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Trump Days Away from First Criminal Trial After Delay Bid Fails; Netanyahu Says Date Set for Rafah Ground Operation; Parents of Michigan School Shooter to be Sentenced. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 09, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Okay, that's a classic husband moment. Oh, yes, me too. Our own Derek Van Dam was able to break some big news yesterday, Stowe, Vermont, as a man proposed to his fiance live right here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right now, you guys, this is happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you. Marry me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

VAN DAM: An engagement during a total solar eclipse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Okay, props to Derek for that.

All right, thanks to you for watching, that total eclipse of the heart. Thanks to our panel for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Don't go anywhere. CNN New Central starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Delay, denied, and maybe for the last time this time. The hush money criminal case moves to trial, and we have new details on what potential jurors are going to be asked.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: An Idaho teen is under arrest, accused of pledging his allegiance to ISIS and planning attacks on churches before the end of Ramadan.

BOLDUAN: Two parents facing sentencing at the same time. Today, James and Jennifer Crumbley will learn their fate after being convicted for the mass shooting that their son carried out, coming face-to-face with the parents of their victims.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN News Central. All right, barring any final Hail Mary or additional legal long shot, which, of course, can happen, but just stick with me, this morning, Donald Trump is six days away from becoming the first former president to go on criminal trial.

Overnight, a New York appeals court just rejected his latest bid to delay or relocate the hush money, that he's facing 34 charges, which means the trial will start Monday, which means the 2024 presidential race now heads back into a courtroom.

Starting next week, Donald Trump will be forced to sit in court four days a week. As prosecutors try to convince a jury, he broke the law when he allegedly falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

The first big question, who will be on the jury for this historic trial? CNN has obtained the jury questionnaire.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has much more on this for us. So, Katelyn, what is the potential jury pool going to be asked?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Kate, the jury poll is going to be asked questions about Donald Trump, but it's not just if they've heard of the man. They very likely have. He was the president. They're going to be asked questions if they have some sort of real bias for or against him.

Here're some of the questions that the jurors, potential jurors in New York County are going to be asked. Do you currently follow Donald Trump on any social media site, or have you done so in the past? That's one of the questions. Do you have anyone in your family, any close friends, or have you yourself worked for or volunteered for his presidential campaign, his administration? And then, crucially, do you have any strong opinions or firmly held beliefs about former President Donald Trump or the fact that he is a current candidate for president that would interfere with your ability to be fair and impartial as a juror?

That is the question that if someone answers, yes, the judge says he doesn't even want to ask them more questions about that, that's going to remove people from the jury pool, this self-reporting of jurors saying, I can't be fair and impartial about Donald Trump.

There are also going to be questions about whether people have any affiliation or have subscribed at some point to the QAnon movement or any of the fringe -- more fringe, right or left wing political extremist groups, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, even Antifa on the left.

Those are the things that jurors will be asked to weed them out. They only need 12, though, ultimately, and a couple more as alternates for this jury, for this trial to take place.

There's going to be a flurry of activity over the next couple of days, Kate. Yesterday we saw that, where Donald Trump tried to put a pause on things and get the trial moved out of New York City, and that didn't fly. The appeals court handled it within about two hours and said, no, we're not moving and we're not putting a pause on things. We're going to try and seat a jury.

BOLDUAN: Those rejections seem to become kind of pro forma now. It's great to see you, Katelyn, a lot to look through here. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now, Elie Honig, senior legal analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

These jury questions are fascinating. What they don't ask the jurors straight on is, are you a Donald Trump supporter, but they basically ask it 18 different ways.

[07:05:06]

How does this work and why?

HONIG: Okay, the all-important art and science of jury selection. So we're going to start with a pool of Manhattanites, New York County only, no Bronx, no Staten Island only, Manhattanites. The first thing after they fill out the questionnaire, the judge will dismiss some of them who are simply unable to serve. Maybe there's a physical limitation, maybe they have a job, doctor or teacher, that just doesn't allow them to be out for six weeks.

Then we're going to get into, based on in part on those jury questionnaires, what we call for cause removals. Meaning if someone answers that question we just saw from Katelyn Polantz, yes, I do have such strong feelings about Donald Trump that I could not possibly judge him fairly, either way, they're out, and that's on the judge.

Then you're going to narrow down your pool of what we call qualified jurors. But it's not over at that point, this is where the strategy really kicks in. Because each side, Donald Trump's team and the D.A., get ten what we call peremptory strikes, meaning you can remove up to ten jurors for almost any reason. Not for racially discriminatory reasons or other constitutionally barred reasons, but I don't like the vibe of that person. I don't think that person is good for us. And that's where you get into the guessing game based off those questions that we just saw last night.

BERMAN: And who does that benefit here?

HONIG: So, it's interesting, because if you look at it on the one hand, this is going to be a stack deck for prosecutors. If you just look at the 2020 election, Donald Trump got just over 12 percent of the vote in New York County in Manhattan. Meaning 80-some percent do not like him or do not like him enough to vote for him. On the other hand, if you're Donald Trump's team, all you need is one. You get one juror through there who really likes Donald Trump, who's sympathetic to him. That can result -- that will result in a hung jury. Remember, you need all 12 to convict. 11 to 1 is a hung jury. It's a mistrial and that's a terrible outcome --

BERMAN: Just for argument's sake. So, if someone says they're a QAnon supporter, they're not going to make it to the peremptory strikes probably.

HONIG: Right.

BERMAN: But if ten people -- now let's say if there are 12 people who say they get their news from Fox News, because one of the questions is where do you get your news.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: 12 people say they get their news from Fox or OAN.

HONIG: Right.

BERMAN: The prosecution is going to X out 10 of them.

HONIG: Right.

BERMAN: But that would leave two.

HONIG: Yes, that's true. I mean, the numbers here, when you look at the ten peremptory challenges are really important, because it's going to be fairly easy for the prosecution to wipe the slate clean of anyone who seems like they support Trump, Fox News viewer, one of the questions is, are you a member of any organizations? If someone says, yes, I'm part of the Federalist Society or the NRA, they're out.

On the flipside, Trump is not going to be able to wipe out all the people who dislike him, right? His team only has ten strikes. You're going to have 80-some percent of that pool who leans against him.

BERMAN: All right, very quickly. Now, overnight, Jack Smith, the special counsel, issued its brief before the Supreme Court. They will argue the issue of presidential immunity before the Supreme Court on April 25th.

Jack Smith submitted his arguments. The question that the attorneys have to answer here, as prescribed by the Supreme Court, and we can put the graphic of this up, is whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office, emphasis added by me, alleged to involve official acts. Why are those words so important here and how is Jack Smith dealing with this?

HONIG: So, your emphasis was exactly right because what this is signaling to me and I think clearly to both parties is the Supreme Court is not interested in any of these blanket propositions, that Donald Trump is automatically immune for everything that happened during his presidency.

They're focused on this question, which is, first of all, could there be immunity for a president or other official within the scope of the job. And, second of all, does Donald Trump fall within the scope of the job.

And one thing that Jack Smith is clearly concerned about having read that brief last night, he wants to avoid a scenario where the Supreme Court sends the case back down to the trial court and says, you have to hold the hearing. You have to tell us was he within the scope or not because that would be a scheduling disaster. And you can see Smith even in the brief at one point, he says, well, if that's the question you should let the trial court judge determine that during trial, which, to me, isn't really workable.

So, he's clearly trying to fend off that scenario where the where the Supreme Court punts it back down to the district court.

BERMAN: And I think you're right to point out, there is that possibility. We'll have time to talk about that before April 25th.

Very quickly, the criminal case here in New York set to begin on Monday. Any reason to think it won't?

HONIG: It will start Monday, but also you should expect to see Hail Mary's daily every day now until then.

BERMAN: Elie Honig, great to see you in person. Thanks.

HONIG: Thanks, John. All right.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN: This thing is going crazy, which we say every morning as soon as the show starts. But that is actually a quote from one investor. Why so many of them are keeping a very close eye on the roller coaster ride that is Donald Trump's media stock.

Right now, prosecutors trying to claim now Alec Baldwin's behavior led to compromising safety on the Rust movie set, saying he had no control of his emotions.

And this man right there allegedly swore an oath to ISIS and was making plans to attack churches in Idaho.

[07:10:03]

What the FBI is saying now this morning about his arrest.

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BOLDUAN: Hamas overnight pushing back on the latest proposal from Israel over releasing hostages and securing a ceasefire in Gaza. This comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a date is set for the Israeli ground offensive into Rafah, though he did not say what that date is.

Let's get to CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem. He's following both of these for us.

Jeremy, can we start with Benjamin Netanyahu.

[07:15:01]

What more is he saying about this date and this offensive?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli prime minister says that a Rafah offensive will happen, and, in fact, he is also saying that a date has been set for that Rafah offensive, but he is not providing any details, he's not providing that date.

And so from our vantage, all we can see here is the kind of political posturing that the Israeli prime minister is known to engage in and must engage in in order to mollify the right wing flank of his government. That's because yesterday, as Israeli troops carried out, a major withdrawal from Southern Gaza, including from Khan Younis, where Israeli forces have been engaged in combat over the last several weeks, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, a right wing member of Netanyahu's governing coalition, as well as Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, both of them expressing outrage at that withdrawal, and Ben-Gvir explicitly saying that Netanyahu will lose his mandate to govern, effectively threatening to bolt from that governing coalition if a Rafah offensive is not carried out before the end of the war. And so, following suit, several hours later, the Israeli prime minister, in a video statement, saying that Rafah will happen and claiming that a date has even been set.

Now, we do know that Israeli troops that withdrew from southern Gaza did so, according to Israel's defense minister, to kind of rest and refit and prepare for the coming battles, whether that will be in the north, a potential escalation of the conflict with Hezbollah has been on the horizon for some time, but also, of course, potentially for that major offensive in Rafah.

So, it remains to be seen exactly when that could happen, but, of course, we know in the background there are these negotiations to potentially prevent or at least delay such an offensive.

BOLDUAN: So, we also have these negotiations that have been happening in Cairo, this new statement coming from Hamas about negotiations. Where do ceasefire stands talk -- where do you ceasefire talks stand?

DIAMOND: Yes. Yes, Kate. There have been enormous efforts over the course of the last several weeks. There have been moments where it seemed like progress was being made, other moments where it seemed like steps were being taken backwards.

And right now, we know that the Israeli government has made a series of counterproposals in cooperation with the mediators, including U.S. CIA Director Bill Burns, trying to get closer to Hamas' demands. But Hamas, in a statement early this morning, rejecting the latest Israeli counterproposal, saying that the latest proposal does not meet their demands.

We know that one of the key sticking points beyond the numbers of Palestinian prisoners who would be released in exchange for some 40 Israeli hostages, where we know that Israel has been offering more and more numbers of Palestinian prisoners, but beyond that, the real sticking points really relate to two key issues, and that is the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which Hamas has been pushing for a full and total withdrawal, leading to a permanent ceasefire, but also the return of Palestinians who are in Southern Gaza, who want to return to Northern Gaza.

Hamas has been insisting on full and unfettered access to Northern Gaza during the period of this truce. The Israeli government initially rejected this notion all together. Then it began talking about numbers of Palestinians per day, security checks along a corridor separating Northern and Southern Gaza, but that isn't enough, it seems, so far for Hamas to be to accept.

Now, the last piece of information today, the Israeli security cabinet is set to meet, Kate, and they will be discussing these negotiations to see if there is a path forward.

BOLDUAN: Jeremy, thank you for watching it all for us. I really appreciate it, great reporting, as always. Jeremy Diamond in Israel for us.

So, today, two parents are about to learn their fate. After being the first people ever convicted for the mass shooting committed by their son, the worst school shooting in Michigan State history. We are going to see James and Jennifer Crumbley sentenced live.

And it's one of the most deadly forms of cancer and one of the hardest to detect until it's almost too late. The progress that scientists are now making in trying to pinpoint early signs of pancreatic cancer.

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BERMAN: This morning, the first parents convicted for a school shooting their child committed will face sentencing, prosecutors seeking up to 15 years for James and Jennifer Crumbley. They were both found guilty on four counts of involuntary manslaughter after their son killed four students at an Oxford Michigan high school.

CNN's Jean Casarez has been following this case from the very beginning. Jean, what are you watching for today?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's going to be very serious. It is going to be extremely, extremely emotional. James and Jennifer Crumbley are actually going to be in the courtroom together. This is the first time in months that they have seen each other, been together. They will be sentenced at the same time.

Now, why they had separate trials, because you're going to have victim impact statements. You're going to have the families of those students that were murdered, gunned down by their son, have to go up once again to that podium and talk about how their lives have been changed.

Now, the prosecution, they are asking for 10 to 15 years. They want the maximum that they can get it because they're really focusing in on now any lack of remorse. They don't care. James and Jennifer Crumbley, they don't care at all.

The defense is really fighting that, saying, you saw their tears in court. They have remorse. Listen to their words. Listen to what they have said. Jennifer Crumbley testified. She wished that she had been killed instead of those students.

But the defense is saying this is a precedent-setting case all the way around first time parents have ever been charged in a homicide that their son actually pulled the trigger on, that there should be a sentencing situation that is precedent setting-here too. And they are asking for about two-and-a-half to a little less than five.

Actually, Jennifer is asking for time served to be able to then reside in a guest house behind her attorney's home with a GPS monitor on her, which is a very novel argument right there, get out of prison get into a home out on her attorney's property with that GPS monitor. The advisory guidelines which they recommend is four to seven years but we will see. Precedent-setting sentencing just like the trial.

BERMAN: And, again, in 30 seconds or less, the fact that it's precedent-setting, how might that impact the judge here in issuing the sentencing?

CASASREZ: Well, the judge is going to have to look at the facts and the circumstances. James bought the gun. Jennifer didn't. Jennifer went with him target practicing, but neither one of them knew what he was doing in his room through the night, writing in that journal, texting that friend of what he was going to do.

BERMAN: Jean Casarez, I know you watch this very closely all morning long, thank you so much for being here with us.

A slap in the face, how Republicans are responding this morning to Donald Trump's statement on abortion and why prosecutors say Alec Baldwin's behavior on set may have contributed to the rust shooting.

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