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Music Mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs Apologizes After Video Released of Him Physically Assaulting His Ex-Girlfriend; International Criminal Court Seeking Arrest Warrants for Leaders of Hamas for October 7th Related Crimes and Leaders of Israel for Crimes During Gaza War; Cross-Examination of Michael Cohen Resumes; ICC Seeks Arrest Warrants for Hamas and Israeli Leaders. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 20, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: He said, quote, "A decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing." He said Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.

So again, we have denial after denial, both from Diddy and from his attorneys. And now, after the video comes out that's when we get this apology, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And Elizabeth, we should also say that because the statute of limitations has run out on this abuse, he can't be charged as well. So the apology coming after knowing that as well. Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for breaking that story for us.

Now, if you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence and you need help, you can call the domestic hotline. That number 800-799- SAFE, which is 800-799-7233.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SIDNER: We do have major breaking news for you this morning involving the Israel-Hamas war, the International Criminal Court just this morning announced it is seeking arrest warrants for Israel's political and military leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and for three liters of Hamas for the October 7th terrorist attack, including Yahya Sinwar, who is in Gaza and Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar and has been party to the ceasefire negotiations.

CNN's chief international anchor and correspondent Christiane Amanpour broke this story in an exclusive interview with ICC prosecutor Karim Khan. You're joining us now from the Hague. Christiane, can you give us what details stood out to you during this interview in an unprecedented move by the ICC. CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Absolutely. In terms of unprecedented, that's because the charges against Israel are for the first time a charge against an actual democracy and a democratic leader. I think one must not deemphasize and ignore the severity of the charges against Hamas. And they issued this seeking approval for arrest warrants according to the timeline.

So they've laid out the arrest warrants that they want for Hamas, which included eight counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, which were mass killings. They call it extermination, torture, rape, and sexual assault, even in captivity of the hostages, all the things that went on against the civilians inside Israel on October 7th.

And then they turn to what happened in subsequently in Israel's war against Gaza and against Hamas as where they focus quite heavily on starvation as a weapon of war. Here is what ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

AMANPOUR: We're here at the ICC. You are today announcing that you are applying for arrest warrants for top military and political leadership in the Israel-Gaza war since the October 7th events. First and foremost, explain to me exactly what you're asking for and who you are charging.

KARIM KHAN, CHIEF PROSECUTOR, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: Today, Christiane, we've applied for warrants to the pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court in relation to three individuals that are Hamas members, Sinwar, who is in charge on the ground.

AMANPOUR: That's Yahya Sinwar.

KHAN: Absolutely. Deif, who's in charge of the Al-Qassam Brigade, and Haniyeh, who is one of their political bureau based in Doha.

AMANPOUR: What are the charges?

KHAN: The charges are extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention. So these are the key crimes that are alleged to have been committed by these three individuals. The world was shocked on 7th October when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes, from the different kibbutzim in Israel, and people have suffered enormously. And we have a variety of evidence to support the applications that we've submitted to the judges.

AMANPOUR: You have also issued warrants against the top political and military leadership of the government of the state of Israel.

KHAN: We've applied for warrants. Of course, the judges must determine whether or not to issue them, but we've applied today, will apply for warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu, and also Minister of Defense Gallant for the crimes of causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.

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(END VIDEO TAPE)

[08:05:09]

AMANPOUR: So again, this process right now is to request the arrest warrants. That will be a panel of trial judges here at the ICC will examine this request and then will rule on it one way or another.

ICC Prosecutor Khan was at pains to tell me that already he had an independent in panel to look over this step of the process and to judge whether they were on the right track. And unanimously, they did. And there were very distinguished global jurists, including the Theodor, Ted, Theron (ph), Meron, rather, who was the former ICC president and also himself a holocaust survivor. And at one point he was adviser to the Israeli foreign ministry many decades ago.

So they have a very distinguished panel of jurists who he ran all this by before even making today's announcement. And what they agree is that the ICC has requested and has presented what the evidence it says could get a conviction, not just that would stand up in a court and go to trial, but that could get a conviction based on all the evidence they have presented, some of which is in the public sphere on both sides, some of which they have received from talking to all the relevant individuals and parties, victims, and others.

SIDNER: Christiane Amanpour, such great reporting. This is huge news. It's going to have both political and diplomatic fallout as we go out throughout the day and week and many months to go. Thank you so much for all of your reporting there. Appreciate you.

Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us right now is CNN national security analyst, former deputy director of national intelligence, Beth Sanner, and Ian Bremmer, the president and founder of the Eurasia Group and GZERO Media.

Beth, I want to get your reaction to everything that Christiane has laid out, what we've now learned from the ICC, and also this. We just was handed a statement coming from Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, of course, someone who has clashed with Netanyahu on strategy and far beyond of recent. Here's what Benny Gantz just put out in a statement, Beth, "While Israel fights with one of the strictest moral codes in history, while complying with international law and boasting a robust, independent judiciary, drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend its itself from despicable terror two leaders of a bloodthirsty terror organization is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy."

BETH SANNER, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: There's a lot here, right? Let me just take the Gantz point here. What is going to happen as a result of this first step, right, very much a first step. We don't know where it's going to go. We don't know that it will actually get to the point of arrest warrants. But the effects of this are actually going to be quite counter, I think, to what anybody who is rejoicing this kind of balanced with what Khan is trying to do is kind of a balanced approach to this, is we're going to see a circling of the wagons in Israel.

I think this will benefit Netanyahu. And I think it also will make it very, very much more difficult to actually get to a ceasefire. And that is an argument the United States has consistently made in terms of the ICC intervention in the whole Palestinian-Israel conflict even before for this.

But we have a couple of steps here to go, and I'm not at all certain that it will result in actual arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant at the end of the day. And I'll stop there.

BOLDUAN: Stop there for now. I know there is a lot we need to pick through.

Ian, what do you see in this? Beth has a really interesting point in looking for -- at the real and practical implications of this. She thinks it's going to -- this is going to make it harder to get to a ceasefire. What do you see here?

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: That's true. I think it has also been harder because Netanyahu is running the government, and for him to stay in power he needs to keep on board his own far right, which is making arguments that they should actually not only continue to occupy Gaza, but kick the Palestinians out. So that's making it most difficult to get to any form of ceasefire or agreements. It's not first and foremost the ICC.

Now, I do accept at face value that if you are watching the CNN coverage this morning, if you are listening to what the ICC has put out, the takeaway that any citizen would have is, oh, well, the perspective is that the Israeli leadership and Hamas are somehow moral equivalents. And that's a horrible statement to make.

[08:10:00]

I don't accept it at all, but I do accept that the vast majority of people on the planet are closer to the ICC's statement then they are U.S. policy right now. And that's a problem, right, that the Biden administration came out with a report, they delayed it a few days. And they made clear that there wasn't enough evidence for them to say definitively that war crimes were being committed. But they believe the war crimes were being committed. That's one of the reasons that you see Biden pulling back from providing some weaponry to the Israeli government.

So I will tell you that privately, the Biden administration has been pushing the Israeli government, saying if you guys go into Rafah, one of the things that we will no longer be able to defend you around, at least publicly, is that war crimes are being committed. And certainly, the Israelis (ph) don't accept Benny Gantz's statement that the Israelis are doing everything possible to protect civilians, everything possible to get humanitarian aid. The Americans don't accept that at all. So even though the Americans don't recognize the ICC, there are a number of points made by the ICC in this arrest warrant that privately U.S. officials do actually accept.

BOLDUAN: That are seeking this arrest warrant. Beth, do you think this, just going off what Ian was saying, do you think that this impacts the influence President Biden and the administration has been trying to have over Israel's approach to this war? Does it strengthen it, does it weaken it? What do you think?

SANNER: Well, I think it complicates everything, which is not the intention of the ICC, because I do think that khan is trying to play it straight here. But I do think it makes everything more complicated. And as I said before, I think that, you know, let's understand that a majority -- seeing protests in the streets over the hostages and Netanyahu's de-prioritization of hostages over prosecuting this war, most Israelis still support the way that this war has been prosecuted. So I think actually in the end, if these warrants go through, it's going to weaken Biden's hand because it will only force, I think, in some ways the Israelis to double down.

I know that's a little counterproductive, but the Israelis say things like we're going to eat grass rather than accept the dictate of foreign voices in how we conduct this war. And that actually has been proven in polling. That's where the Israeli public is. So I think that they would go forward. And that makes everything here at home domestically much, much more complicated.

BOLDUAN: Beth Sanner, Ian Bremmer, it's always good to see you guys and thank you so much for jumping on with this breaking news.

Sara?

SIDNER: All right, we also have more breaking news for you, because overnight the Iranian president and foreign minister and others have been confirmed dead after a helicopter crash in Iran. Details on who may be next in line to lead the country and what it means for a region that is in crisis.

We are also watching for Donald Trump's return to court before his defense team takes aim once again at his former fixer, Michael Cohen.

And overnight, powerful tornadoes strike the planes while hundreds of thousands are now facing extreme heat without power because it was knocked out by the storm days ago. We'll go there.

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[08:18:16]

SIDNER: Any moment now, Donald Trump will arrive at court as his hush money trial gets an early start today.

Michael Cohen, his former fixer, will return to the stand as cross- examination resumes. Last one week, defense attorneys slammed Cohen questioning his credibility and portraying him as a liar to the jury.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is joining us now.

Brynn, we've got -- time is ticking here on this case, expecting cross-examination and potentially redirect today or do we know?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly redirect will be coming up. Obviously, there was that big moment with the defense last Thursday when we last had court where they really were able to pull out a Michael Cohen that they say he was lying about a very crucial part of the prosecution's case, a conversation that Michael Cohen said he had with Trump regarding those hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

Now, Sara, our understanding is the former president is here in the courthouse now. Court is actually going to begin a little bit earlier this morning, at about 8:45, so that they could go over some outside evidentiary issues because the jury actually comes into the room at the normal time of 9:30, and when that happens, Michael Cohen will be back on the stand and our understanding there is that the defense has about another hour or two of cross-examination before they can give it back to the prosecution.

And then of course, the prosecution needs to tie up their entire case and we are understanding, they are going to rest their case at some point today. And then of course, it is the defense's turn to bring forward their case.

It is very unclear at the moment, maybe we will learn more once the court starts back up, what exactly the defense is going to bring.

Are there any witnesses that are going to be called to the stand? Possibly a campaign finance expert, possibly even Donald Trump himself. They did say last week that they haven't ruled that out. So we will see how that goes.

[08:20:01]

In the end though, the judge did say, as we are figuring out the timing here, that they do -- or he does want both sides to be readying for closing arguments by tomorrow. So, we will see if we will actually get to those tomorrow.

And then, it is a short court week, guys, only three days ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, but it could go to the jurors at some point this week or early next -- guys.

SIDNER: This could wrap up fast, Brynn Gingras. Thank you so much for your reporting out there outside court in New York.

All right, new this morning, Iran's acting president holds a "extraordinary" meeting with state leadership after President Raisi's death. What happens now after that fatal helicopter crash that killed the president and the foreign minister?

Also rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs now apologizing and admitting his actions after of course, a surveillance video surfaced showing him beating his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, what his admission could mean for the other lawsuits that are pending against him. That's ahead.

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[08:25:04]

BOLDUAN: We continue to follow the breaking news. The world is reacting, starting to react right now to the news coming from the International Criminal Court. From Israel to the United States, the impact is just starting to be felt after the ICC's decision to seek arrest warrants for the political and military leaders of Hamas and also the political and military leadership of the state of Israel.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Jerusalem, CNN's Kylie Atwood is at the State Department.

Jeremy, first to you. What are you hearing now from Israeli leaders?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, reaction is beginning to flow in, although we still have not yet heard from the two men for whom the ICC is seeking arrest warrants, that's the Israeli prime minister and the defense minister, but we are starting to hear from other Israeli political leaders and one of the common themes that we are hearing is the outrage at the way in which Hamas and Israel's leaders are being -- or attempting to be charged at the same time, the equivalency effectively that the ICC is drawing here between Hamas and the state of Israel.

Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli War Cabinet, a former member of the opposition, saying that this seeking of arrest warrants is "drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from a despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terrorist organization" is a "deep distortion of justice," he says. Yair Lapid, the member -- the leader of the opposition is also calling this a complete moral failure.

We should note that among the charges that are listed here against Israel's leaders are crimes against humanity. There is also this notion of using starvation as a weapon of war and that is something that the ICC really has drilled down on here, and prosecutor, Karim Khan focused on the fact that as this was happening, as there appear to be limits on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza as there were condemnations of Israel not allowing enough aid in, that he issued multiple warnings saying that Israel needed to turn the spigot of aid back on and warned of consequences should they not.

And these consequences appear to now be flowing in as he seeks arrest warrants against both the Israeli prime minister and the defense minister.

We also have yet to hear from Hamas directly reacting to this and the charges that they are facing are extermination as a crime against humanity, the taking of hostages as a war crime, rape, and other there acts of sexual violence. A big focus on the crimes that Hamas committed on October 7th, and the crimes that the ICC says they continue to commit by continuing to hold nearly 130 hostages captive, including the allegations of sexual assault against some of those hostages and against the victims of October 7th. Karim Khan, the prosecutor here actually did visit the site of the

massacre that took place on October 7th in Israel and he notes that in his statement today.

BOLDUAN: All right, Jeremy, standby.

Kylie, you're at the State Department. I was speaking to Beth Sanner just minutes ago and she said all of this makes things even that much more complicated now for the Biden administration. What are you hearing?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I think that's a fair assessment, Kate, because the Biden administration has been very clear in saying that they really, really oppose the ICC investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They have said that they don't believe the ICC has jurisdiction over this, and they say that there are two reasons for that.

First of all, because Israel is not a party to the ICC; therefore, they haven't consented to them actually having jurisdiction over Israel, and then they point that the Palestinians and of course, Hamas do not actually make a state and therefore, they cannot participate or delegate in the jurisdiction of the ICC.

So they just simply don't think that the ICC should be looking into this matter and they've been very clear in their opposition on that front.

So now how do they respond? That's the key question here, Kate. We have heard from lawmakers who have said, if the ICC moves forward with these arrest warrants, which we of course saw today that they believe that the Biden administration should put sanctions on ICC officials, those sanctions were in place during the Trump administration. The Biden administration reversed those sanctions.

The State Department hasn't said if they would consider that move. Here is what the State Department spokesperson said when asked about that earlier this month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW MILLER, US STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: I can't make any predictions or any announcements one way or the other about what we will do about something that has not yet happened. I will just make clear that we do not believe the ICC has jurisdiction in this matter and we are opposed to their investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: So we will watch and see how the Biden administration responds, and specifically what action they take, if any against the ICC to back their opposition, which is expected -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, still waiting to hear word from the White House, from the State Department -- all of the above.

Kylie is there, she will be bringing it to us. Thank you so much, Kylie.

Still ahead for us, the Dali cargo ship is now on the move, 55 days after it crashed into Baltimore's Key Bridge, a crash that killed six people. We will have more, coming up.

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