

ACOSTA: Yes. And how long could this take?

HONIG: So the estimates are about a week. This is state court. Federal jury selection is much quicker. Federal jury selection, when I pick juries, it was a day, maybe two at most. State jury selection, first of all, it's a slower process. IT'S more individualized.

Also, remember, the defendant here is Donald Trump. So people are going to have many more preconceived notions about him than your average defendants.

So I'm putting the over under at a week.

ACOSTA: Yes. And Stephen, I mean, in terms of jury selection, you write in your latest piece that Trump appears to be "gleaning an understanding that his fate is now out of his hands, soon will be in those of 12 anonymous citizens who he will not be allowed to bully, persuade, or politicize."

I mean, that is a very interesting way of putting it. I mean, you know, he throws his weight around -- I know this -- just about everywhere he goes. Hard to do that in a courtroom.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Right. And his entire political persona, his entire business persona, has always been based on him being the big man in any room, using the force of his volcanic personality to intimidate people, to get his own way, to spin things in his own direction.

In the court of law, he's not going to be able to do this. And we've seen this, actually, in the E. Jean Carroll libel case and in the civil case, the fraud case up in New York, when the judge basically told Trump's lawyers, can you control your client?

So while Trump's strategy of making this a narrative of persecution works in a political sense, at least among Republican voters, when you come to the standard of evidence and decorum and procedure in a courtroom, it doesn't work quite so well.

ACOSTA: All right. Interesting. All right, guys. Stay with us. I'm going to take a quick break. We've got more to talk about this. Kate, Matt, don't go anywhere.

Coming up, New York State Police officers gunned down during a traffic stop.

Plus, more on Trump's strategy in the hush-money case as it gets underway this morning. That's coming up.

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[06:14:32]

ACOSTA: All right. Back now to today's big story. In just a few hours, Donald Trump will become the first ever former U.S. president to stand trial in a criminal court.

Jury selection will get underway this morning. Trump is accused of falsifying documents to conceal a sex scandal just days before the 2016 election.

And our panel is back with us. And Kate, I guess Trump was asked, you know, will he take the stand, will he tell the truth? What's he going to do? Let's listen to that.

We have that. Do we have it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it risky for you to testify?

TRUMP: When I'm testifying, I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth. And the truth is that there's no case. They have no case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: "all I can do is tell the truth," he says.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This man never tells the truth, so I'm not sure.

ACOSTA: Could be a challenge.

BEDINGFIELD: I'm not sure why --

ACOSTA: Yes.

BEDINGFIELD: -- we think this could be any different.

You know, look, I do think politically, if he is going to take the stand, he's going to be talking about this case, I mean, I think the kind of conventional wisdom is this case is less politically damaging for him than the other potential cases he's facing which are more -- you know, more rooted in some of the constitutional issues that he has flouted.

But you know, as a political matter, I think anytime you are on trial, and you are testifying on your own behalf in a trial, that is not a helpful thing. That is not persuasive to general election voters.

You know, it may be persuasive to his MAGA base that has shown time and again that they are absolutely die-hard for him, regardless of what he does. But the MAGA base alone isn't enough to get him to 270 electoral votes.

And so, you know, anytime the backdrop for him is a courtroom and, you know, his potentially criminal proceedings on just -- on trial here, I think that that's not a good thing for him.

So if he -- you know, it may be the right legal strategy. I don't know. I defer to the legal eagles on that. But politically, you know, I think that will be deeply problematic for him and will be a great contrast for the Biden campaign to seize on.

ACOSTA: Yes. And Matt, I mean, the conventional wisdom is that, oh, this case is not as damaging. This case is not the Fani Willis case or the January 6 case, or even the classified documents case.

But I mean, let's take a look at some of this polling here: 55 percent of registered voters say a Trump conviction in his -- in this case would not impact their vote. Among independents, that number is 58 percent.

I mean, I just have to wonder, I mean, just any conviction, that's never good. You know, I mean, I used to say just being indicted on something is bad for a political candidate, but a conviction.

MATT GORMAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, I think a couple of things. These are notoriously hard to poll. I mean, for example, right, let's pretend it's late September 2016, and you're reading off to -- a poll out to a voter, a hypothetical that essentially would be, what if Trump said what he said on an "Access Hollywood" tape.

You would expect to the polls to go down, right? In reality, when these things actually happen, it's -- it's always a very different thing.

So I think that's what the Trump campaign, I think what you're probably seeing out of some of these polls.

But that being said, right, time is finite. And so when you're sitting in a courtroom in Manhattan, you're not in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia.

So how Trump is able to leverage campaigning from in and around a courtroom is going to be key.

And I think to Katie's point, a little bit, when he goes and he talks about testifying on the stand, his audience is not the juror. I think that's one important thing to remember about this whole process, if you're Trump, your audience is not the jurors. It's the American people, and it's the voters. That's who he's trying to talk to.

ACOSTA: All right, guys. Stay with us. We've got lots more to talk about.

Coming up soon, Israel's war cabinet will meet to decide exactly how to respond to Iran's attacks.

And next, Donald Trump trying to use the beginning of one of the criminal cases to delay the progress of another. We'll talk about that in just a moment.

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[06:22:17]

ACOSTA: All right. Despite his many attempts to delay it, Donald Trump's hush-money criminal trial will begin today, something that the former president is now hoping to use to slow down his classified documents case in Florida.

Trump's lawyers writing in a new filing that they are unable to meet a May deadline for reviewing classified evidence in the case, because Trump, quote, "has a constitutional right to be present at the trial in New York, and as a result, cannot participate in the work relating to important parts of his defense."

Special Counsel Jack Smith responding Sunday night, arguing, quote, "Each time the court sets a new deadline in this case and attempts to keep moving it toward trial, the defendants reflexively ask for an adjustment. That must stop." My panel is back with me now.

Elie, I mean, how might -- you know, you push on one side, pulls on the other. I mean, it is kind of a big mess.

HONIG: Of course, Donald Trump is doing exactly this.

ACOSTA: Yes.

HONIG: I mean, anyone in his position would be doing this. You have four indictments. The goal here, clearly, is to push them off towards -- until after for the election, as it should be, strategically.

So let's do the math here. This trial is going to take him out for April and May, and that doesn't really leave us with that much time for the other ones.

And Trump's team is correct here. He does have a right to assist in his own defense. He does have a right to prepare for each trial individually.

You can't chain smoke these trials and have one end on a Friday and the next one start on the following Monday. He does have a right to prepare for them.

And so I think we need to be careful here. Like, of course, he's trying to delay, but it is fair for him to say, Look, I'm on trial. I'm in Manhattan court every day, essentially, for the next two months. And so I and my legal team can't focus on the other stuff.

You have to be all in on the case in front of you. So I actually don't think this is an outrageous request by him.

ACOSTA: Yes, Stephen, I mean, the classified documents case is the one you talk to people like George Conway. They will say, you know, this is the fastest way for Donald Trump to end up in an orange jumpsuit, is this classified documents case.

I mean, the prospect, as Elie was saying, that -- that this case in Manhattan could delay the classified documents case. I have to assume that that has to make Jack Smith's blood boil.

COLLINSON: Right. And he's having a lot of trouble right now. He's also facing the delaying tactics in the other case, the federal election case, which the Trump team has been very successful at pushing that now --

ACOSTA: Oh, that case. There's that one. There's that one.

COLLINSON: Yes. Into the Supreme Court.

And the classified documents case, I think it's difficult for people outside Washington to maybe get their heads around how serious it is. But if you talk to anybody that was -- that served, for example, in the government, anybody you talk to in the White House. You go out for coffee with someone in the White House, first thing they do is they turn their Blackberry over, because everyone is deeply conscious of the responsibility of handling classified information.

That clearly is not something that bothered the former president too much, given the way that he hoarded this stuff down at Mar-a-Lago.

[06:25:07]

But this is a very serious case. I don't know. Have you ever had a client that's had four --

HONIG: No.

COLLINSON: -- you know, concurrent massive cases at one time? So while Trump is --

HONIG: Not even close to that.

COLLINSON: Yes. While -- while Trump is delaying, as you say, he's using the protections of the legal system, which he often decries, which is quite ironic.

HONIG: Let me just --

COLLINSON: Yes.

HONIG: -- to add to your question, in 14 years as a prosecutor, federal and state, I never saw a defendant -- I mean, I either dealt directly with or supervised thousands of defendants. Maybe sometimes you'd see someone who had two. Two pending indictments. But I've never seen more than that.

Now, we've got four. And so there's a lot piled on Trump. He has a right to defend himself.

There's times when I think his defenses have crossed the line. There's times where I think has defenses have been disingenuous. But I do think we need to be careful. He does have a right. His liberty is at stake. They're trying to lock him up. He's allowed to fight. He's allowed to fight hard.

ACOSTA: And there's also the -- the notion that, if the prosecutors are going to take as long as they have taken --

HONIG: That, too.

ACOSTA: -- that this is one of the risks that you run into.

HONIG: They've left themselves with such little runway here that --

ACOSTA: Yes.

HONIG: -- if and when two or three of these cases get pushed after the election, look at Merrick, look at the prosecutors.

ACOSTA: Yes. All right, guys. More to talk about in just a few moments. Stay with us on that.

Coming up, two New York police officers killed on the job, the latest on this tragedy ahead.

Plus, we are live outside the courthouse where, for the first time ever, as we've been saying, Donald Trump, a former U.S. president, will stand trial on criminal charges. That is coming up.

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