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Today: Judge Hears Motion to Unseal Trump Search Warrant; DOJ Grand Jury Subpoenas Trump White House Docs Over January 6th; Giuliani Testifies for 6 Hours as Georgia Election Probe Intensifies; Ex-Trump Exec to Plead Guilty, But Won't Implicate Trump Family; Western U.S. Deals with Water, Energy Issues as Heat Wave Returns; Americans Grapple with Pricey Back-to-School Shopping. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It's Thursday, August 18, and I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman this morning.

[05:59:51]

Three hours. That is how long Donald Trump and his team have to respond to requests to unseal the affidavit that led to the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago. A judge is expected to hear the extraordinary dispute play out in South Florida this afternoon.

And it's going to be a high-stakes argument over what level of transparency the American public is owed when it comes to the Justice Department's investigation of sensitive documents that were stored at the former president's home.

The DOJ does not want the affidavit released, claiming it could compromise their investigation.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned that some Trump allies are urging him to publicly release surveillance footage of FBI agents searching Mar-a-Lago. Eric Trump says his father will absolutely release the tapes at what he calls the right time.

Now, remember, this is the video of the search itself from the Trump's own security cameras. This is not the surveillance video that had been subpoenaed by investigators and reportedly showed activity around the boxes that contained classified documents, activity so alarming to law enforcement that they pushed for the search warrant.

KEILAR: Katelyn Polantz is live outside of the courthouse in West Palm Beach. Katelyn, what should we be expecting here?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, the focus is back on the Justice Department this morning as we await what they will say in court to this judge to argue to keep secret this affidavit.

Now, they already have laid out several serious reasons that they believe there should be secrecy over the details of the investigation that are part of the court record already. They've said that this investigation involves highly-classified material, that there are witnesses involved they want to protect, both ones they've spoken to already and also in the future. There's grand jury proceedings that they are bound to keep confidential.

Now, in this case, the judge has already seen what is in this affidavit, read it before approving that search warrant. So the judge could make a decision as soon as today about whether this would be released.

At this point in time, the Don -- Donald Trump's legal team has not taken a position formally about whether or not they want the transparency here. We're watching for that, as well.

But at this moment the media, including CNN, has been arguing for transparency here. One of the main points is that this is such a historic situation that the records here have a public interest in them. And just one sentence from that argument: "Not since the Nixon administration has the federal government wielded its power to seize records from a former president in such a public fashion." So that really puts that into context.

KEILAR: Katelyn, tell us a little about the rationale of these Trump allies who are suggesting releasing the video, the surveillance video, to be clear, of the search and seizure taking place.

POLANTZ: Right. So our understanding is that there really is a debate happening inside the Trump world. On one hand, if they were to release video of the actual search and seizure taking place, the FBI inside Mar-a-Lago, that could fire up Trump's base. That's one argument that the president would be hearing right now to release that.

On the other side, it could be quite damaging to him, if it does show, as would be expected, the sheer volume, 33 items, several of them boxes of materials, being taken out of Mar-a-Lago as that work continued throughout that entire day.

Now, remember, as John mentioned, these would only be surveillance footage, if the president were to release them, of the search itself. Surveillance footage has played into what the Justice Department learned in order for them to be convinced that they needed to do this search, because they had seen something very concerning on surveillance footage. That's not what we're talking about here. This really would be that surveillance footage just of the search.

And our sources, as we were reporting out this story -- Gabby Orr, Kaitlan Collins -- one of the things that were made clear was that one person inside the Trump Organization, or the Trump world at least, says that it is not a matter of when or of when this will be released. So these -- this videotape very much may be something that we could expect to see at some point in the future -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be waiting. Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much.

BERMAN: Also new this morning, in a separate probe of Donald Trump's role in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, "The New York Times" reports that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed White House documents from the National Archives, asking for all materials in whatever form that were handed to the January 6th Committee, the House Select Committee.

Now, these documents include records from some of his top aides, his daily schedule, phone records surrounding January 6, 2021.

With me now is Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor.

This is a grand jury subpoena for the documents that the committee has used quite a lot in their hearings.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. And most importantly, there's so many investigations going on right now, John. It's important -- federal investigations here -- it's important to keep these straight.

What you have is the Mar-a-Lago search documents. That's something separate. These are documents that were requested by the National Archives and then -- from the committee, right?

Now, one, this is a sign of how aggressively the January 6th Committee -- remember them -- has been working all along. And some might say, some have criticized the Justice Department for not being as aggressive.

Now, look, they're different bodies. They serve different purposes. But needless to say, what it indicates is that the January 6th Committee really has a lot of information in their possession that prosecutors want.

BERMAN: And the federal investigators, they may have been slower, but they wanted them, they have them, and now we will see how they use them.

The action today is in South Florida, where before a judge, there will be arguments about whether to release this affidavit that argued for the search warrant to go into Mar-a-Lago.

Donald Trump has said out loud that he wants to release the affidavit, which is different than his people actually filing on this. They're allowed --

WILLIAMS: Right.

BERMAN: -- to make an argument about whether or not they want this released. They haven't done it yet. Do you think they will? What would you advise Donald Trump on this if you were representing him?

WILLIAMS: I would advise him not to seek this because, look, think about all the information that will be in that affidavit in terms of, No. 1, the layout of his home.

No. 2, the information that might be inside his home. And No. 3, bases by which the law enforcement thinks that he broke the law.

Now, for him, it's a political question, and he can say, My supporters are going to see this as an enormous intrusion into my rights, no matter what it says, but you just don't want documents laying out how you committed a crime being made public.

BERMAN: Now, him saying he wants it released out loud, again, it's different than actually making a legal case for it. It's possible, I would imagine, that he's saying this, thinking that it won't matter, because the judge is likely to rule against it. How do you think the judge will look at this?

WILLIAMS: The judge will -- will be highly unlikely to make this public for a number of the reasons that we've talked about in past days on this.

No. 1, making it public would jeopardize investigative techniques and methods and agents and evidence and innocent people, whose names are identified in there, people who haven't been charged with crimes. Judges are very, very reluctant to release material like this.

Now, again, it might be a, like you said, a political point, where knowing that it's not going to be released, it's in his interest just to go there and think that it's -- suggest that it's a good idea.

BERMAN: All right. Elliot, don't go far. We need you to come back and help us later in the show.

WILLIAMS: Thanks a lot, John.

BERMAN: Thanks so much for being with us.

KEILAR: Rudy Giuliani isn't talking about his appearance before a Georgia special purpose grand jury. He spent roughly six hours behind closed doors yesterday, providing testimony into possible 2020 election interference, days after he was told by prosecutors that he was a target in the probe.

And as the Georgia election investigation heats up, here's where things stand for other Trump allies.

Senator Lindsey Graham is asking a federal judge to stay a decision requiring him to appear before a grand jury next week, until he can appeal. Now, the judge has given prosecutors until Friday at 9 a.m. to respond to Graham's motion.

On Wednesday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp asked a judge to throw out a subpoena requiring him to appear before a grand jury. He had been scheduled for a voluntary interview in July, but it was canceled after Kemp's legal team inquired about the scope of the interview.

And a judge ordered Trump's election attorney, John Eastman, to appear in front of a Georgia grand jury because of his alleged role in pushing a plan to organize a false slate of electors after the 2020 election.

Joining us now is Anthony Michael Kreis, constitutional law professor at Georgia State University College of Law.

Anthony, when you see what's happening here in Georgia, where's this investigation right now, as you see it?

ANTHONY MICHAEL KREIS, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW: Well, I think what we know is that the investigation is heating up. And from what we can see in the public eye, because, of course, the grand jury's proceedings are secret, the Fulton County district attorney's office is getting closer and closer to the inner circle of Donald Trump. And the fact that we had Rudy Giuliani testifying here yesterday before the special purpose grand jury is evidence of that.

KEILAR: What does that target letter to Giuliani signify to you?

KREIS: Well, I think what it signifies is that there's a conspiracy charge, perhaps, in the works. So what we've seen with target letters so far is that the district attorney is asking people to be on guard who have done things that are more overtly criminal or at least potentially overtly criminal.

So for example, the fake electors submitted false documents; or something like Donald Trump making the phone call to the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.

Rudy Giuliani was more a part of the decision-making process behind the scenes. And while he did testify before the Georgia general assembly, he didn't do so under oath.

So I think that this is suggesting to me that the special purpose grand jury is looking into the folks behind the scenes, the folks who were kind of organizing and masterminding the scheme to overthrow the election.

KEILAR: And that it's really a broad sort of thing that they are approaching here.

The exposure of Rudy Giuliani, does that necessarily mean that there is significant exposure for Donald Trump, potentially?

[06:10:08]

KREIS: I would be very hard-pressed to see an instance where Rudy Giuliani gets prosecuted for something here in Georgia, and former President Trump does not. I think that they're pretty tied in terms of both their intentions here in Georgia in the aftermath of the 2020 elections and some of the, you know, potentially criminal acts that happened in the wake of the elections.

KEILAR: Anthony, there are a number right now of investigations pertaining to the election or January 6th, involving the actions of former President Trump. Just put this one into context for us. How does this fit into these series of investigations that we're seeing?

KREIS: Well, I certainly think that there's a high probability of criminal liability, or at least the potential for prosecution, for the former president and his allies here in Georgia. And this is -- this is unique to Georgia, in comparison to some other states where there was post-election meddling, as well.

But of course, I think what we really have to ask is what the purpose of this is, and I think that the D.A. here sees this as central for the preservation of democracy. And I think so long as she believes that, she'll pursue prosecutions to the fullest extent that she can.

And so it is very likely, in my view, that there will be criminal -- criminal liability here if there's no liability elsewhere for the former president and his allies.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be watching with you. Anthony, thank you so much for your time this morning.

KREIS: Thank you.

KEILAR: Next, the former CFO of the Trump Organization expected to plead guilty today to running a 15-year tax fraud scheme.

And yet another Elon Musk Twitter stunt creating chaos. He's claiming he was just joking, but critics say he might be breaking the law.

KEILAR: Plus, why so many teenagers are turning the page on Facebook.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:02]

BERMAN: So this morning, the man who ran the money inside the Trump Organization for decades, someone who was inside Donald Trump's inner circle, will plead guilty today to 15 felonies in a tax evasion scheme involving the company.

Now, as part of the agreement, Allen Weisselberg has agreed to testify in the trial against the Trump Organization, though we understand he has not agreed to cooperate in the specific Manhattan D.A. criminal investigation into Donald Trump himself.

With us now, investigative reporter David K. Johnson. He's the author of "The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family."

David, great to see you this morning. Who likes this deal? Who doesn't?

DAVID K. JOHNSON, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, depending on what prosecutors do with this deal, it could be very, very troubling for the Trump Organization, which is a co-defendant, along with Allen Weisselberg.

And ultimately, this case, at least in theory, could lead to dissolution of the Trump Organization as a corporation and require Donald Trump to hold his properties in his own name, which exposes him to a lot more liability in other matters. KEILAR: Yes, I think we should focus on that, because the headline

was, Oh, he's not going to cooperate when it comes to Donald Trump. It's not without some peril, perhaps, for Donald Trump that you could see the Trump Organization dissolved here. There's a lot at stake for him.

JOHNSON: Exactly. And Letitia James also is likely in her state civil case to eventually seek this. You know, recall when these charges were brought as an effort to leverage Weisselberg, that I predicted would fail, and it did, to move against Donald Trump, it was poohpoohed by Trump's representatives and lawyers who said, oh, it's not that much money and everybody does this.

This is $1.8 million of taxable fringe benefits that were evaded by not reporting them. By the way, the median wage worker in America, the person half earn more, half earn less, would need 52 years to earn that much money, the average wage about 40 years.

BERMAN: So one interesting point here, as we understand the sentencing for Allen Weisselberg will be held back. They're going to wait until after the trial of the Trump Organization itself, which creates some leverage to force him to do what he has agreed to do.

Talk to us about the mechanics of how this works now, David. So Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty. He pleads guilty, then he's called to the stand and asked questions about the Trump Organization. What does he know and how does that play to the jury?

JOHNSON: Well, once he pleads guilty, he loses the presumption of innocence and he loses, for relevant, matters the ability to invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. He either has to answer questions or he faces being held in contempt and looked up.

So the effort here by the prosecutors when they get to the Trump Organization, unless they negotiate a deal to settle it, will be to get testimony out of Weisselberg, certainly testimony showing Donald Trump knew full well what was going on.

And indeed they may have additional evidence we haven't seen yet of tax evasion and other crimes by the Trump Organization that would come up at trial.

KEILAR: David, this doesn't preclude Weisselberg testifying in the future, but I wonder how likely you see that as happening.

JOHNSON: Well, Allen Weisselberg, Brianna, has been with Donald Trump longer than the 34 years I've been covering him. They are stuck together, and so I'd be very surprised if he does anything more than the absolute minimum to avoid contempt citations if he's called to the witness stand, and would expect he would also be treated as a hostile witness on the witness stand.

[06:20:00]

BERMAN: Now, he has to answer questions. He has to answer them honestly under penalty of perjury. His future sentencing depends on his cooperation.

But the defense of the Trump Organization is allowed to say -- to tell the jury or ask questions about whether or not he has reached an agreement to testify with the understanding his sentence might be reduced. How would that affect a jury, David?

JOHNSON: Well, that depends on how well the prosecutors handle that. We have people all the time who make deals, even in murder cases, to testify against other people. And so your credibility on the stand matters. And if you're a particularly hostile and evasive witness, that doesn't particularly help -- wouldn't help, in this case, the Trump Organization.

But clearly, that will be an issue. And keep in mind that it is pretty rare for a person in their 70s -- Allen Weisselberg is 75 -- to actually serve time at the end of the day. In all likelihood, there will be an argument for a suspended sentence or maybe, at worst, home confinement, assuming he behaves reasonably in the view of the prosecutors.

BERMAN: David K. Johnson, great to see you this morning. Thanks for being with us.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

BERMAN: So the climate crisis on display across the country as one state asks people to conserve energy, and water levels are dangerously low in the West.

KEILAR: Plus, back to school shopping costing struggling parents more for less.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:32]

KEILAR: The Western U.S. is in for another day of extreme heat. So much so that in California, people are being urged to conserve electricity.

The heat is one problem, and the drought is another. Some believe that it's time for the federal government to step up and enforce cuts to water usage as the Colorado River crisis grows.

Let's get to meteorologist Chad Myers on this -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Brianna, and the hotter it gets, the more evaporation comes out of that area. Temperatures in the West are going to be hot again today.

This weather brought to you by Safelite, your vehicle glass and recalibration experts.

So heat advisories, excessive heat watches and warnings, all the way up and down the West Coast. Temperatures in Portland, 96. You should be 82. That's 14 degrees above where you should be and way too many red boxes out here in the desert Southwest.

Now, for the desert, though, Friday and Saturday, there will be heavy rainfall. There may even be some flash flooding. And we don't want the flooding, but we certainly need the rainfall in that drought-parched area there. Could be some relief here for parts of Oklahoma and Texas, with rainfall over the weekend.

The place that's not going to get rain that really needs it is New England. A few showers, but nothing where it has been now the flash drought that we've been talking about for the past four weeks. No rainfall over the weekend at all.

The new drought monitor comes out at 8:30. I'll be here to update for you at 8:39 -- Brianna.

KEILAR: At 8:39, Chad Myers.

MYERS: That's right.

KEILAR: Thank you for that.

MYERS: Set it.

KEILAR: All right, I will.

BERMAN: So it is time for back-to-school shopping. We are going shopping for pants this afternoon so the kids can go back to school.

KEILAR: Shopping.

BERMAN: No joke. That's for real. This year, parents are going to spend more, and kids will get fewer supplies for that money. The cost of everything, from pencils and notebooks, to binders and glue, has jumped.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA DESANTI, PARENT OF THREE KIDS: I have three kids. All the kids will be in school five days a week. It's -- it's going to be an interesting year.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a lot of stuff that kids need for school.

DESANTI: It's nerve-racking, because it is a lot of stuff.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): It's a new school year.

DESANTI: Ready to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm ready to go.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): And this year, the average American household will spend $864 on back-to-school shopping, 40 percent higher than before the pandemic. Like everything else that costs more, parents can blame inflation.

DESANTI: I was surprised about the, you know, cost of, like, pens and paper and notebooks and all of that. That went up.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): It's beyond the basics. Tape is up almost 70 percent, glue 30 percent, sneakers 12 percent, and backpacks up 2 percent.

DESANTI: Everybody needed new shoes. Everybody's feet grew like crazy over the summer. Everybody needed new backpacks. You have to prioritize what they really need versus what they want.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): It's not just parents feeling the pain.

DANIEL SOLO, STORE OWNER: We can't keep up with the increase in prices.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Daniel Solo has owned this school supply store in Queens, New York, for 20 years. He says trying to keep up with rising prices makes it hard to not pass that cost down to the consumer.

SOLO: I am not going to raise the price on what I already have in the store, so I'm going to absorb that.

YURKEVICH: Is that a loss?

SOLO: It minimizes my profit margin, and when you do that, it's hard to stay in business.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Before the pandemic, teachers were already spending an average $478 out-of-pocket on school supplies each year. Inflation has likely pushed that number even higher today.

Elementary school art teacher Deborah Sisane (ph) is shopping for art supplies.

YURKEVICH: $3.99, $2.99, how many of these do you have to purchase for your class?

DEBORAH SISANE (ph), ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ART TEACHER: I usually buy about 48 of these.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[06:30:00]