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Supreme Court To Hear Trump Immunity Claim Arguments In April; Illinois Becomes 3rd State To Remove Trump From Ballot With Judge's Ruling; Tom Dupree, Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Discusses Supreme Court To Hear Trump Immunity Claim; Soon: House Votes On Short-Term Deal To Avoid Partial Shutdown; Texas Battling Million-Acres-Plus Wildfire, Largest In State History; DOJ Reviewing If Boeing Criminally Liable Over Door Plug Blowout. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 29, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:31:25]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: So it's now more likely that former President Trump will not face a federal trial over his actions on January 6th before November's general election after the Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump's arguments that presidents should enjoy total criminal immunity for their acts while in office.

That will delay Trump's trial over elections subversion that was supposed to start next month.

And while the Supreme Court weighs a separate Trump case, Colorado's plan to disqualify Trump from his primary ballot. A third state just moved to kick Trump off of its ballot.

An Illinois judge just ruling that Trump is disqualified because of the 14th Amendment's ban on insurrectionists holding office.

With us now, we have CNN justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider.

OK, let's start with the Supreme Court and presidential immunity that it will hear arguments in late April. How soon could it decide then?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's interesting is the Supreme Courts actually hearing this case faster than it normally would.

Usually, when it grants cases this late, they're not heard until at least October. So in that sense, the Supreme Court is sort of fast- tracking this decision.

But even despite that, they won't even be hearing arguments still the week of April 22nd. We don't know the exact date, yes, but it will be that week.

And then presumably, it's only two months till the end of their terms. So it's very likely this case, this immunity decision won't actually get decided until June, maybe even late June, maybe even the last week of June.

And at that point, if the Supreme Court says Donald Trump is not immune, that's when it would get kicked back to the federal trial court.

And even at that point, Brianna, if were looking at the end of June and the court says you can start this trial, the judge in that case, Judge Tanya Chutkan, she's already said, even once I get the greenlight to go ahead, were still going to have to wait about up three months to get pretrial motions all taken care, all the things that need to happen before trial.

So we're not looking at any potential trial to even start until maybe late September, And then, we're just about a month away from the election.

So it is very likely and possible that this whole case would not get resolved before the election -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, it's so important when you look at how this affects the timing here.

SCHNEIDER: Yes.

KEILAR: Now, talk to us a little bit about Illinois jumping on this wagon of kicking Trump off the ballot. It's -- it's on hold for the time being. But tell us about how this affects things?

SCHNEIDER They're now the third state where a judge or judges have ruled that Trump should be taken off the ballot. This state, Illinois, as in the other states, it's paused their ruling for now.

And early voting is already underway in Illinois. Their primary is March 19th. So Trump will be on the ballot there. It's just a matter of, as this process goes forward, will those votes actually be counted?

So the judge has said, yes, Trump should be taken off the ballot there. Any votes against the -- for him shouldn't count. She paused her ruling until tomorrow.

In the meantime, Trump's team just appealed. So it's possible that the ruling will be on pause even -- even longer now that Trump's team has appealed.

But remember Brianna, you have the Supreme Court weighing in on this exact issue, whether state judges even have the power to unilaterally take candidates off the ballot.

It seemed blood during the arguments they were not going to say that judges could do that. So if they rule before any of these other legal proceedings play out, it would render all these moot. And Trump would be on the ballot in those states.

KEILAR: So just to be clear, an Illinois court deciding that Trump should be kicked off the ballot. It's on hold. However, people have already cast votes.

SCHNEIDER: Exactly. It's already underway.

[13:35:00]

KEILAR: Very, very confusing.

SCHNEIDER: Yes.

KEILAR: All right. Jessica Schneider, very confusing for voters.

Let's talk more about this now with former deputy assistant attorney general, Tom Dupree.

First, on the timing, Tom, of what the Supreme Court hearing this immunity issue is going to do. How do you see this affecting things, considering the timeline that Jessica just laid out there?

TOM DUPREE, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think Jessica laid it out very accurately. I think the Supreme Court, they're going to hear arguments at the end of April. They will give us a decision, possibly in May, probably in June, but very possibly not until the end of June.

Keep in mind, this is actually lightning speed for the United States Supreme Court compared to the way they hear normal cases. Of course, this is anything but a normal case.

And I think a court understands that it does need to expedite things, that it can't drag its heels too much. There's a very strong public urgency in getting a decision, getting a clarity on this immunity question sooner rather than later.

KEILAR: So they could technically still hear this case. But then what issues -- the federal election subversion case, what issues would that be raising n it comes to the perception of things moving so closely to election day?

DUPREE: Sure. Well, I think the big perception is going be what -- how the Department of Justice sees this.

In other words, the Department of Justice is going to be faced with a scenario where, when this case returns to the district court, assuming the court, the Supreme Court says that Trump is not immune, and if there's going to be a trial, the Justice Department is going to face this choice.

They're going to have to decide if they still want to move ahead with this prosecution, even if it means having a trial in September or October.

It's possible that the judge herself will take that decision out of the department's hands by not scheduling a trial so close to the election.

But if she says, hey, I'm willing to hear this case in September or October, the ball will be in squarely in Merrick Garland's court. And he's going to have to make that momentous call about whether to have this trial move ahead before the election.

KEILAR: And we don't know if anyone wasn't onboard with this at the Supreme Court, right We don't -- we don't know if anyone dissented necessarily?

DUPREE: That's correct. We don't know. And I should note that's not uncommon for these types of orders. Often the Supreme Court, when they say they're going to hear a case, they will typically do it as they did in a very short cursory decision.

So it doesn't surprise me that we didn't see any descents. And keep in mind that the schedule that they set for this is not that different from the schedule that Jack Smith himself had proposed to the Supreme Court if they were to grant this case.

It's a little bit slower than the special counsel wanted, but not dramatically.

KEILAR: All right, Tom, thank you so much. Obviously -- obviously, a lot to work through here. And we appreciate you doing that with us.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: So at any moment, we're going to see a major vote on the House floor. Lawmakers are attempting to pass this stopgap spending bill to prevent a partial government shutdown set for tomorrow at midnight.

CNN's Melanie Zanona joins us now live from Capitol Hill.

Melanie, some hard-right Republicans are criticizing House Speaker Mike Johnson for making the short-term deal with Democrats trying to buy more time to come to a larger agreement on a longer-term spending bill.

Is this stopgap measure expected to pass?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, Boris, it is expected to pass. I know we've seen a few failed floor votes around here lately. This is not one of them.

But that does not mean that this vote is not going to come out with a little drama. And that is because this stopgap spending bill is going to need significant Democratic support in order to get it over for the finish line.

The same goes with next week when they're going to try to pass six long-term funding bills, which Speaker Mike Johnson had already warned his conference that it's not going to contain some of these hardline demands that his right-wing flank has been pushing for.

So that has sparked some internal frustration inside the GOP and it is really put Johnson on defense.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): The appropriations -- appropriations process is ugly. Democracy is ugly. This is the way it works every year, always has.

Except that we've instituted some new innovations. We broke the omnibus fever, right? That's how Washington has been run for years.

We're - we're trying to turn the aircraft carrier back to real budgeting and spending reform. This was an important thing to break it up into smaller pieces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZANONA: So we'll be watching very closely to see just how many Republicans end up supporting the stopgap funding bill.

Leadership hoping that more Republicans support it than Democrats. If they don't, that couldn't problem for Johnson.

But after that, this bill will head to the Senate where they are hoping will be able to pass it tonight and avoid yet another looming government shutdown just tomorrow -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Melanie Zanona, live from Capitol Hill, thanks so much for the update.

We do have some breaking news just into CNN. The Alabama House has just approved a bill to protect in vitro fertilization services across the state. It now heads to the Senate where, if it passes, Governor Kay Ivey has said that she will sign that into law.

[13:39:00]

The legislation provides civil and criminal immunity to those providing services related to IVF. Of course, this move comes as multiple Alabama clinics paused IVF treatments after the State Supreme Court ruled that embryos are, in fact, children.

Still ahead on CNN, Texas is racing to contain a record-breaking wildfire. We're going to take you live to the panhandle where more than one million acres have already charred.

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SANCHEZ: Much of northwest Texas right now is an ash-covered wasteland from deadly wildfires. The biggest of the five now burning is this Smokehouse Creek Fire. And that has become the largest in Texas history, the second-largest on U.S. record.

[13:45:08]

It's burned more than one million acres in the panhandle region. Another 31,000 in neighboring Oklahoma. The fire killed 83-year-old grandmother, Joyce Blankenship. Her

grandson told CNN that her house was gone, saying that there was no way that she could have gotten out.

One local official reportedly said at least 5,000 heads of cattle couldn't get out of the way of the flames.

Many survivors have lost everything, though they do remain thankful for their lives.

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BRUCE SETLIFF, WILDFIRE EVACUEE: We're just kind of helpless. We're just trying to gather stuff, figure out what things need to be canceled or --

JUDGE LISA JOHNSON, HAMPHILL COUNTY, TEXAS: Its heartbreaking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is.

JOHNSON: But we've been through this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We want to take you now to Fritch, Texas, where CNN's Lucy Kafanov is reporting live.

And, Lucy, you've actually been seeing snow there. But there is serious concern that, by the weekend, the weather is going to change and it will make conditions much more difficult for firefighters.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And before I get into the weather for the weekend, I just want to address the situation here.

You mentioned, you know how a lot of the landscape here in Texas is covered with ash. it's hard to tell right now whether this is snow or ash flying through the air. This is snow.

But the area for quality is just atrocious. That is just one of the many things that residents here in Fritch and a large part of the Texas Panhandle have to deal with.

Now that fire, the largest up the fires, is now over one million acres. That's, just to give me some reference, more than five times the size of New York City.

We are experiencing cooler temperatures today. So there's been snow all through Amarillo. We drove through that snowstorm. Here, there was snow, there was hail there's a bit of rain. It's sort of the all of the weather.

As for the weather, it's going to help put out the -- the fires. It's certainly going to help dampen and contain them to some extent. But with such a large area burning, it might not get all of it. And what we're expecting for the weekend is, once the snow system

passes through, we could be seeing strong winds around 30 miles an hour on Saturday. We could also be seeing temperatures soaring back to the 70s.

And so the combination of that new hotter, drier air could re-spark the fires. And the big concern is any areas that hadn't been put out by this current weather system could just spread so quickly the way that we saw at the beginning of this week.

And so that is certainly a challenge for firefighters that could hinder firefighting efforts.

But I also want to give you a sense of the damage that this fire could do. You could see the building behind me belongs to a local hero named Janis. The car completely burnt to a husk. All of this she said happened within minutes.

And that is the threat that is facing residents here this coming weekend if those hot temperatures, those strong winds pass through -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Just one sad story out of so many we've already heard from the region.

Lucy Kafanov, live from Fritch, Texas, thank you so much.

[13:48:23]

Listen, problems for Boeing have been piling up after last month's door plug blow out at 16,000 feet. How it could now expose the company to criminal liability based on a previous settlement they made with the federal government. Pete Muntean explains in just a moment.

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[13:53:10]

KEILAR: Boeing is now facing the most serious probe yet over January's door plug blow out. The Justice Department has launched an investigation. And what's more is that Boeing could be in deeper trouble because of a past agreement that it made with the DOJ earlier instances, those two deadly plane crashes back in 2018 and 2019.

We have CNN's Pete Muntean who is with us now on this.

Tell us about this DOJ probe that involves the blowout.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It's not good for Boeing and it just adds on to the mountain of investigations, not only into the door plug incident itself, but also Boeing's quality control at the factory. And now the Justice Department is really piling on here.

What does it all mean? Well, this could expose Boeing to criminal liability if the Justice Department finds that Boeing violated their agreement after the 737 Max-8 crashes of 2018 and 2019. That deferred prosecution agreement was reached back in 2021 and it avoided a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Boeing admitted to fraud.

It's controversial because crash victims' families were not consulted here. That deal was set to expire January 7th, two days after the door plug incident took place on January 5th.

That agreement back in 2021 cost Boeing to have billion dollars and included a $243 million criminal fine.

No comment from Boeing on this latest development. Also, no comment here officially from the Justice Department.

But this is happening as these multiple investigations all appear to be coming to a head this week. Just yesterday, the FAA came down hard on Boeing, saying it has 90 days to produce a plan to fix quality control.

The FAAs audit into Boeing is still ongoing about its quality control issues there. A report expected sometime next week on that.

[13:55:05]

But this is all as the NTSB is still probing the quality control issue at the center of all this. Why did the 737 Max-9 in question leave the factory bound for Alaska Airlines without those four critical bolts that hold the door plug in place? That's what the NTSB found in its preliminary report.

And just Monday, by the way, an expert panel found Boeing factory workers really lived in fear of retaliation for reporting safety issues to their managers.

So it's a layer upon layer here. And we're just starting to peel back the onion on this -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, that's exactly the opposite of how they --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: -- feel emboldened to speak out and make sure people are safe.

So what's the way forward for Boeing here?

MUNTEAN: Well, the quality control audit really sort of confirms in some ways some of the big fears that people have here that Boeing has really lost its way.

And now the big question is where there'll be a major change in leadership after the Max-8 crashes of '18 and '19 that led to a big leadership change at the CEO level.

They've now let go of the program leader of the Max program. And they've installed a new quality control leader.

But we'll see if this is enough to really change the culture at Boeing. And that is what seems to be the problem now.

KEILAR: Yes, it sure does.

Pete, thank you --

MUNTEAN: Thanks.

KEILAR: -- for that.

And ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, we're following the latest from the border where President Biden and former President Trump are set to arrive just minutes and miles apart.

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