Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Source: Prosecutors Charging Trump Org. And Its CFO Tomorrow; Biden: Wildfires Prove Infrastructure Deal Needed; NYC Mayor's Race A Mess After Test Ballots Mistakenly Counted. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 30, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:31:26]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: An important breaking news today, a source telling CNN the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is set to charge the Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg with tax crimes, those charges to come tomorrow we are told, "The Wall Street Journal" breaking this news a bit earlier today. Let's go straight to CNN's Paula Reid for the details on this. Paula, this is a huge deal. What are you learning?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is a big deal, John. These are the first criminal charges to be filed in the D.A.'s years' long investigation into the Trump Organization. Now, tomorrow we expect that these charges to be tax crimes both against the company and longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg.

Now, the allegation is that they failed to pay proper taxes on certain benefits that were doled out to employees like free apartments, free cars, even private school tuition. But John, it's very unusual to charge a company criminally for failing to pay taxes on fringe benefits. Now when it comes to Mr. Weisselberg, certainly many employees in different companies receive maybe free apartments or car services, private school tuition, though, that could be harder for him to explain away.

But we know these charges against Mr. Weisselberg, these are really capping off a month long pressure campaign, trying to get him to flip on former President Trump to share what he knew about what was going on behind closed doors at the Trump Organization. Now, John, the big question I keep getting is will the former president be charged?

Now, based on our reporting right now there is no indication that the former president or any member of his family will be charged. But we know this investigation is active. And it's ongoing. They will continue to pressure Weisselberg. We know there are other Trump Organization executives who are also under scrutiny. They too will continue to be pressured to provide what they know, so at this point, no indication of charges. But again, this is just the first step in this ongoing investigation.

KING: You mentioned first step and the unusual nature of charging a corporation criminally, criminally for potential tax violations as opposed to pursuing a civil case. Which leads to the question, is this a marker? What our sources saying about the likelihood of additional charges or at least pursuit of additional charges down the road?

REID: So we know again, they will continue to investigate people specifically. We know that more one executive, former security agent turned top Trump Organization Executive Matthew Calamari and his son they continue to be under scrutiny. Now, we don't expect them to be charged tomorrow. But they were still under pressure. And it's amazing, John, sometimes when people like we know Mr. Weisselberg, according to our Kara Scannell, our colleague, has made it clear to prosecutors, he's not going to flip.

But sometimes once people are charged, that has a way of changing their minds. So it depends on what additional evidence and what additional cooperating witnesses, the district attorney can gather, that will really determine what additional charges they can file and whether they would ever be able to go after the former president.

KING: Paula Reid, appreciate the hustle and live reporting. I suspect we'll be back at this again tomorrow as this plays out in the legal process. Appreciate that reporting today.

[12:34:19]

When we come back, President Biden talks to Western Governors about the record setting heat and the federal plan to help with blazing wildfires.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Just last hour President Biden meeting, you see the pictures there, with governors from Western States about the wildfires and the record breaking heat wave right now. Combating climate change is a pillar of the President's infrastructure pitch. And he emphasized the need to act now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to act and act fast. We're late in the game here. We're remembering the horrific scenes from last year, or in skies that look like end of days. The bipartisan infrastructure framework investment of about $50 billion and the -- by so called anyway, I won't go into but a bill that's cause a little attention, infrastructure bill, is going to build resilience to extreme weather events like wildfires.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You heard the President saying there his bills gotten a little bit of attention. It has. There's still no guarantee that that bipartisan infrastructure deal will get to the finish line and that debate is just one piece of a month that will now go a long way in determining the President's first year legislative scorecard.

The panel is back with me. In the aside the President talking about all the attention, all the attention is because he has progressed is mad at him because he's negotiating a smaller package with Republicans. And he has Republicans skeptical that after if they vote for this, he's still going to go do something giant. But let's focus on the here and now, this smaller package, will it get to the finish line?

[12:40:13]

TARINI PARTI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: It's going to be a very delicate balance for the White House to continue to do this every day to keep the progressives appeased as this reconciliation package continues to loom over these discussions as they continue to push for more and more funding in this separate two track reconciliation package, while also pushing forward with this much smaller infrastructure package that the President is now traveling the country selling.

He's also -- his aides are talking to members of Congress to legislative aides and also to progressive outside groups who try to sell and try to keep both parties satisfied.

KING: Right. And keeping everybody satisfied or enough of everybody is the way to look at it. I guess satisfied is the key in the sense that we focus understandably so most of the time on the 50-50 Senate because that is so narrow, 50-50 majority, you need 10 Republicans unless you're going through the reconciliation part, but the progressives in the House are starting to realize, hey, five or six seat majority here, if we band together, we have some leverage too.

This is from Cori Bush of Missouri, we cannot put bipartisanship over climate action in our infrastructure package when our infrastructure is literally melting because of the climate crisis. The path forward is clear, we need massive public climate investments. Nothing else will suffice when lives are on the line.

The question is, if they have a smaller package, and then the White House is talking about another package that's not the $6 trillion that Bernie Sanders wants, but maybe something in the 3 to 4 trillion, is that enough? Or will these progressives say no, and withhold six or eight votes and in causing a crisis?

EVA MCKEND, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, SPECTRUM NEWS: We'll have to see to the end that President Biden can continue to center climate, so having this event today, a really good idea in the midst of these negotiations. This is the area where progressives are putting the most pressure on him. We will have to see in the weeks ahead how this plays out. I think it's bad politics for both sides if any side walks away from an infrastructure package.

Speaker Pelosi says she ain't going to move forward with one without the other. But if she does do that, that could be problematic for her. But it also could be an issue for Republicans. ASMA KHALID, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NPR: You know, the White House has long insisted, you talk to administration officials that they were pursuing two tracks on this for a long time. They would argue that Republicans who were negotiating also knew that this was happening.

So I think some of this is political theater too, around the idea that, oh, we're so surprised amongst Republicans, that you are pursuing a large reconciliation package because the White House would argue you knew that all along. I think anyone paying attention to politics would have known that.

To the question of progressives, though, I do think that the administration has a whole bunch of folks on the left, who are frustrated, they look at things like the January 6th commission and say, if you can't have gotten a bipartisan group to agree on that, that's your basic point. How are you going to get a bipartisan group to agree on much of anything? And I mean, look, they have a valid point there. I would argue it's not just climate, though. It's voting rights. There's a whole bunch of things where they're frustrated. And I think that the administration needs to give them something, whatever it is, who knows.

KING: It needs to give them something to the President's left, but also there's the President, and what does he think about his first year? We've covered White House for a long time, in the sense that the President usually the first few months, that's when you get your big things done, then you're trying to finish out then you're heading into the midterm you're getting anything done next year is going to be near impossible because the midterm elections.

So let's the President, this is his agenda for the first year, infrastructure. He wanted to do gun reforms. He says he has some immigration legislation, expanding Obamacare and other health care, climate change, criminal justice reform, voting rights.

I know to most of America, this makes them roll their eyes because they have to deal with challenges every day from January all the way through December. But as we move to July here in Washington, it tells you if you want to get something done, you better get it done soon.

OLIVIER KNOX, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Right. But you're about to see this weekend, the President celebrate his actual top two priorities, right, which were restoring the economy and beating the pandemic. No, I mean, you got the American rescue plan through Congress. You're right.

He's got to have this really heavy load of priorities, supposedly priorities going forward. Some of those seem to be in better shape than others. I think, actually, the bipartisan infrastructure plan is OK, pending the size and scope of the reconciliation bill, keeping progressives in line.

Some of these other things don't look like they're in good shape at all. You know, the police talks look like they're teetering on collapse, fed in part by Republicans painting the President as an enemy of the police, essentially. So yes, you got to get it done quickly. But you really have to get it done before you lose that majority.

KING: Right. Lose that majority. Just -- let's just listen before we end the conversation. This is the Republican leader in the Senate just on the basic infrastructure package members of his party agree to it saying, we'll see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: We're kind of hysteria about whether one, it's connected to the other. And what I'd like to see is to, well, I know the 20 members including 10 Democrats in the Senate would like to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So we are not even at the finish line there, correct?

[12:45:02]

PARTI: It certainly seems though.

KING: He's holding out as well.

MCKEND: It's going to be a -- it's going to be an issue of who blinks first on this.

KING: Well, we'll be here to watch the blinking.

When we come back, a massive failure of confidence when counting the votes for mayor, yes, in New York City.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:00]

KING: The New York City mayor's race is a mess and the incumbent and those hoping to replace him now venting at the Board of Elections Mayor Bill de Blasio this morning saying this, yet again, the fundamental structural flaws of the Board of Elections are on display. There must be an immediate, complete recanvass of the BOE's vote count and a clear explanation of what went wrong.

Here's what went wrong. The City Board released new numbers yesterday then quickly pulled them back after realizing it had included 135,000 test ballots in its count. Candidates are questioning the competency of the Board now. The candidate leading so far, Eric Adams said in a statement, we have asked the Board of Elections to explain such a massive increase and other irregularities before we comment on the rank choice voting projection. This morning, Adams rival Kathryn Garcia added this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHRYN GARCIA (D-NY) MAYORAL CANDIDATE: We will not know for a while what exactly happened, but it seems like it was just a mistake. Someone forgot to clear the computer before they put the real data in. So that seems like we should be paying a little bit closer attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: CNN's Athena Jones joins us now live from New York. Yes, everyone hates to pay more attention, Athena. The question is A, can they fix this and B, when will we know?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right, John, we won't know for a few weeks who is the winner of the mayoral race. And this was always going to be the case. Yesterday's results were just preliminary results, unofficial results. They were meant to be from early voting and voting on Election Day. And the reason that all these questions were arose soon after the results came out was because so many more, more than 100,000 more votes were recorded, more total votes.

And you mentioned Eric Adams who is shown to be in the lead among the first choice ballots. He's the one who raised questions in the middle the day yesterday, and it took hours for the Board of Elections to come out and to come fully clean with what happened.

And so now you have the candidates responding, you played some of that. We also heard Kathryn Garcia say that this Board of Elections is an agency that needs professionalization. Maya Wiley, who is right now in third -- she's second to Eric Adams in the first round first choice. She says that this is a result of generations of failures that have gone unaddressed. Adams himself putting out another statement calling it unfortunate.

And just now just a few minutes ago from the Adams campaign I received a statement saying that he has actually filed a lawsuit with the Kings County Supreme Court, that's in Brooklyn, to try to ensure a fair election process. Here's the brief statement.

Today we petitioned the court to preserve our right to a fair election process and to have a judge oversee and review ballots if necessary. We are notifying the other campaigns of our lawsuit through personal service as required by law, because they are interested parties. We invite the other campaigns to join us and petition the court as we all seek a clear and trusted conclusion to this election.

So no doubt these results have been thrown into some amount of chaos. But the final results were never going to be released yesterday, John.

KING: Never going to release yesterday, Athena, but will the Board of Elections do in the next couple of days what it was trying to do yesterday once you take the 135,000 test ballots out? Will we get what we should have received yesterday?

JONES: Our understanding is that we will receive some results today. Yesterday by the end of the day when the Board of Elections finally just removed all of the previous numbers they had gone round by round in this ranked choice voting tabulation process. They wiped out all of that and they replaced it with one line saying that these results would come starting June 30th, June 30th being today. Now we don't know what hour they will come. But we're going to be looking out for whatever the Board of Election puts out.

KING: And a lot of candidates, a lot of candidates will be double, triple checking that map. Athena Jones grateful for the live reporting on a chaotic day in New York City.

[12:53:40]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Breaking News just sent to CNN, Bill Cosby will walk out of jail today that after the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court vacated his conviction cause barriers -- Cosby has already served two years of his sentence. Let's bring in our CNN legal analyst, Elie Honig. Elie it's a big deal.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, John, it's a surprising ruling. And it's a fine line that prosecutors and judges have to walk off in cases like this, which is how many other bad act evidence can you bring in? In other words, Bill Cosby was tried just for the sexual assault of one victim. The prosecutors, however, called testimony from numerous other victims up to five additional victims. And it looks like the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has said, that's just too much.

You're allowed to call other victims to prove a pattern, to prove that this is the way this person did things. But at a certain point, it appears the court has ruled that becomes too prejudicial to the defendant. And that seems to be the basis for the reversal here.

KING: And so he has already served two years of a three to 10 year sentence. So it's a legal victory for Mr. Cosby. But still two years in prison.

HONIG: Yes, I mean, that's real time for anybody. He's 83 years old now. Prosecutors will have to decide whether to refile the charges and try to retry this case. That's going to be an uphill battle. But that's a decision that will have to be made inside the prosecutor's office.

KING: And when you mentioned surprise, Elie, why did you use those words in that context?

HONIG: Yes, it's very rare to see a conviction overturned on appeal at all, but especially in a case like this. I mean, typically, when you try sexual assault cases, you are permitted to call other victims, even if they're not the ones specifically charged in the indictment to establish that this was the way this person went about preying on people.

And the argument in the Cosby case was he had a specific M.O., a modus operandi, a way of doing this. And so it takes a lot for a court of appeals or a state Supreme Court to say, that's too much. That went too far to the point where we have to reverse this conviction.

[13:00:10] KING: And that is the key point you're making there. The Supreme Court is saying that the witness they brought in to make the pattern argument, if you will, should not have been allowed.

HONIG: Exactly that the prosecutors went too far. And the judge let the prosecutors go too far in calling these five other women who were not the victims in the charge, the technically charged conduct in the indictment. These were other women who were called to establish the prosecution set a pattern, but the judge said it went too far. And it got to the point essentially, where the jury couldn't even as a practical matter, differentiate, and it was so prejudicial to the defendant, that we can't let this conviction stand.

KING: Elie Honig, appreciate your hustle on this breaking news. We'll continue the coverage throughout the day. Appreciate your time today in Inside Politics and our breaking news. We'll see you back here this time tomorrow. Wolf Blitzer and Ana Cabrera pick up our coverage right now.