Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

Massive Trump Team Strategizing Ahead Of Arraignment; No Barrier, Separation Planned Between Protesters And Supporters On Tuesday; Trump to Hold Fundraiser After Tuesday Arraignment; Fact- Check: Did Trump Declassify Documents. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 12, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to the special live coverage. Former President Donald Trump has now landed in Miami where he will be arraigned in federal court tomorrow. The former president is facing 37 criminal charges, 37 related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office. Right now we are told that Trump is on the way to his resort in Doral to meet with lawyers and discuss a Florida-based legal team -- he's still putting that team together.

In the last hour we heard from Miami officials on their preparations ahead of Trump's court appearance tomorrow. CNN has now learned of mounting security concerns from law enforcement over the large number of Trump supporters expected to gather outside of the federal courthouse. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz attended that press conference. Shimon, what are Miami officials saying about their preparations and expectations for tomorrow?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: So, certainly there is this expectation from law enforcement officials, other people that I've actually talked to, raising concern, Jake, over the number of people that could potentially descend upon this location.

And so, while the Miami police chief today had his press conference with the mayor and they said that they are ready for anything that may happen. They also said that they want people who want to protest or who want to come out and support the former president, they expect them so peacefully.

[15:35:02]

They will not have any kind of designated areas right now for those people to gather. And it's kind of going to be a free for all it seems at this point.

I asked the police chief here, the Miami city police chief, more questions about the security preparation, and what he expects. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: We've been hearing from the people in the building around that area, that they are concerned that there's no hardening around the area, the perimeter and that people can freely come and go. There's yellow tape right now that's been placed. Will that change? Because there a lot of concern that people may try to storm the building or try to enter some of that area. I mean, are you going to harden that area?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MANUEL MORALES, MIAMI POLICE: Well, what I can tell, we expect those calls out to you that reach to you and tell them that there is no reason to fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And that's sort of the posture here right now, Jake, that there's this feeling that there's just no reason to fear.

You can see this is the yellow tape that I'm talking about. So, normally when I was in Manhattan, and the former president was appearing there, Jake, we saw barricades, metal barricades placed all around the building. So far, we're not seeing that here. And generally, you see a very open area. We also asked the police chief and the mayor if they're going to be closing any of the streets down. Are they going to allow people to gather around any of the protesters here? Because a lot of the street here right now, Jake, is open, and it's much different than what we have previously saw in Manhattan.

And right now, we don't have really any answers to many of those questions. But it is very open. And that is certainly something that is concerning to people that I have talked to who normally see some kind of hardening, some kind of structures and barriers placed around the building. Maybe that will change later on, but certainly something that we keep asking about.

The other thing that I wanted to tell you is that we've learned, Jake, about how things are going to go tomorrow for the former president. He's going to be in the 13th floor here, and they're going to let him upstairs at some point. He's going to be processed. We also learned that the entire 13th floor is now shut down to the public. So again, they're preparing for that, for his appearances, or the extra security measures inside.

But Jake, I will have to tell you that the big concern is for what's going to happen outside right now. And hopefully, hopefully we see some different kind of response here from the law enforcement officials -- Jake.

TAPPER: Yes, Shimon Prokupecz, thanks so much.

He allegedly stored some of our nation's most highly protected secrets in a bathroom. Eventually attempting to hide them from his own attorneys. This afternoon we are learning Donald Trump is still looking for new legal representation in the state of Florida, and some firms seem reluctant to take him on as a client. That's ahead.

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Donald Trump has returned to south Florida where he is expected to meet with his attorneys ahead of tomorrow's court appearance. But on the eve of his arraignment in federal court, it still unclear whom the former president will formally hire to represent him. CNN senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid joins us now live from outside of that courthouse. Paula, what do we expect over the next 24 hours do you think?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we expect this evening, Jake, the former president will meet with Todd Blanche, his currently counsel and potentially the rest of his legal team. But what that looks like right now is anybody's guess.

We know after that departure of pretty much all the defense attorneys who have represented him so far in this case, they are looking for new Florida-based attorneys. Now historically, the former president has had trouble recruiting new lawyers. There are concerns about getting paid. We are told there is also reputational concerns, and concerns from some firms about alienating or aggravating other clients.

But I can tell you from speaking to members of the Florida bar, there are some reputable lawyers who are willing to represent the former president. But, Jake, at this point it's just unclear if he will have his legal team in place before tomorrow's arraignment. But he can still go forward with this with his current legal team.

And what will that look like? Well, like any other defendant. He well arrive here at the Miami federal courthouse. He'll be taken into custody and processed, including fingerprinting. And then he will go before a magistrate judge where he will have the opportunity to hear the charges. Once again, that have been filed against him. And he's expected to have the opportunity to enter a plea. We expect that to be, of course, not guilty.

But after tomorrow's hearing, which will be before a magistrate judge. Going forward this case will be heard by Judge Aileen Cannon. She is a Trump-appointed federal judge. Now she did make one major decision related to the search of Mar-a-Lago by the FBI. Her opinion there though was roundly criticized by legal scholars on both sides of the aisle. It was eventually overturned. But she's going to be the one at this point overseeing this case. And that will likely be a major plotline in this coverage, Jake, is, you know, the former president has argued this process is all unfair. But he's going to be before a judge that he appointed.

TAPPER: Paula Reid thanks so much. Donald Trump has claimed he declassified the documents at Mar-a-Lago before he even left the White House, though there is no record of that. He's also said that President Biden took nearly 2,000 boxes of his own records to the University of Delaware. Let's look into the facts of these claims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: And Donald Trump is now in Florida preparing to embark upon a schedule that no former president has ever had before. He will go from a criminal court to a campaign fundraiser. Sources tell CNN that hours after his historic arraignment tomorrow, Donald Trump will return to his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club where he will attend a donor event for his 2024 presidential campaign. CNN's Kristen Holmes is joining us from Bedminster. Kristin, what more are you learning about this strategy?

[15:50:00]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, what I am hearing right now is that they don't anticipate anything changing in their 2024 presidential campaign strategy. Now, of course, there are still so many unknowns. Is there going to be a trial in the middle of this campaign? What is this actually going to look like?

So while they are planning to attend multiple events that have already been announced around the country. They are having their fundraisers. They are fundraising a lot off of this arraignment tomorrow. It is unclear whether or not that that's actually going to be possible to stick with that. And I do want to note over the weekend something that we heard Trump say in an interview with "Politico."

He said, I don't want to be indicted. I didn't ever want to be indicted. My whole life I went without being indicted. And he called it political.

The reason why this is notable, is because this is something that we had reported that Trump had said privately behind closed doors. But clearly now he is saying that out loud. And that was really on display. How much these legal battles are looming over him when we saw him speak over the weekend. I was in Georgia where he spoke for 80 minutes, 40 minutes of that was focused on the legal issues. And I will note, it was the first 40 minutes. He didn't get to what his campaign was going to look like until much later. And obviously, less insults, less swings at other Republican candidates.

So, this is going to continue to grow and no one on his team really knows what exactly this is going to look like. But I will note to you that he is meeting his top advisers, political advisers at that Doral resort. Appears that they will be in those meetings when they're discussing lawyers and what that Florida legal team will look like -- if they are hiring all that -- all of that.

So, they are very much involved in this and I do think we have kind of crossed a Rubicon here in which there is no real separation between Trump political and Trump legal because they all have kind of melded together as he pursuing this third presidential bid.

TAPPER: Kristen Holmes in Bedminster, thank you so much.

Former President Trump expected to enter a plea of not guilty at tomorrow's arraignment of the 37 federal criminal charges against him. Trump has been proclaiming his innocence ever since the Justice Department began investigating him much less handed down its indictment. He's also been making a lot of other claims during that time. CNN's Sara Murray is here now with a fact-check. Sara, so one of the

big claims Donald Trump has made repeatedly is that he declassified the documents central to the Justice Department's case. Is that true?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, he's made a number of claims like this. At one point he said that there doesn't have to be a process at all, as I understand it. He said if you're the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it's declassified even by thinking it.

But our reporting has shown that federal prosecutors heard from a witness who said that Donald Trump was informed of the proper process to go through to declassify documents. He even followed it at points.

We should look back at this indictment which recounts a meeting that Donald Trump that had our CNN team has done extensive reporting on that was recorded, where he appears to be showing this document that's classified and acknowledging in the conversation that he knows he can't declassify it.

He says, secret, this is secret information. Look, look at this. And then he goes on to say, see, as president I could have declassified it, now I can't, you know. But this is still a secret.

So there's no real evidence out there to support Donald Trump's claim that he declassified everything when he left office. But there is a lot of evidence out there that he is not quite telling the truth here -- Jake.

TAPPER: Sara, Trump has also tried to deflect criticism over his alleged mishandling of these classified documents by pointing out or arguing that President Biden had more than 1,800 boxes of documents stored at the University of Delaware. Assess that for us. Is that true?

MURRAY: That's right. Donald Trump has brought this up in speeches. He has brought this up on social media saying that Biden had 1,850 boxes of documents, essentially full of classified information. And you know, why isn't he being prosecuted? The reality there is there are 1,875 documents at the University of Delaware that are papers from Joe Biden's 36-yearlong Senate career. The FBI has searched the University of Delaware twice. They retrieved some materials but a source familiar with the searches said they did not appear to have classified markings on them. And of course, we do know that there were some classified documents that were recovered from Joe Biden's home and a former private office. But this notion that he has, you know, 1,800 boxes of classified documents floating around is not accurate -- Jake.

TAPPER: And what about the claims that Trump and his allies constantly make that Democrats are using the Justice Department to target Trump for political purposes?

MURRAY: Well, I think the first thing we should note on this is that Merrick Garland was the one who chose this special counsel Jack Smith because he didn't want a Biden appointee making the call on whether to prosecute Trump at a point where Donald Trump was a candidate and Joe Biden was a candidate.

[15:55:03]

The other thing we should note is that there is a grand jury that is in Florida. Donald Trump's home state. It's made up of regular people like you and me serving on this grand jury who decided on this indictment. And now the case, we know, has landed in Aileen Cannon's lap. This is a Trump-appointed judge.

And we should also note that we have heard a couple of times from Joe Biden saying publicly that he's not directing the Justice Department on what to do, that he's not involved in this case -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Sara Murray, thanks so much.

And stay with us. CNN's live coverage of Trump's indictment continues after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)