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Erin Burnett Outfront

Judges In Georgia, Florida & New York Deny Trump's Requests To Dismiss Cases; Report: Israel Using A.I. To Help Find Targets In Gaza; Arizona Election official Rips Elon Musk's Voter Conspiracy Post. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired April 04, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:37]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

Major losses for Trump tonight. A judge denying yet another attempt to get his Georgia election case tossed out, as the judge Trump appointed in Florida rejects his bid on paper. But is she actually handing Trump a big win?

Plus, Biden gives Netanyahu an ultimatum. This as the parents of the American citizen killed in the IDF strikes speak to OUTFRONT. Why they believe their son was targeted, and the questions they have tonight.

And standing up to Elon Musk. An Arizona election official taking down a conspiracy theory that Musk promoted about election fraud to 63 billion people. And he took it down point by point. He's my guest tonight to show why Musk is wrong.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, a ruling against Trump. The judge in Trump's Georgia election interference case rejecting Trump's attempt to throw the entire case out, just completely dismiss it. Now, Trump had claimed that the case violated his right to free speech. Judge Scott McAfee having none of that writing, quote: The defense is not presented nor has the court been able to find any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech.

And so, that means Trump is on track to go to trial in Georgia as soon as August, if the district attorney there, Fani Willis, has her way.

So that means two trials will be in progress or done by Election Day because, of course, just 24 hours ago, the judge in the hush money case in New York also rejected Trump's latest delay attempt keeping that trial on track for start next week.

But the news tonight out of Florida on Trump's Mar-a-Lago documents case is a bit more complicated. When you look at the headline, it looks like a defeat for Trump because Judge Aileen Cannon also rejected one of Trumps request to have that case tossed. But that rejection is just the surface headline. Cannon actually handed Trump a victory by allowing him to continue you with an argument of defense that is not relevant. It's basically spurious to the case.

But the former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb says that this ruling by Cannon would, quote, permit an acquittal where none is warranted. Ty will be with me in just a moment.

This is all why Cannon's ruling though today could have been a very big victory for Trump. And once again, he saw it that way. He complimented her as he unleashed an attack on the special counsel Jack Smith. Trump today writing, quote, that Smiths should be sanctioned or censured for the way he is attacking a highly respected judge, Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over his fake documents hoax case in Florida. He's a lowlife, he's nasty, rude, and condescending and obviously trying to play the ref.

There's a lot to cover tonight. I want to start with Paula Reid, though. Paula is OUTFRONT in Washington.

And it appears that Trump has two big losses today, but that isn't really the case, is it?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, he's losing but he's winning. And speaking with sources close to these cases, Erin, I'm told they are playing a long game. Look, we said in a moment times, their number one strategy right now is to delay all of these criminal cases as long as they can. If Trump's reelected, you know, the federal cases dismissed the state-level cases stalled.

And each motion, each hearing helps to push these cases back. Let me tell you, Judge Cannon down in Florida, she still has eight motions to dismiss sitting on her desk, in addition to several other issues, including setting a trial date in Georgia and Florida. Yeah, they lost their motions to dismiss, but I will remind everyone, there's no firm date for either one of those cases on the calendar.

Fani Willis would like to start in August, but after the efforts to disqualify her push at that case back, that seems really pretty optimistic.

And in Florida, the judges also allowing Trump to possibly use this argument that he had the right to bring classified documents homes, there was personal documents as a defense in trial, something the special counsel has strenuously objected to. Now, Erin, in terms of this long game, I'm told, look, even if eventually there are trials, if there are convictions, there are also thinking about appeals. And the hope is that each one of these motions, each one of these hearings helps them build a record that they could eventually use to appeal and kill any convection in a death by 1,000 cuts.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Paula.

And I'm going to go now to Ryan Goodman, our legal analyst, and Alyssa Farah Griffin, former Trump White House communications director, to begin our coverage.

So, Ryan, lets just start there's a lot here. Let's start with Georgia. That was a loss for Trump in terms of what he wanted rejecting the free speech claim that he was making in that particular case.

So but -- you know, you hear what Paula is saying that, yes, Fani Willis says, okay, I want this to start in August.

[19:05:01]

But that that's very optimistic given the broader context here of they tried to get rid of her. Now she's got to kind of, you know, get the wheels back on the bus.

Is this case still on trial to start before the election?

RYAN GOODMAN, CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, JUST SECURITY: It very well might start before the election. I don't think the cases at all going to end before the election. The American public will not have a verdict, even according to Fani Willis's most optimistic preview of her own schedule. That said, I do think that pace might actually start in early August, so we aren't -- that's not dislodged at this point. And there's some inklings from the judge that that might be the case.

The fact that he invited a gag order against the prosecutor, usually that's done when you're close to selecting a jury. That's one tea leaf -- I wouldn't say it's tea leaves. And it might indicate that he's on track to approve it at some point.

But right now, he's remained mum. We don't know where he'll land.

BURNETT: Of course, the closer could see election ironically then, if you've publicized, televised, you only hear one side. It gets complicated.

You know, Alyssa, Ryan has brought the gag order issue. So, Sara Murray is reporting the Trump allies are pushing for a gag order against Fani Willis in the Georgia case. Now, you know, that's quite choice, right, given the gag order situation out there, he's gotten multiple gag orders that he's been dealing with. And he slams them all the time, sort of upping the ante on whole concept of gag order.

I mean, just listen to these.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A judge put on a gag order. I'll be the only politician in history that runs with a gag order where I'm not allowed to criticize people. Can you imagine this? Do you believe this?

You saw yesterday where they take away my right to speak.

A judge gave a gag order today. Did you hear that on speech? Which I believe is totally unconstitutional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And then he keeps up in the ante in terms of the things that he says. I guess the question is, is he going to push these orders to the limit, tried to force one of these judges to -- go ahead, if you're too scared to put me in jail.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is rank hypocrisy on full display, but what Donald Trump is proved a master of in these numerous trials is that he is going to use the legal system and take it as far as he can and he's got the resources to do it. The average citizen wouldn't be able to delay the way that he has, but because he has the resources, he can do it.

He's pushed the limit on what he's saying and -- listen, Fani Willis has hardly covered herself in glory in this, but I would have a hard time arguing that anything she has said is anything near the attacks that she's faced by him and his supporters?

BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, it would -- just important point to make, Ryan. Can I ask you about the Judge Cannon ruling today? You know, we've made the point that the headline seemed -- seemed that it was a loss for Trump. But when you look underneath that, actually there was a pretty significant victory. And if you say it's not only a fig leaf of a ruling, it could help him even more than it seems. Can you explain?

GOODMAN: Absolutely. So his claim is that the classified documents are personal. He could somehow magically make these most highly classified documents his own. It's -- it's not what the law says. That's just ludicrous.

So instead of the judge saying, okay, of course, that's ludicrous. She just said, I'm not deciding that pretrial I might let that happen during the trial and maybe that's what ill decide in the midst of the trial. Now I'll actually say, oh, those are your personal documents. I issue a judgment for acquittal and that's called Rule 29. She could do it in the middle the trial and then it's too late. That is not appealable.

So she's actually given him a kind of a loss here, but not really. I think this is not what Jack Smith wanted to hear. If she had ruled now that these could be his personal documents, then Jack Smith can appeal that and have the 11th Circuit --

BURNETT: Go up to the 11th Circuit and they could just -- they could basically remove her from the case, right?

GOODMAN: One hundred percent. And I think they might very well want to do that because she's not overseeing the case and the way in which de I think with themselves would want to see a judge do this.

BURNETT: So, Alyssa, Trump goes to social media today, defending Cannon very clear how he saw that ruling today. I mean, there's no question about that.

He called her highly respected. Now, I just -- I just have to contrast that with how he talks about judges in his other cases and many other judges, and just so everyone knows, highly respected for her. Here's everybody else.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS) TRUMP: This judge is a lunatic.

He's a nasty judge.

I have a Trump-hating judge.

Her whole life is not liking me.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BURNETT: That her, is not Aileen Cannon. Aileen Cannon, again, highly respected.

What do you make of his defense of Cannon, Alyssa?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there's two things he's trying to do here. He's trying to sway the court of public opinion. He wants to prejudice the public or his supporters against judges. He doesn't like, and he wants to make them favorable to the ones that he does.

But he also it's a nod to the judge. I mean, it's very similar to one of his attorneys refer to Brett Kavanaugh when who's going to be ruling on immunity saying, you know, Trump appointed him. So we think he'll be with us.

This is something that they do and kind of put out there publicly in hopes of swaying the judges in their favor. Now, of course, judges should be unbiased. That shouldn't affect them, but that's what he's thinking and saying this.

BURNETT: I mean, will there be repercussions for it?

GOODMAN: Well, not really. I mean, he can get away with that, and it's very funny because he always accuses others, often accuses others of what he's doing, he's playing the ref.

BURNETT: Yeah. I did have the irony of playing the ref. I'm glad you brought that up and make sure we could bring that one home.

All right. Thanks so much to both of you. Great to see you.

And former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb joins me now.

[19:10:01]

So, Ty, last night, we were on together. You were talking about Judge Aileen Cannon. You had said that, quote, evidence of her bias is pretty palpable. You said she was grossly incompetent. Then today you got to read the ruling.

How do you feel after you saw it?

TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: So I think she had an opportunity today to listen -- to review that criticism she received yesterday, not just from me, but from many other commentators And I think it triggered a fight or flight moment for her. And instead

of fighting, our leaf flying, she flailed this. Keep in mind that this ruling is on a motion that has probably a cumulative total of 50-plus pages of legal briefs detailed citations to the case law, Jack Smith, making it plain that the Presidential Records Act has nothing to do with the case. And that not only should Trump lose the motion to dismiss the Presidential Records Act considerations, and it should be completely withdrawn from the case.

Instead, she issues -- instead of citing a single one of those cases where the authority is very compelling. She issues a two-and-a-half page ruling that doesn't include a single citation. And then she has the hubris to suggest that Jack Smith demanded these jury instructions.

She's the one who demanded the jury instructions. That's what provoked Smith's response. He didn't demand anything. He just -- he asked as he was required to do that, she rule on this issue prior to trial, he's entitled to a ruling on this issue prior to trial.

This ruling actually does give him a basis to mandamus her if he so chooses. And I think that on at least on this issue alone, putting aside whether she would be removed from the case, but on this issue alone, as to whether the Presidential Records Act has any relevance to the trial, you know, he would win in the 11th circuit.

BURNETT: And you know, you had made the point that if her ruling here today stands, it could set the lineup for acquittal as Ryan was laying out in the actual trial. That Jack Smith --

(CROSSTALK)

COBB: That's exactly right. And that's why he has -- I'm sorry. Go ahead.

BURNETT: Oh, I would say, in Jack Smith at that point is Ryan was pointing out could do nothing about it. So is there any way for him off the case at this point prior to that?

COBB: So he can ask. I'm not sure that he will ask on this initial appeal. He'll have multiple opportunities because she will not be able to make it through the CIPA process unsullied. He'll have multiple opportunities, I believe.

But you keep in mind that every time you go up there and back, it serves Trumps interest in terms of delay. She can kick the can down the road with the documents (ph). If she took two outfits into a changing room at a clothing store, it might be days before you saw her.

BURNETT: That's analogy that we all can understand. No citations needed. Ty, thank you.

And next, the breaking news continues. Israel's initial investigation into the strikes that killed seven workers in aid workers in Gaza complete tonight. And the parents of the American who was killed in that attack will speak out next. Why they believe that their son was targeted.

Plus, the Trump spin machine kicking into high gear as his Truth Social stock plunges. Trump claiming the company has $200 million in cash and zero debt. Does that add up?

And a real life "Oceans 11", it is one of the largest cash heist in L.A. history. $30 million gone and police tonight are baffled.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:07]

BURNETT: Breaking news, Israel announcing its initial investigation into the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers is complete, but so far, they're not saying anything about it publicly. This as President Biden issues his harshest message yet to Netanyahu, an ultimatum of sorts -- protect innocent civilians or U.S. aid is at risk.

It's first time its been said that directly, it all comes as questions grow over the IDF's use of artificial intelligence to pick targets and the fatal consequences of this.

Fred Pleitgen is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): After Israel's attack on the World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza, questions about the IDF's targeting process are front and center.

JOSE ANDRES, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN FOUNDER: This was not just a bad luck situation where, oops, we dropped the bomb in the wrong place or -- no, this was over 1.5, 1.8 kilometers with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof.

PLEITGEN: Israel calls the targeted strike, quote, a tragic mistake. But there are general questions about how the IDF decides who to target after Israeli magazine "Plus 972" published an article claiming Israel's military widely uses artificial intelligence when going after alleged militants, sometimes with very little human oversight, says investigative reporter Yuval Abraham, after speaking to six Israeli intelligence officers.

YUVAL ABRAHAM, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: So one source told me that he would spend roughly 20 seconds before authorizing each target. And the only supervision they needed to do is to check if the targets, the machine marked was a male or female.

PLEITGEN: According to the reporting, the A.I. program called Lavender identifies and marks alleged militants in Gaza from low-level ones to senior commanders.

[19:20:03] ABRAHAM: One source told me it's 90 percent of the people, so hundreds of thousands of people. And it gives -- gives each one a rating based on this long list of features and the rating shows how probable the machine thinks that a particular individual is that belongs to the Hamas or Islamic jihad military wings.

PLEITGEN: But Abraham says, his sources told them A.I. program also makes mistakes, with lethal consequences for civilians in Gaza.

ABRAHAM: It would mark people who have a loose connection to Hamas or no connection at all to Hamas as potential targets. And they knew that the supervision mechanism in place would not be able to find all of these mistakes.

PLEITGEN: The Israel defense forces have not denied the use of A.I. on the battlefield in Gaza, but in a statement say, quote, contrary to claims, the IDF does not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives or tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist. Information systems are merely tools for analysts in the target identification process.

While Israel says it has concluded the initial investigation into the bombing of the aid convoy, the former top U.S. general in Europe told OUTFRONT he's troubled by some of what he sees from Israel's military.

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.), FORMER U.S. ARMY EUROPE COMMANDER: Because I think that the IDF has become I don't want to say callous towards civilian casualties, but their tolerance for collateral damage is much higher. For us, it's zero.

PLEITGEN: The IDF says, it takes care to prevent civilian casualties, but the U.S. has warned more needs to be done to prevent the death toll among noncombatant Gazans from increasing even further.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (on camera): And, Erin, as far as the use of A.I. in the targeting process is concerned, the IDF says that even if A.I. is used, that their analysts need to conduct independent investigations to verify that targets meets certain criteria under international law, but also according to the IDF's own restrictions -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Fred, thank you.

OUTFRONT now, John Flickinger and Sylvia LaBrecque. Their son, Jacob, an American and Canadian citizen, was killed in the attack in Gaza. He was delivering food on behalf of World Central Kitchen. He was 33 years old, had an 18-month-old baby and appears to be the first American killed by the IDF since the October 7th attacks.

John and Sylvia, no one watching can imagine your pain right now. Could you first just tell us a bit about your son, your child, Jacob?

SYLVIA LABRECQUE, SON KILLED BY ISRAELI STRIKE ON WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN CONVOY: Well, Jacob for sure was a great human being. He was a wonderful child and I mean, he was very athletic, very dynamic. He loved nature.

He loves playing outside and later on, you he enjoyed doing what he was doing as a military guy. He did that for 11 years. And even when he left the Army, I always told him that he was a -- deep down inside, he was kind of a warrior and I think that this is what we've been seeing through this past few days.

Jacob was a very special human being. Very loyal, real good heart. He was someone to remember. I think he was kind of like bigger than life and that's what we're seeing right now with all the help and the support we're receiving. I'm hoping that wherever he is, up in the above, I hope that he can feel all that support and that love that we're trying to express. And show it to him, you know?

JOHN FLICKINGER, SON KILLED BY ISRAELI STRIKE ON WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN CONVOY: Jacob was loving son, a loving father, and partner with his life partner, Sandy LeClerque (ph). They recently joined, and had a 18-month-old son. They were just starting their life together and he was very, very happy.

He's also dedicated his life to service, first thing now to military in Canada. He served in Afghanistan for a year, and served with the World Central Kitchen starting this past fall and he loved the work with WCK, and was eager to continue with them.

BURNETT: And when you mentioned, you know, he was in a deconflicted zone, the convoy was coordinated with the IDF. We know these realities.

Jose Andres has been very vocal. I know you both have heard what he said.

[19:25:03]

He said that this attack was targeted. It was not an accident. I just wanted to play part of what he said again, so that all of our viewers can hear it as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE ANDRES, CHEF & FOUNDER OF WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: What I know is that we were targeted deliberately non-stop until everybody was dead in these convoy, that -- that cannot be -- that cannot be the role of an army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Do you believe your son was targeted?

LABRECQUE: Absolutely. There's no doubt about it, and I think that the most important thing is to speak out, to express it the way were doing it, the way the men did. I think its important and that way we're hoping that it may change certain things, you know?

FLICKINGER: So, yes, by all appearances, the facts as they've been as they become known as presented. So far, seem to indicate that it was a deliberate targeting of a food aid convoy. We would like an independent investigation. We asked everyone that we've talked to, from Canadian government, from the U.S. government that to persist and demanding for an independent investigation. So the all the facts can be known, but from what we know now, you know, your viewers can make their own judgment. But all the facts point to that -- yeah, this was a deliberate attempt to the target aid workers.

BURNETT: How do you -- I guess it's just too soon, even asked such a question, but how do you even process that? Do you feel -- do you feel a rage about it or?

FLICKINGER: You know, there -- yeah, we're crushed.

LABRECQUE: Yeah.

FLICKINGER: You know, sad. I don't feel any anger but I feel some anger, but the overwhelming feeling is just sadness for our son and for his partner, and, his young son, and for the other aid workers who were killed and for the over 200 aid workers who've been killed since the beginning of this conflict. They haven't gotten the same attention that our son, Jacob, has but their lives were of no less value.

And our hearts go out to the families of the World Central Kitchen staff who were killed, the families of the Palestinian aid workers who have been killed trying to serve as starving population and to everyone, both sides of the conflict, who are suffering through this.

I know the citizens of Israel want peace. I know the people of Palestine and Gaza want peace. So, you know, if we can move the needle toward that in a small fraction of an inch, then Jacob's life, and the other workers' lives won't be in vain. Yeah.

LABRECQUE: Yeah.

BURNETT: President Biden, we understand at least the word that was shared with us by those around him was shaken. The word he used is shaken when he heard about the strike, in which Jacob died. And today, he spoke to the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and we understand that President Biden told him more needs to be done to protect civilians or there will be consequences. That was the message.

Do you feel that that's what it should be? Is that strong enough given what has happened?

FLICKINGER: Well, he's been saying that I support him in repeating to Israel and Netanyahu that things need to change. But, you know, actions speak louder than words. The United States needs to use its leverage to force a change. We need to suspend aid to Israel until they make some changes with the way they're conducting its operation. At the same time, the hostages need to be released, and the humanitarian corridors need to be opened up. The IDF needs to stop targeting civilians and aid workers.

So, yeah, there's a lot that needs to happen and words are great, but actions speak louder than words.

[19:30:02]

LABRECQUE: Yeah.

BURNETT: Have you heard from President Biden?

FLICKINGER: We haven't heard -- we've heard from the embassy in Jerusalem, United States embassy in Jerusalem, but otherwise we have not heard from anyone in the U.S. government. We just got off the phone with the Canadian Prime Minister Pierre (ph) Trudeau.

LABRECQUE: Yeah

FLICKINGER: We spoke also today with the Canadian foreign minister who was in Europe, who called us to offer her condolences and help. Canada was organizing some support where they can for Jacob's family. We'd like to see someone from our government, my government because I'm a U.S. citizen and Jacob was a U.S. citizen.

BURNETT: Yes.

FLICKINGER: Someone reach out to us to offer more than condolences.

BURNETT: I can only hope that they will and my heart goes out to you.

LABRECQUE: Yeah. You know what? I'd like to say that this story is so much bigger than what happened to our son. It happened to so many people. There's already been thousands of people that died. It's about humanity.

And right now, were living in a very messy world. There's going to be some kind of clean up that is done somewhere on the road. And just like John was saying, even if it's just a tiny inch, a change that will protect some children, some mothers, some human beings, I would be so proud, and Jacob would be so proud of it.

So we're just hoping that his light is shining all around the world the way that there's a massive change, somewhere, somehow.

BURNETT: I'm so sorry for both of you. Thank you so very much for being able to speak with us.

FLICKINGER: Thank you.

LABRECQUE: You're very welcome and thanks for thinking of us.

BURNETT: The family has set up a GoFundMe to help Jacob's young family, his partners, they mentioned Sandy and their 18-month-old son. People can donate and both the U.S. and Canada.

Well, next, Trump is claiming his Truth Social has hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and 7 million followers. So why are shares plunging?

Plus, I'll talk to the Arizona election official who is calling out Elon Musk as the billionaire, promotes a claim that hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants could have registered to vote in Arizona just so far this year.

And would you pay nearly $1,000 for a night a Super 8 Motel? Well, other people are and well, you're looking at why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:37:04]

BURNETT: Tonight, Donald Trump doing a damaged control. He's hyping his social media platform. It's called Truth. Hyping it because the shares have plunged, the company said it lost over $58 million last year. I mean, it's barely even been public.

The stock today down another 5 percent, despite multiple rants from Trump, including in part, quote, all the competitors to Truth Social, especially those in the radical left Democrats Party who are failing at every level, like to use their vaunted disinformation machine try and convince people. And it's not easy to do that. Truth is not such a big deal. I think Truth is amazing.

First of all, this is the crucial part, and it is very solid having over $200 million in cash and zero debt.

OUTFRONT now, Dan Alexander Forbes, senior editor.

And, Dan, a lot of people are looking at this closely. We're going to see where the story goes, because this isn't -- this isn't your normal company that suddenly goes -- goes public and goes through the rigor and scrutiny of the legal process prior to that. It was done a bit differently.

So, let's just start with what Trump is saying here. He's saying it's solid $200 million in cash, zero debt and you say?

DAN ALEXANDER, SENIOR EDITOR, FORBES: Yeah, so if you look at the most recent financials that the company has released, that's as of the end of 2023. And remember, this is a merger of between a SPAC company which was just a pile of cash, and then Trump's company. The pile of cash at about $293 million in the coffers. So, now, they've apparently lost a lot of that because that SPAC incurred significant amounts of expenses and legal expenses to try to take this deal public.

Secondly, Trump's company was also taking on major debt because it wasn't making any money. But the way that he was taking on debt was he was taking notes that would convert to equity at huge discounts. So, ultimately, what you're looking at for the retail shareholder is that you have less cash than you would've expected and you have more shareholders, diluting everybody else except for the insiders who got in early.

BURNETT: Who got in -- who got in early and, of course, when you say SPAC, it was special purpose acquisition corp., basically constructed just to go out and buy something. In this case, it was Truth Social.

So, Trump's also trying to push how popular it is, you know, hype it up, Dan. He's saying he's got 7 million followers and it's good for a startup, very good first startup and growing fast.

Okay, you look at the comps, you look at this. Is that true?

ALEXANDER: Seven million is nothing on Twitter. You know, on Twitter, he had over 80 million followers and that was just him. The overall company had hundreds of millions of active users.

This is a tiny, tiny minnow in an ocean of a social media company. And what's especially troubling for investors is if you look at the growth trajectory of it, it's not adding many users. And so normally if you had a company that was generating very few revenues and losing money, you'd at least expect to see huge growth. And here, you're not even seeing that. So, there's really from a business fundamentals perspective, little reason for hope here.

BURNETT: I mean, it's pretty shocking. I mean, the past few days you've got to investors, and it's pleading guilty to insider trading scheme linked to a deal in this whole process of bringing it public as you were explaining.

[19:40:04]

The company itself has sued two of its co-founders who are former "Apprentice" contestants. "Boston Globe" ran an op-ed where investment experts compared this IPO to a Ponzi scheme, storied investor in so many successful things, including Expedia, Barry Diller, said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRY DILLAR, IAC CHAIRMAN: It's a scam. Just like everything he's ever been involved in, is some sort of a con.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I mean, you know, that's something to go out and say that, right? Barry doesn't go and say that for nothing. What does all this mean for Donald Trump?

ALEXANDER: Well, the question is, how long it takes for retail investors to catch on, to the fact that there's nothing there. This is a business that's generating that $750,000 per quarter. It's losing about $5.3 million a year on an operating basis, far more on a net basis. It doesn't have major growth.

So Trump, whose shares are locked up, meaning he can't sell them for about six months, is really just hoping to hang on and hope that this all this mess, all this infighting, the lawsuits, all the controversy, just doesn't scare people off in the next 5-1/2 or six months, and at that point, that he can somehow tap into his shares either by leveraging them or selling them.

BURNETT: And get the money.

All right. Dan Alexander, thank you so much for explaining and always good to see you.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, likewise.

And also, you saw this tweet and it really stood out to me. So here it is, it comes down to Elon Musk. Musk went out and retweeted something amplifying a post. This post suggests that more than 220,000 undocumented migrants could have registered to vote in the state of Arizona without a photo ID this year alone. This year alone. So, what, April 3rd, 4th, whatever it is today, let me check. April 4.

Okay, 63 million people viewed this repost by Musk. And Musk, addition to the 220,000 claim was, quote, extremely concerning.

Well, the most concerning thing about this whole thing is that 63 million people saw it and it is not true. This is according to the top Republican official and Arizona's largest county, who pushed back in a lengthy rebuttal point-by-point. Of course, on X, the platform where Musk posted this to begin with.

Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer is OUTFRONT.

And, Stephen, I'm glad to talk to you.

So, it's your post that I saw going through a point-by-point because, of course, I saw Elon, 220,000 illegal migrants voting -- registering to vote in Arizona in the past three months in anybody's job will go to the floor. So let's go through it -- 220,000 is nearly four times the number, total number of voters who registered and all of Arizona this year, four times.

So that number is totally off. Can you explain?

STEPHEN RICHER (R), MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA RECORDER: Yeah. So this isn't as complicated as the previous segment. There's no complex investment schemes here. There's just an allegation of 220,000 illegal immigrants registering to vote in the past three months, we only have 4 million registered voters in Arizona total. And for all of 2024, we've only had 60,000 new registries.

And so, we keep track of all of these things, and this is just what are those instances in which I would ask people's spidey senses to be a little more alert and say, is that just pulling on my emotions, saying 220,000 illegal immigrants registered to vote in the last three months? Is that realistic?

BURNETT: I mean, look, it was shocking and I think what's most shocking is of those 63 million people, a lot of people are going to take away at the very least, hey, mass numbers of illegal migrants are voting, registering to vote in Arizona.

But I do want to point out one thing. And you noted this, right? So obviously the Musk repost did not get to this level of nuance, but you did. You in your rebuttal, you said there about 30,000 registered voters in Arizona total, right? Not registered this year, but total, who wants something called a federal only list, which means that they have come to you and said they're U.S. citizens, but have not provided documents to prove it. Okay. So at first when you see that you say, wow, that's 30,000 too

many. But can you tell us a little bit more about who those people are and why that is also prone to conspiracy theory?

RICHER: That's right. So Arizona is actually comparatively quite vigilant in checking citizenship. So if you register through the Arizona motor vehicle division as the vast majority of our voters do, or if you register at all since 1996, then were going to ask for document did proof of citizenship.

Now, if you don't provide that and that's typically a birth certificate, you don't provide that, but you still say I attest under penalty of law that I am a United States citizen, but I have not for whatever reason provided this documentation, then federal law holds -- requires that we still allow that person to vote a federal only ballot.

[19:45:02]

But we keep close numbers on those. So we keep close tabs and we have about 30,000 in the entire state of Arizona. And from the studies that I've seen and the studies that we've run, these are disproportionately centered around university areas. And if you think about it, that probably make sense. People might be going to university and just have -- don't have access to their parents home or maybe their birth certificate is kept and so really, we have no reason to believe that those people aren't citizens. It's just that they haven't proven it to the documentation level required by the state of Arizona for all other voters.

BURNETT: All right. Well, all of this crucial context to a -- to a retweet of something that was false, that was seen 63 million times.

Stephen, thanks so much. Always good to see you.

RICHER: Right. Did you see my posts first or his post first?

BURNETT: You know what? I saw yours.

RICHER: Excellent

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Then I said, what is it that Elon is posting and I went up and I thought, yeah. So, I read the debunking before I read the original.

RICHER: The lesson is people need to -- the lesson is people need to follow me rather than Elon Musk. There you go.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you, Stephen.

And next, it's being called a real life "Oceans 11", $30 million in cash stolen without a trace, and its left investigators in Los Angeles totally stumped.

And were going to tell you what all these little dots on the map have to do with the upcoming solar eclipse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:50:36]

BURNETT: Tonight, a real life "Oceans 11". The FBI and Los Angeles police investigating after $30 million in cash was stolen from this storage facility that you're looking at on screen right now. It's one of the largest cash heist in city history.

Investigators looking into whether it was an inside job, but no clues yet.

Josh Campbell is OUTFRONT in Los Angeles.

And, Josh, you've been following this massive heist. What else can you tell us about it?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, this seems like something that you might find at a Hollywood screenplay, but this highest all too real, as you mentioned, $30 stolen from this private security firm, a law enforcement source told me that happened on Easter Sunday, but it wasn't discovered until the next day on Monday.

This group of criminals making their way in, not setting off any alarms, making their way into the vault, and then carrying out all of this money. At this hour, the FBI and LAPD trying to identify the persons who are responsible. Of course, that investigation comes as law enforcement here in California, and in many communities across country are grappling with a different kind of thread. This one that is targeting wealthy homes, it has authorities pointing the finger at international crime rings.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL (voice-over): Home burglaries --

CAROL STARR, BURGLARY VICTIM: Hit the jackpot.

CAMPBELL: -- from coast to coast.

JEFF STARR, BURGLARY VICTIM: I can see that the entire place had been trashed.

CAMPBELL: But these aren't your typical thieves.

J. STARR: We've heard now that they use drones,

CAMPBELL: And their alleged crimes even have nations pointing fingers.

TODD SPITZER (R), ORANGE COUNTY, CA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I got a letter apology from the Chilean ambassador.

CAMPBELL: But it all starts much closer to home with lives changed forever. C. STARR: You don't feel safe in your own home.

CAMPBELL: Carroll and Jeff Starr thought their jewelry was secure, locked up in a safe in their Orange County, California home.

C. STARR: My mother wanted to leave a legacy through jewelry. And she bought some beautiful antique jewelry, museum quality jewelry.

CAMPBELL: But thieves are believed to have stock the neighborhood, waited for the family to leave and got away with $8 million of heirloom jewelry and other items.

J. STARR: They broke through a window and the upper bedroom and came through that window and then immediately started working once they found the safe, start working on the safe.

CAMPBELL: Police say the break in as part of a sophisticated ring of thieves who arrived from South America, often from Chile, prosecutors say, where it's easy to get a tourist visa waiver to the U.S., then joined with others in a coordinated effort to scout and break into homes.

SPITZER: They lie in wait in these ghillie suits, so they remain camouflaged, while they're watching the behaviors of the homeowners when they come and go. They have Wi-Fi jammers to stop the alarm company from being notified.

CAMPBELL: Hundreds of wealthy homes targeted authority say, from Scottsdale, Arizona, to Raleigh, North Carolina, and Nassau County, New York. Recent arrests have highlighted a nationwide issue.

CHIEF JEFF WALTHER, SCOTTSDALE, AZ POLICE: So we have to be willing to start asking some hard questions of our federal government.

CAMPBELL: The so-called burglary tourists have law enforcement demanding change to the electronic system for travel authorization or ESTA, which allows up the 90-day visits to the U.S. from certain countries, including Chile, which Spitzer says is not providing them the required background checks on its citizens.

SPITZER: Well, if we don't know the criminal background of these individuals, then we can't tell the judge anything or represent anything about the background, which means the persons released on no bail and they never come back again to answer for the charges.

CAMPBELL: Spitzer claims another Chilean suspect was out on bail when he broke into this Dana Point, California home in July.

BALARKRISHNA SUNDAR, BURGLARY VICTIM: This is the window, the burglar came through.

CAMPBELL: The Sundar family built their dream home. Now, rebuilding their peace of mind.

RAMA SUNDAR, BURGLARY VICTIM: We want to move away from here, and not going feel less secure at all. CAMPBELL: They say for a problem so well-known to public officials,

it's time to put an end to these crimes.

R. SUNDAR: We want to know what these politicians are doing up there. They're supposed to help us.

B. SUNDAR: Because I want a politician to go this experience and he may feel exactly as I feel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL: Now, Erin, Chilean officials didn't respond to CNN's request for comment. Our colleague Jason Rivera (ph) did get a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. They say they're working with the Chilean government to urgently we addressed this issue. That statement goes on to say, Chilean officials have responded by improving operational coordination with DHS offices and efforts to detect, deter, and prevent travel to the U.S. by known criminal actors.

They say that once those changes are fully implemented, they will have access to some of this background information. But, of course, Erin, for a crime, a type of crime that has been going on for so many years, the victims we interviewed are asking what's taken so long, Erin.

[19:55:14]

BURNETT: Unbelievable. Thank you very much, Josh Campbell.

And next, one of nature's greatest sights, a total eclipse of the sun is actually a stupendous thing to see and it's going to happen in the U.S. now. Wait until you see just how much people are now paying in order to witness it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight, what is being billed as a once in a lifetime experience. This is the solar eclipse coming across North America. If you're traveling to try to see it and you haven't already booked a place to stay, it's just too late. Sorry to be so negative, but you'll be hard-pressed to find one. What you see here is the eclipse path on Monday, right?

So you look at that from Dallas, Texas, all the way up to Lancaster, New Hampshire. Millions though are now flocking to cities and towns along that path.

So, when you look at the map here, its exact same line, right? But this is not an artistic aversion of it. These red dots actually represent where Airbnbs are 100 percent booked. It's really amazing to look at it right? In New York state alone, searches for Airbnbs this weekend are up 900 percent from the same time last year, and hotels -- well, there's a Super 8 motel in Illinois now advertising rooms for $949. The normal rate is $95,10 times.

Wow. Well, our special coverage of the eclipse for those of you who were too late to get off the couch starts on Monday afternoon.

Thanks so much for joining us. Anderson starts now.