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Judge Orders Steven Bannon To Prison By July 1; CNN Analysis: Israel Unlikely Used American Munitions In Deadly Gaza School Strike; Defense Plans To Call Hunter Biden's Daughter And Uncle To Testify. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 07, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:31:22]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Five-thirty a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at New York City where the sun is up on this June morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Steve Bannon has until July 1 to report to prison. The former Trump adviser was convicted of contempt of Congress in 2022 after failing to provide documents and testimony to the January 6 House Select committee. Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison. That July 1 timeline gives him a short window to get a higher court to intervene.

A defiant Bannon says he still plans to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: There is nothing that can shut me up and nothing that will shut me up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to jail! You're going to jail!

BANNON: There's not a prison -- there's not a prison -- there's not a prison built -- there's not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up. All victory to MAGA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: OK, then.

Joining me now to discuss, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, Andrew Cherkasky. Andrew, good morning to you.

ANDREW CHERKASKY, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR (via Skype): Good morning.

HUNT: Let's talk about what's going to happen here to Mr. Bannon. What are his appeal options? Is he out of them? Is he headed for prison on the first? CHERKASKY: Well, the time is running out for Steve Bannon very quickly, actually. He has to report by July 1. He has said that he's going to appeal. He's going to start by trying to appeal to the D.C. Circuit en banc, which mean all of the justices on the D.C. Circuit, and then potentially to the Supreme Court.

Now, his case is interesting because it is very rare for somebody to be held in contempt of Congress -- for that to get referred to the DOJ and for them to then be prosecuted and jailed. But his case is not one that appears to be very strong based on the ruling of the D.C. Circuit last month, saying that he not in an official adviser position when this conduct allegedly occurred, after the Trump administration refused to engage in the -- in the subpoena with Congress on the January 6 committee, and that he didn't have any reasonable justification.

More than that, they say that his willful nonparticipation -- it doesn't matter that he may have been advised by an attorney not to do that. His own selection to not go when he physically could have gone was enough under the law for it to be an illegal act.

HUNT: Let's listen to a little bit of what Bannon's lawyer also had to say about potentially taking this to the Supreme Court -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SCHOEN, STEVE BANNON'S ATTORNEY: So, as you know, the judge today issued a surrender date of July 1 in order to let us appeal to a higher court, meaning the full Court of Appeals in D.C. and/or the United States Supreme Court. As I said in the courtroom, this is an issue that legal scholars have said from day one is a case that has to go before the United States Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, again, can we just underscore -- I mean, is this something that the Supreme Court would have any reason to take up?

CHERKASKY: There's a few issues that are kind of spiraling on this. And we saw just a couple of weeks ago -- a couple of months at this point -- Peter Navarro had a similar request of the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court did not take up his case.

There are a couple of interesting questions that are at play here.

First is kind of generally the idea of how Congress and subpoena and require former White House officials or White House aides to testify before Congress. That's something that over the years has been kind of battled back and forth between the White House and Congress and has not resulted in prosecutions, although there have been times that people have been held in contempt of Congress and not jailed for it.

[05:35:00]

Steve Bannon's, as has the D.C. Circuit -- the Appellate Court lays out, essentially says that Steve Bannon's case and kind of the scheme of things is not a very sympathetic case. Steve Bannon obviously claims to the opposite and says that he was acting as an aide to the former president and believed that there was a possibility that there was an executive privilege that would be -- that would be put forth in his situation.

But the judges here, as well as some of the precedent, shows that full outright refusal to participate at all versus kind of bits and pieces of perhaps claiming some sort of privilege and then cooperating on others -- that's the part that the D.C. Circuit really did not care for and says that his case is outside the scope of what these appeals and these claims call for.

HUNT: So, Andrew, we heard from Donald Trump on this. He took to Truth Social -- and if we could put that up on the screen so we can read a little bit of it. He calls it a "total and complete American tragedy" and, of course, calls it the "Crooked Joe Biden department of injustice to crazed former Republican lunatics," he says. He refers to Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney there.

Now, he has actually called for them to be indicted. The January 6 committee members here.

I suppose this is just rather typical of Donald Trump, but still telling.

CHERKASKY: I think that this falls into the category that a lot of people will see as political lawfare, and that's a concern in our country and I think that it's a concern as it applies both ways.

Obviously, the person in the executive position has a great deal of executive privilege and that has been something that has been balanced over the years against the interest of Congress to subpoena folks and to gain testimony from individuals.

So it's the sort of thing that is a new development in the balance and the dance between Congress and the interest of the executive in how they subpoena and collect information at Congress and require people to come forward. I think the concern being on both sides that this is a trend that will continue.

I don't know that Steve Bannon or even Peter Navarro in their refusal to participate are particularly significant outliers when we go back in history, both Democrat and Republican presidents who have resisted subpoenas from Congress in the past.

So, Donald Trump and his supporters certainly see this as a significant departure from what the history of this -- of the subpoena process from Congress really looks like and how it's executed.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean, the only thing I would add having covered a lot of this as it unfolded during the Trump administration -- some of the earlier issues with Bannon and Navarro -- is that Republicans on the Hill were frustrated with how they conducted themselves. There were plenty of others who resisted doing what Congress was demanding of them without getting to this point. And some of that -- some of that is straight-up political because there were Republicans in Congress who were more OK with Bannon and Navarro facing this than they were with others. Take that for what you -- what you will.

Andrew Cherkasky, thank you. I really appreciate your time this morning.

CHERKASKY: Thank you.

HUNT: All right, let's turn now to this story. An Israeli airstrike on Thursday killing dozens of people at a school in central Gaza. Among the dead, women and children who were apparently told that they would be safe there.

A CNN analysis reveals U.S. munitions were likely used in the attack, as was the case in an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp last week.

Asked about the use of American weapons in Gaza, President Biden once again calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wind down the war with Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think he's listening to me. They didn't -- they were going to go into Russia -- into Rafah full-bore -- invade all of Rafah. Go into the city. Take it out. Move with full force. They haven't done that.

And what they've done is they've agreed to a significant agreement that if, in fact, Hamas accepts it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now, CNN international correspondent Ben Wedeman. Ben, good morning to you. What more do we know about this attack? What are the Israelis saying about why they did it?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this attack took place yesterday. At least 40 people were killed. As you said, many of them women and children.

Now, according to the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, there are around 6,000 people taking shelter in this UN-run school in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. And according to him, there was no prior warning of this attack.

[05:40:00]

Now, the Israelis say that this strike was based on precise intelligence. They said that some of Hamas members who participated in the seventh of October attacks were using three of the classrooms there as, basically, a base. However, we did hear from the United Nations Office for Human Rights who said that the strike was a failure by the Israeli military to ensure strict compliance with international law.

Keep in mind, of course, that last week there was a similar Israeli strike on a UN school also being used as a shelter, which left at least 45 people dead. And we're hearing just now from Gaza civil defense authorities that there was another strike on a UN school that was sheltering displaced people which, according to them, has left at least six people dead and dozens of people wounded. That's in the Shati refugee camp, which is west of Gaza City in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

So this is just really the latest in a series of incidents where the Israelis have attacked UN schools that are being used as shelters. Schools where people assume, wrongly perhaps, that they'll be safe -- Kasie.

HUNT: Very difficult.

Ben, let's also talk about the tensions that are escalating along the Israel-Lebanon border. President Biden has pushed for a truce there. Israel's government has said that they are prepared to launch a largescale attack.

We heard this from a State Department official about that -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW MILLER, SPOKESPERSON, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: We continue to see Hezbollah taking strikes across the border, including incredibly destructive strikes. And Israel, of course, has the right to defend itself when hit by a terrorist organization. But we remain concerned about the risk of escalation and the risk that any type of escalation could further widen and broaden this conflict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Ben, what are the consequences of Israel starting even what they call a "limited war" with Lebanon?

WEDEMAN: Well, one of the first dangers, Kasie, is that it's hard to keep a war limited. And, of course, what we know is that Hezbollah is far better armed and trained and disciplined than Hamas. Don't forget they're supported by Iran. And unlike, Gaza, Lebanon has strategic depth. It receives -- Hezbollah receives its weapons via Syria, for instance, and therefore it's not sort of an isolated enclave like Gaza.

Now, according to some estimates, Hamas has -- Hezbollah has somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 rockets -- some of them with a range as much as 300 kilometers.

And I was reading an article in the Israeli daily HOD, which is saying already that the Israeli military has been eroded after eight months of war its abilities, its means, and the inventories of its units. To become engaged in a war with Hezbollah will put stress not only on the Israeli military but it will mean that the cities and communities of northern and central Israel will be vulnerable to attack from Hezbollah -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right, Ben Wedeman for us. Ben, thank you very much for that reporting.

Ahead here, drugs, guns, and a love affair with his brother's widow all coming into focus at the Hunter Biden trial.

Plus, Boston overwhelms Dallas in game one of the NBA Finals. Our Bleacher Report's ahead.

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[05:48:07]

HUNT: Welcome back

Hunter Biden's legal team plans to call his daughter and uncle to testify today. This is the fifth day of his felony gun trial as the prosecution wraps up its case. Biden's defense team hoping Naomi Biden can mitigate some of the damage that was done by testimony from Hunter's sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, who also had a romantic relationship with Hunter. She described how he introduced her to crack cocaine and how she disposed of a gun -- Hunter's gun -- in a grocery store garbage can.

President Biden also says he'll respect the verdict in his son's trial during an ABC interview from France.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MUIR, ANCHOR, "WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH DAVID MUIR": Let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome -- their verdict, no matter what it is?

BIDEN: Yes.

MUIR: And have you ruled out a pardon for your son?

BIDEN: Yes.

MUIR: You have?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now, national politics reporter for Axios, Alex Thompson, who has been in the courtroom covering this trial. Alex, good morning to you.

This is, I will admit, headline-grabbing salacious testimony from Hallie Biden. Now, she got up there and said that Hunter Biden had introduced her to drugs. She said, "It was a terrible experience I went through, and I'm embarrassed and I'm ashamed, and I regret that period of my life."

Take us inside the room for what it was like to actually hear all of this play out in court.

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): I mean, truth is stranger than a soap opera in this case because it really was extraordinary to hear from her for the first time. Hallie Biden has really tried to keep to herself. She's been very private. And even when she got engaged -- I believe it was about last year -- she really tried to keep it private.

[05:50:00]

And it's sort of extraordinary that she revealed in court that she recently got married. And by recently, I mean this last weekend. And he was in court with her.

We didn't just hear about how Hunter Biden would keep multiple ping- pong-size crack cocaine -- you know -- I don't know what you call them -- crack cocaine parts?

HUNT: Well, fortunately, I can't help you. I have no idea what they're called.

THOMPSON: I apologize. But, you know, used to keep them with them.

You know, the other sort of thing is that this was really just a family tragedy out here on the national stage. Because not only did she get addicted, she was recounting that she and Hunter were both using drugs and Hunter would use drugs on a daily basis at the house where her kids were there. And these are her two school-aged children.

One part that really stuck out to me was her young son, Hunter Jr., was texting her and was able to sort of use just casual terms of hey, I found a stem in this pouch in the library. He knew what to call it. And it just sort of showed this toxically sad relationship that was going on in 2017-2018 ahead of Joe Biden's presidential run.

HUNT: So, can you walk through a little bit, like, what, in terms of the legal stuff, the damage that may have been done by some of this testimony, and what we expect to see today in terms of who the defense is going to put up there?

THOMPSON: Absolutely. So, the real damage was that Hallie Biden, in addition to Hunter sending her text messages in the period where he owned this gun -- so basically, this entire case relies on the fact was he using during this period when he bought the gun and before she disposed of it?

And there were text messages that said -- you know, Hunter Biden saying I was sleeping on a car, smoking crack with someone. There was another text message where he basically insinuated that he was at a 7- Eleven buying crack cocaine. And she testified to those things.

She also testified that she thought he looked like he had maybe been using drugs. That she thought she found residue in his truck that looked like he had been using drugs.

But Abbe Lowell -- his main -- Abbe Lowell, which is Hunter Biden's lawyer -- his main thing was but you never saw him using drugs in this period of time? And she said, "No."

So what you're going to see is Naomi Biden and Jimmy Biden, which I'm guessing -- we don't know for sure but I'm just guessing that they did see him during this period of time when he owned the gun and they're going to testify that hey, we didn't see him using. So -- because the whole point is was he a user -- was he an addict during this time when he owned the gun. And I expect that's what we're going to hear today.

HUNT: All right. Alex Thompson for us. Very much appreciate the texture you're bringing to this reporting here. I hope to see you again soon.

THOMPSON: Thanks so much.

HUNT: All right, time now for sports. The Celtics put on a dominant display to take down the Mavs in game one of the NBA Finals.

Coy Wire has this morning's Bleacher Report. Coy, good to see you. Good morning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, what's up, Kasie?

Boston had the top-rated offense in the NBA this season. They also had the second-rated defense all year. But after six Eastern Finals in the last eight seasons and not winning it all since '08, they might have found what's been missing last night. His name, Kristaps Porzingis. The seven-foot-three center from Latvia with a skillset so unique they call him the "Unicorn."

Facing the Mavs, back for the first time in more than a month being out with injury, putting on a show. In the first half alone, he had 18 points, two three-pointers, and two huge blocks. He was smiling like even he couldn't believe how on fire he was.

The Celtics finish the first up by 17, the largest first-quarter lead in finals game one history.

Jaylen Brown dropped a team-high 22 and had three steals and three blocks of his own.

Their other superstar, Jayson Tatum, scored 16 in a 107-89 win. He said it's surreal being in the finals and they're not done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAYSON TATUM, FORWARD, BOSTON CELTICS: I say it all the time, it's a game of rush. This is the NBA Finals. They're not going to go away easy and we just have to respond, and we did a really good job tonight. We took care of -- we took care of the job tonight. Get some rest, watch film, and see what we can do better for game two.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Boston will try to make it 2-0 in this series on Sunday night as the team hosts game two.

Now, if you look up dominance in the dictionary, you might get a picture of Oklahoma's softball team. The Sooners making history last night, beating Texas 8-4 for an unprecedented fourth-straight national title at the Women's College World Series.

This senior class, Kasie, was won a natty every single year. They have the highest winning percentage in Division I history. Over the past four years, the Sooners were never run-ruled and never shut out in 250 games.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATTY GASSO, HEAD COACH, OKLAHOMA: I will remember this was the hardest of all, without question. And it's going to probably by the most remembered for just the magnitude of what these guys have done. It's unbelievable -- unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:55:00]

WIRE: Jiminy Cricket -- a thriller in the world of wickets. The U.S. cricket team winning yesterday's T20 World Cup match against international powerhouse Pakistan with just a seven percent chance of winning. And they pull arguably the biggest upset in the history of the sport.

No offense to the Americans, but this would be, like, a Single-A Minor League baseball team somehow beating the New York Yankees.

Get this -- the best player on Team USA isn't even a pro cricketer. He's a lead software engineer at Oracle.

Next up for the Americans, a date with number-one-ranked India on Wednesday.

Finally, football has the Puppy Bowl and now, hockey has the Stanley Pup. Sixteen rescue dogs representing each of the playoff teams with names like Sergei Bobruffsky and Connor McDoodle squaring off in the competition of K-9 skills for a pup-sized version of the Stanley Cup. The Stanley Pup airing on NHL network tonight at 8:00 Eastern.

That is simply pawsome, Kasie. The actual Stanley Cup with the real human players is Saturday, by the way.

HUNT: I would just note that pawsome was not scripted for you, so congrats to you, Coy, on that.

This is like the cricket, too. This is an excellent -- this is an excellent sports report to finish out the week. I mean --

WIRE: What's not to love?

HUNT: All right, Coy. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

WIRE: You got it.

HUNT: Coming up next here, President Biden about to address the world from the shores of Normandy, and he's got one overarching message.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT SAJAK, HOST, "WHEEL OF FORTUNE": Grab those devices and let's get to it. We have lots of money to give away here -- $1,000 in our first toss-up. The category is "What are you doing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: An iconic game show host signing off for the last time.

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