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tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  April 25, 2024 1:00am-2:00am PDT

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hopefully they can do so without any the real physical activity having to take place, that they'll be able to go in somewhat peacefully anyway to be able to to make the arrest. but the university officials will be the ones who make the decision. they say clearly area. then that's when the police will start clearing the area. they've surrounded on three besides just you got one avenue of being able to lead warrant. they get the go ahead. >> then they'll start moving in and start to make arrest and if somebody is a student on the campus or somebody's not a student on the campus and just come there in order to demonstrate, does that make a difference? what happens to them? them after they get arrested no, not really many of the people there no doubt our students, but they'll have quite a few people that are
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non-students that are there. >> so once they give the order to clear the campus than the police this will begin to move in. i see they have less lethal munitions and so forth available. hopefully they do not have to use them again, that as a last resort there'll begin by trying to just physically move people physically, remove them, and take them to the transport vehicle. >> chief ramsey, i appreciate your time. nick watt as well, the news continues right here. >> in it out front next pecker in the hot seat and a man who covered him for years is my guess why he says he will not hold back tomorrow. this is trump dares the judge to put them in jail plus pro-palestinian protests grow across the united states. i was on the campus of columbia university today, i spoke with the embattled speaker of the house who was there his message to the president of columbia university as his job is on the line and move over moscow.
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marjorie, because russia has a new favorite republican and we will unveil it for you tonight. let's go out front good evening i'm erin burnett out front tonight, not holding back. the man who covered david pecker is every move is boss of the national enquirer tells out front the pecker is going to tell all tomorrow when he's back on the stand, keith kelly, who covered pecker for decades for the new york post, says pecker will not be holding back my guest tonight has a whole lot more to say about pecker's testimony. and that testimony is going to include all the details about the hush money payment to stormy daniels. pecker will be asked about it in detail when he's back in court tomorrow morning. >> and remember, pecker was the one who helped broker the deal between michael cohen, trump's fixer, and former attorney and stormy daniels. >> and this whole deal was about keeping daniel's quiet about an alleged affair with trump. here is the secret audio tape between michael cohen and
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trump himself. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all the info regarding friend david so that i'm going to do that right away. i've actually come up and i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with where we are funding that yes and it's all the stuff i mean trump on tape. so what do we got to pay for this one 50. >> and our friend david, that they're referring to is david pecker. and tomorrow that friend because now i put that in quotes. apparently they're not speaking will be just feet away from trump speaking about daniel's and all of these details. meanwhile, daniel's close friend told us exclusively that daniel's is scared. she said that the threats have been increasing and getting scarier just since the trial began, she told me so just in these past few days but she told me that stormy daniels
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is ready to testify if called. beringia and grass begins our coverage outfront live here in new york and brin, what more you learning about what we can expect here and just hours when court is back in session yeah aaron listen you hit it right on the head. there. we're talking about david pecker. amanda has been friends with donald trump's since the 80s, sitting right across from him in witness dan, just feet away from the former president as he stares him down, giving these dirty details about this catch and kill scheme in full detail. that is what we are expecting more of tomorrow. and that all started of course, as we've learned from the testimony in august 20 when they made that deal between trump, michael cohen, and david pecker about being the eyes and the ears of the campaign and how they were going to find the stories that were negative about trump are salacious about trump, bury them and promote stories that were positive ahead of that campaign. they went into detail about that trump tower doorman who had a story about a woman who claimed that she fathered a child or he fathered a child of her for us and then before
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court wrapped up and david pecker was done for the day they got into the details of but another playboy playmate, karen mcdougal, who of course alleged affair a width down, donald trump going to the national enquirer with her story in june of 20 16s. and really worrying trump according to a pecker's testimony, so much so that michael cohen was badgering him for more information about exactly what karen mcdougal had on donald trump's. so that's where it left off. but very tense moment in the testimony by the prosecution that is where we are going to pick up and then likely very likely get into those details that you just talked about. with what happened with the stormy daniels incident. now it's very important to put this all into context, right? david pecker is a huge witness for this prosecution because again, trump so has 34 charges of falsifying business records, right? that's a misdemeanor. they need to connect the dots for jurors as to why this is a felony to cover up another
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crime david pecker is one of those witnesses. he's also going to help corroborate another major witness of course, michael cohen. so there's a lot to get to you when court resumes tomorrow, in addition to that, we're still of course, waiting to hear how the judge is going to rule on that gag order. we still don't know with that if they're ruling is going to come tomorrow or when. but certainly a lot of details there that were waiting in four our brand. >> absolutely. and of course, that ruling could come at any time and our experts are all here with me, keith kelly, so no reporter covered david pecker longer than you have have covered him, former new york post media columnist. so you know this and you know him. he is set to take the stand again tomorrow and he's been granted immunity in exchange for this testimony. wasn't that he wanted to be here necessarily, but he's gotten immunity. >> and you think that he won't hold back i don't think he will he will not hold back at all. >> he has nothing to lose now his immunity deal is basically he has to testify and tell the truth if he doesn't tell the truth, the deal's off. so he's under the gun and it's probably smiling inwardly that
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he is not in the same seat that down trump is in or that michael cohen is in his testimony, he turned rat on then michael cohen and that's why michael cohen went to jail so it could have been just as easily them sweating pecker and he could have gone to jail. >> so so everything everything will come out. >> i think everything he has nothing to hold back. he's probably relieved that he can actually honestly tell the truth so jeremy, you've been inside the courtroom, right? so you've seen trump as pecker started the start testimony, we've seen a bit up. you've seen trump watching pecker, pecker watching trump, each of them watching the other one watch. i mean, you're really getting the dynamics and the body language here. so what is your sense about how they feel about each other guys have known each other for decades, were friends? yeah. >> as much of a sense of the word is probably either one of them have friends. >> now far from it the one there was really only one light moment in court on tuesday and that was when the prosecutor
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just steinglass, he asked david pecker two it's basically identified donald trump, who is donald trump in the courtroom? >> can you point at what was he wearing? any pointed to trump and he said, he's wearing a blue suit and that was the only time where we saw the present former president. he stood up, he sat up in his chair and he gave us smirk literally the only smile i saw him flashed the entire de of describing a smirk i would say it was this mark, it was, you know, one of the faces he likes to give he was he trump was paying attention. i think, especially when david pecker took the stand on monday, trump was very focused on his testimony, i think on tuesday as it's settled in and we listened him speak for hours. trump's sort of dial back, you lean back in his chair. he shuffled through his papers and i think he was a little less focused on every word that he was saying. >> well, it's gonna be tomorrow is going to be a crucial de, what more do prosecutors need from david pecker right now, right. >> so he's done a tremendous job for them. the opening presentation& already in some sense corroborating what michael cohen will say down the
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line. but i think there are a of other pieces so evidence that we know are probably coming. david pecker nose from a december conversation directly with donald trump and michael cohen. what the financial arrangement was because michael cohen wasn't being paid at the time and s pecker to intervene and prevail upon the president elect at the time to pay him. so he knows about their conversation. and then there's a big one summer 2017, the president of the united states invites david pecker to his, to the white house to thank him for helping him on the campaign. that's an important nexus because the entire theory of the cases that all of this hush money payments schemes were related to trying to win the election and there's the president from the meeting. >> thank him successfully doing what he is alleged to have done. nothing like a meeting where you thank somebody for doing something else you've done. >> so too early. okay. now you are looking at this from the defense side of things. given all of that then he's going to pecker is going to go under cross-examination by trump's team. so what are they going to do? >> they have to do a lot. aaron. and here's why he gives them pecker. does the
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conspiracy and the cover-up that's the theory of the case. speaking about the issues of the meeting and what was arranged at the meeting. and so you gotta go after him. the first thing you're going to do is to start with this non-prosecution agreement. so you're here sorry. because you have a deal. is that correct? and that deal means does that you're not going to be prosecuted and you're saying to tell the truth, whose truth is that? objection, but here's the reality. the reality is is that you have to hit them hard. he gave you and let's start here. he talks about how trump is so meticulous, how he monitors everything. what does that mean? it means that the defense saying he didn't know anything about ledgers, he didn't know anything about invoices right through pecker. it shows he knows everything. you aren't in those meetings. you don't know how he runs his organization, you don't know what he does with those ledge. you have to get them away from having knowledge of the organization in addition to that, you weren't in meetings with michael cohen and mr. trump, you don't know what trump said to him, if anything, that is michael cohen with respect to conversations with you, whether he is acting on the loyalty fealty, et cetera, you have to go out them a bit.
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they may have been friends before, but now i'm not so sure they need to be friends now, i'm just looking here at our quote, when trump and cohen and they're talking about it in trump's says to cohen. so what do we got to pay for this one 50 i mean, you know, there there is the reality that you have low 40. i hope there are tapes. jim comey okay. so jerry george worked for the national enquirer for nearly 30 years as the la bureau chief, he came on the show a few years ago. he has since passed away, but i want to play something he told us this is about trump and pecker in their relationship. and he told us this all the way back in 2018 curious david pecker knows where the bodies are buried. david pecker knows all of the trump's stories that were, that were killed. all the story leads he, he pretty much you know, that knows the worst of president trump's personal life i'll the implication there being that what the american public knows is not anywhere near the worst and the context here, keith if
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your name is mike cohen or stormy daniels, trump's gone after you aggressively yeah david pecker is very curious that he has not attacked him and my theory is that he knows that pecker knows a lot more than he's disclosed. >> right now. he's disclosing financial transactions which he thinks he can explain away. but there's probably a lot more and that's gotta be the only reason trump would not attack them because he scared. he doesn't want to stir them up any further than he is. he thinks as long as he sticks to the basic numbers, facts his lawyers can dissuade. hopefully in trump's view, the jury but we started going in with much more salacious stuff. which he may know and trump will know he knows that could be a lot worse picture for trump will put as an even more unsavory character if if he knows, what he feels,
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he knows that could could come out. i mean, that would certainly change the whole well tenor of the situation jeremy interesting, trump hasn't gone after david pecker. there had been he had as part of this process, been critical of a juror or two, but the jurors in that room right now, he has not been. what is his demeanor like when the jury's in the room? >> it really is. i think different from what we've seen in past cases and even during some portions of this case and one of the things i'm going to watch for tomorrow is we could get the judge's decision saying that he has violated that gag order. we don't know for sure the judge didn't give a timeline, but that could be what we get first thing in the morning and it will be very interesting to see if trump is because as stoic as he was during that hearing is his lawyer was getting attack with some very difficult questions from the judge, and that if that does come in the morning, that's going to set the day where we then go straight from him presumably losing on the gag order to then going into testimony about karen mcdougal
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and stormy daniels. and i think to this point, the first two days this trial, he is not really reacted to win the jury's is there. we'll see if that changes as the trial moves forward. >> is there a risk for trump that david pecker does in any of these questionings come out and reveal new information about trump's personal life that would be very damaging. >> i think it's more that david pecker could reveal that to the public. and trump is running a presidential campaign. >> i think he would have had to probably told the prosecutors at this point everything he knows for them to now come out with new information. >> don't see that happening in the trial contexts, but he might know so much information about trump's life over multiple years. that is not necessarily related to this particular scheme or the 2016 election, but much more broadly, but that would be objectionable, right? obviously, if new things start to be revealed, that a damaging to trump and not on-point are relevant to the case said offense is going to jump out of their chair for that. right. >> and so but i do think you have to keep it really is interesting how dropped the tags everybody else, but pecker is sort of not to this point,
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been assailed. if his testimony gets any more damaging than it is because he lays the entire foundation of the case. maybe that'll change two. >> all right. well, thank you very much. and these hours before court goes back into session, we do have some more breaking news here. we have just learned that in arizona grand jury has just indicted more than a dozen of trump's allies who are accused of trying to overturn the election in arizona. this is significant development and we have the breaking details on this. we're going to have that free with just as this is coming in after this break. >> plus pro-palestinian protests growing across the united states on college campuses students have been clashing with police on several today. >> i was at the campus of columbia university and i was there with the speaker of the house, mike johnson came to new york with a very specific message tonight. and the nikki haley factor so trump's got a hold on the gop nomination, right? she's been off the ballot for what i mean in but guess what?
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>> she just got a brutal reminder of his challenges heading into the election, thanks to a nikki haley's performance welcome. >> to the world of spycraft garage glued to the action. let's get down, let's get funky what are you concealing do communist sympathizer supervisor streaming exclusively on macs hain means pause on the things i loved brene means go cool the pain with biobrick and keep on going bio freeze. >> green means go university of maryland global campus is a school for real life, one that values that successes you've
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>> you won't physicians mutual wealth, how it really happened sunday at nine on good man. and we have breaking news arizona's attorney general has just announced multiple charges in connection to the 2020 fake electors scheme to try to help donald trump overturn the election in the crucial state of arizona which was of course one by just over 10,000 votes among those charged the 11, eight alleged fake electors for trump. and here's the full the full indictment. the there's others that we know here as they are serving these individuals. some of these
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names are redacted, but we can figure out who some of them are several others also indicted they are, as i said, some of these names gonna be redacted until they have been served, but we can tell you because we are learning that rudy giuliani, mark meadows are among them, as well as other crucial names in the inner circle of trump's. so let's go straight to zachary cohen outside the maricopa county superior courthouse, breaking this. >> so zach just going through this. look, i'm just going through the number of pages here 58 pages. >> you've been able to go through this here, literally as this is breaking, what else can you tell us about who is being charged at what? >> yeah. like you said, look, the 11 fake electors from arizona that trump fake electors, they were all indicted. that includes kelly ward, who was the former head the republican party here in arizona, along with her husband, michael ward. but more importantly, these names that are redacted were wondering more about who those people are. they include, as you mentioned, rudy giuliani one the former personal attorney of donald trump, that includes
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former chief of staff, mark meadows, and it includes boris epshteyn, who is still a very close adviser to donald trump. in fact, sources have told us and people close to trump told us that the reason bores epstein hasn't been seen with trump in new york for the start of his criminal trial. there is because of concerns of this looming and died eight min. so come into fruition today. >> and so some of these defendants and some of these that you're naming boris obviously rudy giuliani, mark meadows, their names are redacted in the version that we have now because i understand there's still actually in the process of serving them. so when i say this is breaking, it's breaking to that level. is there anything else you can tell us about some of these redacted names which by the way are written. some of them in the context of unindicted coconspirator number one was unwilling to accept that he lost the election, right? that undated unindicted coconspirator number one, obviously then is donald j. trump? >> right? absolutely. and look, these are all individuals from the trump world, from the trump universe that we've identified so far are obviously very close to trump we're very close to
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trump at a certain time, especially when you're trying to overturn the 2020 election. and we'll learn more about these other redacted names probably about in the next few minutes here, but we are told that they are all from that inner circle, from those people that were working in trump's orbit to help them overturn the 2020 election and look this investigation here in arizona, it's obviously coming years after after those efforts were first exposed. but we always thought that it was really focused on the fake electors themselves, myself and marshall cohen have reported though in the last few months that the probe did seem to be expanding it seemed to be looking into people who are connected to the trump campaign on a national level. and now we know that some of these names and this indictment are in that really that inner circle of trump's orbit oh, we'll bring you more when we have it. but for now, we do know that some of these really close advisers to donald trump are included in this indictment. >> zach, thank you very much. so as you get more and you go through this, please going to bring you back into this conversation because as i said, this 58 a page document, we're having a chance here to go through it as as we speak. so zach, we'll continue with that. ryan goodman, joey
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jackson are back with me and we're also now joined by former trump white house lawyer ty cobb here with us in new york all right, so we're all just getting a chance to look through this here ryan, i'm just going through quickly nine felony counts. but can we just just hone in here on this? obviously, the fake electors in the state of arizona charged. can we just hone in on this inner circle of trump page 20? i'm just gonna hold up for everyone to see all these black marks are redacted names but some of these names are include mark meadows, rudy giuliani, bosch, epstein, and what else can you tell? >> so think what's incredible here is that donald trump is unindicted, coconspirator number one, unindicted, yet his to alter egos, mark meadows, who was his chief of staff, and rudy giuliani, his personal attorney, are indicted so how is it explicable that he that donald trump is not indicted? i think that's the key question just to take a page from the federal indictment, which identifies rudy giuliani running with donald trump in arizona to overturn the popular
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vote and the popular vote the federal indictment says, giuliani and trump quote, made knowingly false claims of election fraud aimed at interfering with the ascertainment and voting by an arizona's electors, end quote, when they're on the call with rusty bowers, the republican head of the arizona legislature rudy giuliani, as a coconspirator of donald trump. but here in the arizona indictment, donald trump is left out. that's a huge question. >> hi, what do you make of that? i mean, it's very clear here, page 21, unindicted coconspirator number one, right can i just read the description here? a former president of the united states who spread false claims of election fraud following the 2020 election there's a jeopardy question, right sorry who is unindicted coconspirator number one, what do you make of that? so i think the distinction may be having not had sufficient time to be certain to this, but i think the distinction may be people who actually acted in arizona. i think as i review it, it
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appears that giuliani was active in organizing the fake electors worked with kelly ward. i think the same thing is true of the other people who were indicted in conversations meadows and juliana and trump. so eastman is unindicted coconspirator number four as that seems. >> so there are there are five unindicted coconspirators you're saying for you think is clearly eastman. i think four is clearly usemin. and but those are people who didn't conduct the electric scheme on the ground or organize it in a way actively in arizona, they were people who were above the above that fray giuliani was there actually taking action? same thing with meadows in terms of coordination. so i think that's the distinction. all right. so so i'm just going through this nine felony counts, as i said, and this is just to give the summary conspiracy fraudulent schemes,
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fraudulent schemes, forgery, forgery forgery, forgery, forgery, forgery problematic. >> let me be prosecuted before i'm defense right now, the issue from the prosecutor's perspective and people at home is saying, look, whether you acted on the ground or not, if you were a mastermind of an enterprise, it doesn't matter where you are. the issue is to what extent were you involved, to what extent did you aid abet or do any activity that might further the interests? >> of forgery, forgery, et cetera. >> as you say, yeah, i think people are wondering, well, why isn't everyone accountable prosecutor, prosecutors have a great deal of discretion, right? and so prosecutor is going to do what they feel is in the best interests to secure the indictment. they secure, but it's a fair question as to why these unindicted people are not actually indicted. now, from a defense perspective you know, erin and you have to get into the realm of politics, even in law, because it's become so political, you know what trump's gonna say, who is the attorney general democrat or republican? democrat? why did it take so long to do this?
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she's going to say because i came after a person who was in office for two terms who did nothing. but you can look to this to be attack on political grounds as the basis for which it's moving forward. i guarantee you. that's what all the news reports are going to be. it was because of this democratic attorney general at lacks evidence at lacks information, et cetera. the proof will be in the specific details of an index. and i know we're literally trying to, as we're talking, sort of skim through this. but what i'm noticing already right? i am just going through it here, that there are a lot of text messages and other corroborating data, just even going through this in terms of some of the allegations? yes. what one would call proof? >> absolutely in some of it actually spilled out into the new york times earlier, so they actually had a lot of the written communications in which some of the arizona players referred to the alternative electors as fake electors. and then they sit your chair there. maybe that's not the best term that we should use for. they're also going to try to hide the information about the false electors until january 6, and then bring it on congress,
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which is not the way you go about submitting your electors slate to congress if it was a legitimate operation. so that internal documentation is damning. when now we're getting into a prosecution setting. and i think that's gonna be very important. it actually does set aside arizona is different than other states because i think the evidence is just much stronger here prosecutors, i mean, it is it is very, very laid out. so tie when you go through nine felony counts, the allegations, can you just lay out the significance of that? what what actually what does that mean in terms of what these people would these people who are being charged, what would be repercussions of conviction be the repercussion is a conviction i think are very serious great. >> this i think that it's highly likely that jail time is on the table for some of these people i think particularly those who were at the head of the table in terms of organizing this& getting the scheme off could could be subjected to jail time. i do think the nine counts actually
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has a former prosecutor. i view that as good prosecuting. i mean, i think you see these 34 count indictments like we haven't you're saying you see nine is narrow? yeah, i see nine is focused. i mean, it's keeping mind. this is the 14th month investigation and the arizona attorney general who is going to get criticized for this course. but she's a serious lawyer and this is as far as i can tell if having gone through, this looks pretty well organized and approval. proof will be in actual trial. but the way the indictment is laid out, its it's carefully crafted and seems to be very serious document and aaron, just in terms of ties point, which is a very good one, of course, as it relates to what prosecutors do. >> they charge these multiple indictments, right. and the issue with that is anyone i'll do if you get one conviction as it relates to a multiple indicted case you're a winner and really the offense, it really depends upon what you've been convicted of, but some of
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these sentences, right, are quite significant. and so when you have a multi count indictment, it really enhances the exposure of the individuals who were indicted. >> all right, so now let's just talk about, i guess first take a step back. unindicted coconspirator. number one, donald i'll j. trump for president the united states. >> what happens when you get a conviction to unindicted coconspirator number one, i mean, it is legally nothing legally nothing legal. and the only other point maybe make here is just to remind everybody this is a state prosecution of. state crimes. if donald trump is elected president, he can't do anything about it. he can pardon these people because that's only about federal crimes. he cannot quash the investigation because that's only about the justice department, not about state law enforcement authorities. so he's just left out there as unindicted coconspirator. and then these folks might be left holding the bag i would say there's there's an interesting nuance point here too, because you get the forgery, forgery, forgery. >> keep in mind that in the 15, 12 see discussion before the
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supreme court. the issue is evidentiary interference as opposed to just any obstruction. so the forgery is actually highlight the strength of jack smith's case because that is evidenced those forgeries are evidence and interference are obstruction in that manner is will be actionable no matter what the supreme court decides. all right. so there's also the i guess that just compare this app because when you bring up that trump would be able to pardon, et cetera, right. and the other case that we're talking about is georgia, right. which i know is perceived as a strong case and has had a lot of challenges just to maybe in terms of public perception because of the whole embroiled with fani willis how does this stand up to that? >> obviously trump is not in this one and the same but how would you compare the cases? >> i think this is this is a laser and not a kitchen sink and that one's more, that one is much broader. no one sprawling. that one includes like pressure being placed on election officials and trying to get them to change the
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racketeering aspect of this absolutely. the racketeering and racketeering law in georgia is even broader than federal racketeering law, which are that's own terms is very broad. and so there's so many aspects to the georgia one and it's also got many more defendants operating at the national and state level. the fact that it included donald trump also did gum up the works in litigation to some extent because then he's being able to make arguments like presidential immunity or, or supremacy clause had claims there are special to the president and so that's why that case is it very difficult case to move forward? this case is built for speed and i agree laser-focused, but having said that, i think there is something to be said for charging the racketeering which was charged in georgia, if there's an enterprise and that enterprise is significant with respect to its goal all and purpose to commit criminality. that's the right call. and as a prosecutor, i think you have to be committed to the notion of justice, right? some do it more efficiently, so and much bigger. >> flare-ups a given charged the former president chose solute lay, right for whatever their discretionary reasons is
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a prosecutor, they have some do things differently. >> the end result will be what it'll be. everyone's presumed innocent until proven guilty. but i think the racketeering nature of the georgia case, whether you agree or disagree, i think it was the right call based on their theory in georgia, as we did the spring, jeff zeleny into this conversation. obviously, it's been covering covering this from the beginning and jeff zeleny, what have you been learning here? because we just go through this 58 page indictment coming out of the state of arizona where and one thing is clear arizona like georgia. another key battleground state. i mean, joe biden, only one arizona by about 10,000 votes. so arizona has always going to be ground zero of this reelection. certainly the abortion measure by the supreme court has added to that. and now this yes, a latest round of indictments we'll add to it as well. both campaigns are assessing this, talking to someone in the biden campaign just a few moments ago, really reading this page of indictments as well, where
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trump campaign also assessing this. so the reality is, we do not know the political fallout or impact from any of these cases, just like the case in new york or georgia, we do not know if this will enhance former president donald trump or will impede him politically. these are operating on two very different tracks. we've seen him enhanced over the last year, donald trump by these criminal charges. some of his supporters believe now people are piling on, if you will, these various prosecutors. but as the information comes in from all these separate indictments, this is definitely something that trump campaign obviously does not welcome or want. some republicans do not welcome more once. so as we digest this, keep in mind arizona is so important to the pieces of the puzzle here that go into the battleground states. and this new piece of evidence always reminds us. we don't know what elections are going to be about. this is a dynamic process for six months to come certainly impacts it as well. >> and we certainly don't know. i mean, everyone points to polls of what people say they will do or how they will react.
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in a conviction and you know what i mean? i you know, i know we talked about polls. they're all we've got but i don't think we have any idea until something actually happens. and you see what people think. thai know you were going through what you thought maybe the distinction between who is actually charged and who's an unindicted coconspirator. but what do you think? and obviously you can't get in the head shot decision to charge here. but they could have obviously charged donald hey trump in this, right. a is front and center and all that. i mean, even just going through it now as quickly as i can unindicted coconspirator number one, it's right, left, and center all the way through this. what do you think the thinking may have been as to why not to charge him here when they certainly was a precedent to do so in georgia. >> sure. i think enjoys right. i mean, in the sense of pointing out that prosecutors have a great deal of discretion, and if you look look at this through the prosecutorial lins, donald trump's indicted twice federally once in connection with this whole scheme and that he has benefited from the playing the martyr and as the
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case pile up, i think there i think i can see prosecutors thinking there's really no reason for us to do this. it's being done we all the taxpayers, some some some loyalty to and why take on that burden at the same time, you're sure they could have but i don't think it's necessary, particularly when you've already got this serious federal federal indictment and you've got the indictment of georgia. >> so i can see why they would have done it also, i think it makes the case a little bit easier for him and i think they they will be focused largely on people in the state and people who have actual, have had actual interactions with those fake elector. >> so these 58 page document when it comes out right now, we're hours away from the supreme court hearing. >> the immunity case on whether donald trump is immune from actions that he did while president united states, as he says, that he has so that he says he can't be charged in mar-a-lago, can't be charged in january 6 what what could that ruling mean? >> for cases like this in arizona? in cases in georgia,
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that's a great question i mean, i do think that in a certain sense theoretically if the president is immune from federal prosecution for all x while in office, then as we say in the law for sure, even more so, he is immune or she is b immune. four, prosecution by state and local effects even more so, yeah because if there's federal immunity for something like that because of federal law, then he would be even more protected against state and local prosecutors in trying to intrude on the president's powers. that would be anathema in that vision of the world. but that vision is going to die tomorrow before the supreme court. the absolutist idea that the trump lawyers are putting forward willing not survive supreme court scrutiny. they will find that he does not have that kind of immunity at person who's in the office can commit crimes. and that's been the understanding nixon was there was a draft indictment for nixon independent investigator for clinton was thinking of indicting him. that's just the general understanding. so i think you could imagine a world in which the state they prosecutors in arizona say,
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wait, this way to see how the supreme court goes. and then we can move forward. >> all right. i'll stay with me. it's go back to zach cohen. i know zack, you've got some more breaking details here. what you just learned looking at this indictment, it looks like there's nine counts total, including multiple felony, isn't one of those felonies is conspiracy again, that goes back to what we were talking about. >> earlier about how this investigation really did seem to initially be just focused on the electors we've seen in michigan, for example, just the electors were charged there, but the conspiracy count does underscore for this investigation did expand. did widen to include some of those people in trump's inner orbits and there's people that were working on his national campaign. i have to put these fake electors forward to have them sign those fraudulent documents. i've it's really more reminiscent of the indictment we saw in georgia, the rico charges in georgia that it is of some of the other big electric charges we've seen. also really interesting as you mentioned previously, that donald trump is an unindicted coconspirator in his case, we learned it as well that he isn't unindicted coconspirator in michigan, so he's now being named in two different criminal investigation at the state
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level. we know he's charged in georgia making that a third case. so really interesting that he is included in this charging document, albeit as an unindicted coconspirator, i want to boris epshteyn has being indicted in this case two, because 15 is somebody who like i said, has remained really close to the former president. he was there in court in manhattan back when donald trump was are in the new york hush money case, but were told by sources, kristen holmes, are great colleague has told that the reason boris epshteyn has been kept at a distance recently from donald trump is because of concerns that this indictment was coming. they thought that he was going to be implicated in that indictment and we know now that he was so a lot of big boldfaced names in this diamond, including one that we're identifying now as christina bob, the former oil an anchor. she's somebody who we've previously reported was working with rudy giuliani to help organize stake electors in multiple states, including arizona. she's on multiple planning calls with different representative from the trump campaign, from these various states too. so really a bigger swing maybe we were expecting
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at first, but arizona with that conspiracy charges, multiple felonies and potentially pretty serious consequences and it tie interesting. the point is he said took a bigger swing than some might have expected. >> you have christina, bob, who is an anchor for the far-right network, right on there as well? yes. so i think that's true and i think in both michigan and arizona shoes, she's an coconspirator, i think i believe and again, that goes to my point of i can see them fashioning this in a way that tries to scope in all the people who actually contacted fake electors, organized fake electors, helped police i'll see wise in terms of how they were going to do this, which would include epstein. so i think that's that seems to be the distinction that they use in defining the people that they were going to mention in the indictment, either as unindicted coconspirators or actual defendants. i do think that epstein is fascinating as defendant in this case as you know from your conversations
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with tim parlatore and jim trusty they're not going to lose any sleep over borse is fate tonight and know he's been with trump a lot. >> remember when he was going down for the mar-a-lago indictment appearance he's of all these people still so in his inner circle, right? >> we're very much in his inner circle and very protective of the former president and protective to the point that giuliani reached when he arguably sold his soul to protect the president and under circumstances that were improper hey all stay with me. i do want to bring in rusty bowers central to this entire indictment. rusty is the former republican speaker of the house of representatives in arizona. famously, rusty, you testified before the january 6 committee about how trump and giuliani pressure you to overturn the 2020 election results in arizona. i know you and i've had a chance to speak many times, but now here we are rusty. we've got 58 page indictment in your state. what's your reaction from what you know so far well, from what
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i know is what you just told me if. >> that's the case that i'm a witness and i i hesitate in talking about it's too length other than what i publicly have said previously rusty. i am, you know, literally we are breaking this on the air, so i will admit here i'm reading as we're covering it, but i'm just looking at page 31 is one of the places where you are introduced. here's how they introduced you they say russell, rusty bowers served in the arizona legislature from 2015 to the beginning of 2023. they lay out who you are and then they talk about the extensive pressure that you spoke about being under two to overturn the election in the state house that you said you were getting hundreds of emails demanding that i do my constitutional duty and name electors that will vote for trump that you then said you were quote, getting very strange and unsettling phone calls telling me to do my duty and vote to elect vote electors
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who will vote for trump? rusty, how intense was this pressure well, there was pressure and it was intense and it was it's now going on almost three years, but it's it was intense but for some that might have been real troubling i don't know how i feel about it now, but at the time it was it was certainly demanding of my staff, my assistance they had to put up with thousands, not hundreds thousands of emails and calls. >> so they're troopers& or can you hear me? >> yes, i can hear you, rusty, i know you're on the phone and we were dealing with that connection, but i got you loud and clear we were just going through here a lot of these names rusty are redacted because they're still in the process of serving some of the individuals being charged. so you have the false elector slate in your state of arizona, and you also have others who
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are close to trump and we're very much a part of this. rudy giuliani, mark meadows bosch, epstein do any of those et christina, bob a news anchor for the far-right network, oa. and i believe do any of those names surprise you? rusty? >> no, it doesn't surprise me know not at all. i mean, i did i did get calls from some of them, not bob. i never talked to hurt others, yes. and some of those people were famously in our state involved and did videos of themselves and other things but rusty it's sad to see it come to this. but we make well i'd better my comment. i than say yeah, they did kill me they did. >> well the other person in here, unindicted coconspirator number one, i just want to read you you how he's described unindicted coconspirator number one, rusty, on page 21, a former president of the united
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states who spread false claims of election fraud following the 2020 election rashee, are you surprised that donald trump is unindicted as a coconspirator well i'm not that prosecutor. >> i'm not i'm, not an advocate. i'm just a witness i only talk about things that happened to me and i can you know, i could i mean, from your perspective as a witness, does that does that surprise you? i mean, you lived this and a way that everyone watching didn't write your, you know, more than anybody else? probably more than anybody else. what actually happened. so does it surprise you given what you dealt with that that he is not indicted? >> i do remember the phone call. i do remember his involvement. i do remember how he couched his beats and his terms and in some ways, i'm not
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surprised. not surprised. in the arizona case. is that as far as i'm concerned, i mean, the fact that he was the president and called me yeah, that's that's impressive all that testimony is going to have to come out in court and and it looks like if they've indicted and it looks like i'm going to be involved in they're not give my feelings about it too deeply. >> all right. well, i hope you understand. no, i do understand that. i do understand that. i do want to be clear that he is unindicted coconspirator number one rusty, thank you so much for taking the time and being with us thank you so much for the call. all right. good to talk to you, rusty. we're going to take a break. we're going to be back at a conversation with the speaker of the house, mike johnson today about the campus protests raging around the country is decision to leave washington and come make
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check four imprint.com, imprint for certain, i'm caitlin polantz at the federal court in washington, and this is cnn breaking news. >> there are pro-palestinian protests across the united states spreading violent clashes today between police and students at usc and ut austin one more than 20 people were arrested as follows. protests at nyu brown university and columbia university where an encampment has taken over part of the center of campus. more than 100 had been arrested in-person classes have been canceled after eight straight days of demonstrations. i was on that campus earlier today to interview the house speaker mike johnson. sen. this is what i saw and heard johnson walked
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out. >> there were hundreds of people on the steps where he and other gop representatives that he had brought along with him and his entourage. >> you spoke they were going to show you here this is my cell phone video you can free palestine heckling, booing when johnson called for the president of the school to resign, they were not friendly they couldn't actually hear the speaker, which i can tell you is a good thing because much of what he said would have incensed that crowd an after the press conference, the speaker's team moved us inside and the kula into the columbia library with the speaker. did interviews. they put that entire space under lockdown because of that large crowd. so here's our conversation right after that. hundreds of people outside when we moved, rushed inside, inside the library, moments after that test, tense press press conference speaker johnson, thanks for your time. obviously, there's a lot going on in congress right now you've chosen to travel to new york. and as you were just out on those steps calling for the
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resignation of the president up here of columbia there was heckling, there was shouting that was not a warm reception enjoy your free speech. >> well, you surprised at all by what happened? >> well, there was a sea of students who apparently have been involved in the protest here. and i'm not surprised that they didn't welcome our visit because we're calling out their activities. what the point we tried to make today is that this is not who we are as americans. this is not an expression of the first amendment. this this is not an exchange of ideas. this is, this is threats and intimidation of violence against jewish students for who they are, for their faith. and that's a terrible trend that's going on in the country. hey, right now, we have these similar types of activities and what are becoming violent protests on campuses around the country. and members of congress, i believe have an obligation, responsibility to the speak about this and to demand that it come to an end because it's not good for us. >> the main thing they were chanting was free palestine how is that anti-semitic?
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>> well, what's anti-semitic? is that hamas endorsed this protest today within the last two hours, they issued an endorsement statement and heralded the students here instead. this is the next generation of leaders chip in america if you're getting endorsed by hamas, that's not a good look. it's not a good sign. some of these students, the apparently are unaware of the atrocities of october 7. are there? nine they deny that women and children brutally raped and murdered that infants were placed into ovens and cooked alive. the things that happen there unspeakable and yet they're out there waving flags for the very people who committed those atrocities. this, this is not who we are a speaker in those early days i was in some of the caboose& you good smell the death and the bodies. >> it was horrific and yet what's happened since has been horrific two and there's a student here at peachy student at columbia. i wanted to quote him. he is jewish he has written a testimonial about what's going on here right now. his experience on campus, and he says, i'll read it to you. the most pressing threats
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to our safety as jewish students do not come from it's on campus. we should be focusing on the material reality of war. the munitions our government is sending to israel, which killed palestinians by the thousands. and the americans participating in the violence let's do you think that protesting the humanitarian catastrophe in gaza, protesting the tens of thousands of innocent people who have died there is anti-semitic in and of itself i think there's always a place for debate in the free exchange of ideas, but let's not equivocated on what's happening in hamas with hamas&, and gaza. >> this is a battle is netanyahu said prime minister netanyahu said between good versus we've all light versus darkness civilization versus barbarism. this isn't a close call. we have terrorist who preyed upon an attacked viciously and killed many innocent israelis. and the idea that there would be on here in support of that hamas is using civilians as shields for themselves. they put their operations under hospitals it was in schools. they are using
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civilians in a theater of war. and so it's difficult. why would someone blamed israel for trying to stamp out the very terrorist threats that are right there on the doors. step. we should not be dictating to israel their military strategy. we should be supporting our ally, which is the only stable democracy. >> is there anything israel could do that would be over the line for you because when you talk about stamping it out, i mean many innocent children have died and are dying at israel hands and the idf they have, there have been civilians murdered, but that is not the fault of israel is the fault of the terrorist, the hamas operators and soldiers the terrorist who have used these people and put them into harm's way israel, i'm convinced, is doing its very best to prevent civilian casualties. but this is a war and they're fighting for their very existence. and they are not the aggressors. it is the other side. some of the people here seem not to understand that. and i think that's real problem. we can debate the merits of all these things. but what they're doing here is intimidating jewish student that's the thing that is so problematic.
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>> all right, so let me ask you about that because when it comes to that, the nypd, at least as of monday said they've not received a single call from columbia university of reports any physical harm? >> well, no physical harm. >> right. but you have to speak to these jewish students who are in fear of their lives, who were cowering in their apartments right now, who are not coming to class in fact, the administration recognize the threat was so great, they canceled classes. now, they've come out with this hybrid idea. well, if you're jewish, maybe you do want to stay at home. maybe it'd be better off for you, but it's so discriminatory, it's so wrong. and every way the responsibility of a university administrator straighter is to keep peace on campus and ensure the safety of students, job number one, if they're and capable of doing that, they need different leadership. i think this is time for a really strong hand. >> i'm trying to understand why a speaker of the house, this is an issue you would want to get involved with its private university. it's an issue happening here. why is this something that you are choosing to get involved and in calling for the removal of the president of a private university. >> well, they they receive federal funding and as well, and congress is looking at all
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of these aspects to determine how they're using those funds. is that appropriate? if they can't fulfill their basic obligations? i don't think the american taxpayers want to the funding this kind of thing. we know that professors are engaging in this as well. some of the professors, some have been supportive of the jewish students, but i believe it's a small subset, one. i've told they've allowed this to go on and it is not okay with the american people. this isn't a partisan issue. this is about right and wrong, and we've got to call it for what it is. >> and so when when people talk about genocide and say that israel's engaging in genocide, do you think that that is a legitimate conversation that they should be allowed to have as part of first amendment rights. >> here are a course. look he was the first amendment lawyer for 20 years. i went to the courts and defendant are first amendment freedom of religious expression, the right of free speech on campus. i litigated those cases. of course, the university is supposed to to be the free marketplace of ideas. but when you shout down and physically threatened with intimidation and threats of violence, the other side that
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is not a peaceful expression as fifa is peaceful exchange of ideas. that's something very different and that's what we're saying they need to get control of when they camp out around the campus and they prevent students from exercising their rights that's the problem before you go obviously, we're here in new york, is there has been threats to your speakership back in washington what does it say about your standing as speaker that you are here at columbia university dealing with this issue right now, the speaker of the house is very important constitutional responsibility it's an, an officer listed in the constitution. the speaker speaks for the house of representatives. and i felt it was very important, important for that voice to be heard, not just about what happens at columbia but about what is happening right now around the country. and we have to stand unequivocally for the right and the good. and i'm calling on all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this not to not to endorse it, not to caudal these people, but to say this has to stop, we have to treat every