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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  August 16, 2023 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT

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repeat us? i feel as if as this relationship went on there should've been more transparency in there wasn't. there was always this low-key resentment. michael oher has always taken from issue with the movie in the storyline of him not being smart, and the two e coming in and saving him. as mentioned as he played in the show i was all american, i was on my way to be drafted. i was on my way going to some great school. i had coaches coming after me since i was a young kid. but >> you didn't teach me football. with ketchup and mustard on the table. >> carey champion good to see you and thank you for watching our coverage continues now. >> tonight at three 60 breaking news a woman charged you with
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threatening the judge in the 2020 federal elections subversion case. also, georgia d a fani willis, as a trial date for donald trump, it is alleged coconspirators. how will it fit with the other three criminal trials he's facing in the middle of a presidential campaign? plus, a live report from maui, where the governor says the death toll has risen in probably over 1000 people could still be missing. good evening, thanks for joining us. we begin with two pieces of breaking news tonight. the first, we've just learned, of charges in texas connected with alleged threats against judge chutkan, obviously presiding over the 2020 election subversion trial of the former president. according to the court filing, the woman who lives in alvin, texas left a threatening, racist, bigoted voice mail for judge chutkan on august 5th. allegedly saying if trump doesn't get elected, quote, we're coming to kill you, tread lightly. and then a curse. she allegedly continued, quote, you'll be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.
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authorities visited the woman on the eight, and according to the filing, she admitted to making the call from her home telephone. breaking news as well in the georgia racketeering trial, federal district judge tonight setting a hearing on august 28th, codefendant mark meadows request to move charges into federal court. there should be an early test for the district attorney, fani willis. earlier today, she asked the atlanta judge, now overseeing the case, to set two dates, september 5th for the arraignment, and a trial date of march 4th. codefendant rudy giuliani's already said, he will surrender to authorities sometime next week. no sign yet this changes his timetable. sources also tell, us lawyers for the former president or in, quote, ongoing negotiations with d. a. willis's office. and early indications are they too are discussing a date next week. as to a trial date, if nothing changes, which it almost certainly will, take a look. it's wedged in with proposed dates for five oer trials, civil and criminal state and federal. in new york civil trial, the trump organization, october and january. the federal tion subversion trial, in the e. jean carroll defamation trial part to.
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plus, the iowa caucuses that month. then, with georgia's case, followed by the new york hush money trial, super tuesday march 5th, finally, in may there's a mar-a-lago documents trial. again, all proposed dates, nothing set in stone. that calendar will change. joining us now, georgia grand jury witnesses, cnn political commentator, former georgia lieutenant governor, jeff duncan. -- former georgia democratic state senator, also michael, more former u.s. attorney for georgia's middle district. and cnn senior legal analyst, elie honig. let's begin, i guess, with the trial timeline for the d. a. willis. i mean, that's gonna change? >> there is no earth, there is no planet on which this case would be tried in march. due to the logjam that we just saw. now, we see all these four different indictments, and they're all jockeying for a very limited trial space. but the da has asked to try this in march. first of all, there's an ongoing racketeering trial,
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right now, that the d. a.'s office is handling in georgia. they are still choosing a jury. they're seven months in. i know that sounds unbelievable, but state jury selection is way slower than in federal cases. even if they started in march, they'd still be picking a jury on election day. that is not happening. i understand what the d. a. is doing, she's doing what prosecutors are trying to do. you always say, we are ready to go, any day, we want to try everyone altogether. but march is not happening for this case. >> michael, very unlikely that there is 19 people charged. it's not gonna be 19 people by the time this goes to trial? >> no. there's not a chance. there will be people who flip, who cooperate, some plead out. maybe people she decides to get rid of, because it complicates the case. there could be a number of reasons. there won't be 19 defendant sitting in the courtroom. and because there's 19, that's one of the reasons there's no possible way that she's ever gonna go to trial march. this is sort of a pr move, i think, on her part. it throws gas to trump to say, look, why are they treating me different? then every other criminal defendant in fulton county?
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where they're rushing my case? i've been in that industry taking up a jail bit. i didn't kill somebody, and mom and dad is waiting for the killer of their baby to be brought to trial. why are they treating me different? this is playing into that hand. until we recognize that he is really campaigning through this process, that i think will, we're giving him the gift that keeps on giving. that's a lot of hot air. >> federal charges would come first. if the judges get together to try to figure out a schedule that makes sense, do you have any doubt that the federal case would go first? >> it probably will, if for no other reason than you have donald trump just at the top. you don't have anybody else. i think one of the most complicating things, with respect to willis's case, because there are folks that can pop into federal court, and say that we should be there, like mark meadows, like donald trump, that really does extend the timeline. she isn't gonna want to go forward on this trump case
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without donald trump being there. >> you testified before the grand jury on monday, just hours before it headed up the indictment, what was that like? >> you know, it was pretty incredible. i was the first person in. they had no idea that they were the trump grand jury. they had been handling nine other criminal matters. and then, literally, i walk in the door, you should have seen their eyes. they got really big. it was kind of a moment of, it was very serious. that second, they knew that they had a really big job to do. in front of him. >> lieutenant governor duncan, you testified on that day. was your experience similar? >> no, it was very seriously. everything in that room, we really are at the center of the universe. everybody in the world cared about what was gonna happen in that meeting. the district attorney was very prepared, for the presentation. the jurors were very engaged, inquisitive, and spot on with their questions. it's one of the non attorneys
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at this table, i hear all the legal opinions about what's going, on the moving parts. this is a mess, politically speaking. this is another reason why we cannot make this mistake again, as republicans. this one is different. we've seen these other cases, these other federal cases, they seem to be getting more serious as time goes on. this one's got some really, really sticky political spots to, it for donald trump. i hope we take our medicine, if you like the starting to be some more gyrations. our candidates need to step up to the plate here. >> mark meadows, obviously, we talked about this a little bit last night, trying to move this to federal court, giuliani will probably do the same thing, former president w. the same thing. where do you stand on that? does that make sense to you? to have this being in federal court? >> look, i don't often make sense to me, for it to be in federal court. if i'm defending one of them, i'm sure as heck gonna do that. in terms of removal in having the removal stick, it's a really low bar. so, you, know i really do think mark meadows may have a shot at
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being there. he's not gonna get it dismissed. giuliani, on the other hand, i don't think that he can say what he was doing was in further it's of some kind of official role with the president. >> that's the bar, essentially? >> that is really the low bar for removal. from there, it is still fani willis's team that is going to be prosecuting that case, in that courtroom. it doesn't turn into a federal prosecution, it is still a state prosecution. just a little bit down the street, at the federal courthouse. >> if there was ever a case that ought to be transferred, if the statutes gonna mean anything, the case involving a former president would have to be the case, right? if this case can't be transferred, i don't know that there would ever be a case that will be transferring out of. >> if fani willis is still prosecuting, it from a legal standpoint, from a jury standpoint, what's the benefit for the former president and, giuliani and these others? >> for one thing, the jury pool will be much different. if this case remains in fulton county, the entire jury will be drawn from fulton county. you all are familiar with it. the stats, are the voter in 2020 was 72% against donald
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trump, 26% for donald trump. if you get him to federal court, now you're in the northern district of georgia. which includes fulton county, where most of your jurors would come from, but it includes all those northern counties, some of which donald trump won by 60, 70%. you get a much better jury pool from trump's perspective. >> the common denominator here, he's gonna get indicted somewhere. he's gonna have to sit in court and pay the price. let's play a game. who made this quote, who could very well, we could very well have a sitting president with under felony indictment, ultimately, a criminal trial. it would grant government to a halt. who said that? >> donald trump in 2016. >> i was gonna say me. >> all of us. >> every person with a normal brain on their shoulders within it. >> in terms of the jury pool, you're not gonna pull in those
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northern northern. it's gonna be atlanta division. the biggest problem for jury selection would really just be cherokee county. the rest of that metro atlanta area is not trump country still. we know that mark meadows case has been a sign of an obama appointee. if you're trump, the only reason you want to get a federal court, if you think you can get one of your appointees, now that we know that's not gonna happen, i'm wondering if you'll still pursue it. >> in terms of scheduling, assuming this stage is not real, the federal case, the january 6th case goes first, when do you think it would actually go to trial? >> i don't think there's a chance it goes before the election. this is a case that goes after the election. back to the jury selection, there have been cases we had one in south georgia, where they expanded to the whole district. so, because they needed that, if you think about just the hyper emotion and the partisanship that involved in this case, they are going to have to, this will be a jury selection like no other. there are feelings that are polarized, that we like we've never seen. >> elliott, asked about this, this threat we just learned about to the judge in this case. the same color made a threat to representative sheila jackson lee. and i think to all people, if i
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read the lgbt community. this is not a surprise , obviously, given we don't know if she was listening directly to the former president. certainly, he has put her name, that judges name, front and center. >> this is what happens. this is exactly the danger and the rhetoric. donald trump has spent the last week or so attacking the judge over an over. jeff duncan over and over. and we've seen it, how many times do we need to see this story? people see what he says, people act on what he says. of course, january 6th. the day after, there was a search of mar-a-lago, a guy stormed the fbi office in ohio and got shot and killed. good work by the feds to act very quickly here to swear out this warrant. charging this person with intimidation and threats against the federal judge. someone has to step up here. it has to be the prosecutors. they've already let donald trump say way more about judge chutkan, about themselves, about the witnesses than any
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prosecutor would tolerate in any case. i understand, being sensitive, they don't to be seen as overdoing it on trump. they're under doing it on trump. all the prosecutors here need to adopt a zero tolerance policy. and in forsyth, and go to the judge, and get real repercussions for this kind of rhetoric. it's leading to real danger. >> which i know governor? >> look, this is exactly how we got to january 6th. this game of rhetoric, this game of playing on peoples emotions. feeding them ten second sound bites, lies, this is exactly how we got to january 6th. that is ultimately a fear of mine. that we get to that unbelievable flash point again. because somebody is willing to put their selfish desires of being in power over top of the country. like i said, i just feel like this is such a golden opportunity for the republican party to pivot here. i think america, including democrats, are begging us to do something better than joe biden and donald trump. in this 2024 cycle. i wish i was sitting here in this panel, in talking to you about how to defend joe biden's border policies, or national security policies, o r college
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tuition waivers. i wish i was doing that. instead, we're having to defend these crazy steps and gyrations of the republican party. that's what's gonna play out for the next 15 months. if we don't change direction. >> i think the security issue, also goes into, should be in federal court or state court? i know the lieutenant governor had death threats, and threats to his family, and to his staffers. i know i did. anytime you pop your head up and push back on the trump machine, this is exactly what happens. can you imagine, the grand jury, their names were released. once the indictment was released. that is allowed under georgia law. they are already being docked. so, can you imagine, if you are a jury called for this case to sit in judgment of donald trump, what you're exposing yourself to? >> jen jordan, jeff duncan, elie honig, michael moore. thank you very much. perspective now from retired federal appeals court judge and distinguished conservative legal scholar, jay michael luttig. we did spokes shortly before airtime. >> judge, we mentioned the fulton county d. a. is asking for a march 4th start date for
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this trial. two months after special counsel jack smith's proposed start date. what do you make of that date? and which of these trials do you think will go first? >> anderson, thank you for having me on tonight. it's my pleasure. at this point, early, it's impossible to know exactly how, or even whether, these various trials of the former president will be sequenced. and held. i believe that the courts involved will cooperate with each other. and sequence the trials in such a manner as to ensure that the former president's tried on all of these matters. before the 2024 election. i am relatively confident that, if that's not possible, that
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the trials will be sequenced such that the trial of the former president on the charges relating to january 6th and the attack on the united states capitol of that date, will proceed first. i believe, to conclusion, before the 2024 elections. >> you think it's possible that that trial, the jack smith trial on january 6th issues and election interference, that would go first? and that could be concluded before the election? >> i do, anderson. it's many, many months. before the election. on the timetable that's been proposed by the special counsel, the former presidents trial would begin on january 2nd, 2024, i believe. as you know, the district court and the district of columbia is taking briefings o n that
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scheduled trial date, as we speak tonight. the government, as i said, is proposed a january 2nd as the start date for the trial. the president, former president, briefed on that issue, is not due in the district court, i believe, until august 28th, anderson. >> despite warnings from federal judge chutkan, overseeing the 2020 election case, the former president continues to rage against he r
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on social media. what options does she have, or any of the judges in these four criminal cases, have to stop him? none of the other majority of republican candidates running against the former president are backing him on his critiques and his attempts to destroy the justice system in this country, essentially. >> the former president's comments and attacks on the federal judiciary and on the specific individual judges who will preside over his trials, are unprecedented in american history. anderson, they are a grave disservice to the nation. they are inexcusable. and they imperil the former presidents himself, in the defense of his actions on january 6th, before the juries that will hear his case. but this is, of course, a pattern that the former president has engaged in. since at least the day he has assumed office in 2016.
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>> to prominent conservative law school professors recently completed a paper, arguing the former president is actually ineligible to hold a future position in government, because of what happened on january 6th. they cite a section of the 14th
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amendment, section three, which says that a person's disqualified from holding office in this country, if he or she has, quote, engaged in insurrection, or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. the professors have argued, quote, because of a range of misperceptions and mistaken assumptions, section three full legal consequences have not been appreciated or enforced in particular, it disqualifies former president donald trump, and potentially many others, because of their participation in attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election. do you agree with that argument? >> i, myself, i came to the same conclusion two years ago. this issue will be a driving issue of constitutional law in america, between now and the election in 2024. >> judge looting, i appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you, anderson. >> coming up next, you have duncan, who talked about political gyrations concerning the former president. we'll take that up next. into polls, one with bad news for the former president, the other not great for president biden. also, hawaii, where the death toll rose again today, a number missing suggesting it could rise for higher. the high interest... i felt trapped. debt! debt! debt! debt! so i broke up with my credit card debt
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my favorite color is... because, it's like a family thing! [ engine revving ] ♪ ♪ made it! mom! leave running behind, behind. the new turbocharged volkswagen atlas. does life beautifully. two new polls out tonight, both conducted before the georgia indictments, but certainly reflecting the larger legal troubles for the former president. one signaling general election trouble for him, with nearly two thirds of americans next year. the other suggesting nearly the opposite, a tight race. one person who can sort it all out, senior reporter harry enten. what does the data say about who americans would not vote for? >> okay, i want you to enter a universe, and which you place each candidate against the almighty. that is poll joe biden, and donald trump, individually and say, okay, would you actually vote for this person in the general election?
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and what we see in this poll, it's over 60% of americans say, they probably or definitely would not vote for the former president, donald trump. well a majority also say, they probably, or definitely, would not vote for joe biden. but what's key to understand about this, they're asking about each of the candidates individually, not matching them up against each other. >> okay. why are they even asking that question? i would even get to that? >> we could've. >> what happens when the former president in the current president are actually matched up. >> yes, i think this is the key thing. it turns out, you can't just be matched up against a generic candidate, you have to be matched up against each other. this is not our approval voting, where we vote for just one person and not have any idea who the other person is. what we see is, here's the key phrase. no clear leader. donald trump and joe biden are as close as they could be. they -- had donald trump done by just one point, well within the margin of error. that's the poll that we have up on the screen.
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there is also a marist college poll, that i'm within one point. a fox news poll had within three points. so, here's the key thing to take away from all of this. a majority of americans don't want donald trump, and a majority of americans don't want joe biden to be the next president. the fact is, at this particular point, if you're looking at the primary polls, that's the matchup that's gonna take place, and if that matchup does in fact take place, we are in a race that is far too close to call. this is in 2020 when joe biden was well ahead. this is a far different landscape, one in which the two candidates are -- >> joe biden was far ahead, in 2020. >> joe biden was far ahead. up by a high single digits, low double digits. there wasn't a single poll taken during the entire 2020 campaign that we put on air, that had joe biden behind donald trump. this, year there have been multiple ones, and many polls show him far closer than at this point in 2020. >> harry's gonna stay here. i wanna bring in cnn political commentator, former republican general six committee mentor,
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adam kinzinger. congressman, if you are the former president, how concerned would you be by the 60% of americans say they would probably not or never vote for you in a general election? obviously, there's plenty of other numbers that are much more encouraging for him. >> i couldn't imagine being the former president. to be donald trump. but if i had to, pretend to be him, i'd be a little nervous. he's entirely banking on winning so that he can pardon himself. or so that he can at least stop investigations if they haven't gone to trial yet. i think harry's right. the reality is, this is a close race. this is the danger for those of us that actually believe in democracy and want to preserve it. it's that, people are going to assume that, since donald trump was under all these indictments, investigations, and potentially, even convictions by then, that he's going to lose. that's not a smart assumption. it's going to be a close race.
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>> are you surprised? >> yeah, well, i guess. in seeing the other polls i've seen, i'm not surprised. they showed the same. i am surprised that there are still a number of americans that know that donald trump is guilty. but would vote for him over joe biden, because they don't like joe biden's policies. i think there has got to be an understanding that we're gonna have policy differences on this cycle. but if you want to have policy differences in the future, you
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have to vote to defend democracy. i don't know had a message that any differently. but it's way too close. >> how strong is the former, harry, former president's grip on the republican party. >> yeah, you, know we spoke six months ago, what we saw was a two man race for the republican nomination. donald trump and ron desantis, basically, within the margin of error of each other. that's what quinnipiac music -- found by only single digits over the florida governor. look where we are today. that lead has expanded to nearly 40 percentage points. it seems that trump is certainly not getting weaker by the day with all the indictments that are coming down, if anything, arguably, in the primary, he's becoming stronger. and you would be very hard-pressed to find any poll at this point, in which donald trump is not commanding a majority of the vote, at least in the polling for the republican primary. >> congressman, i don't know how much of that, the more people see of ronda santas, the less they like of him. and people like i have more sympathy for the former president with these indictments, or some combination thereof. >> well, it's all of the above. ron desantis is not electable candidate. i don't mean that is a cheap shot, or to be mean. he doesn't come across well. he doesn't connect with people, you have to connect. like or hate donald trump, he does connect with certain people in a certain way. they love that.
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here's the thing, anderson. why is he gaining so much? because nobody that is running for president, with the exception of chris christie, asa hutchinson, and will hurd, are speaking out and saying that what donald trump did was wrong. if you're a republican voter, and all these people who you trust, even if you're gonna vote for somebody else, all these people running for president are telling you, that this is a hit job by the doj, you're gonna believe this is a hit job, because the people that you trust are telling you that. and then you're gonna rally behind the guy that's getting this hit job against him from the doj. it's really simple. these people running for president that are too cowardly to speak out, i, mean like i said this a few times now, just drop out and endorsed donald trump then. maybe you'll get a cabinet position, you're obviously running for, or if you truly want to be president of the united states, show leadership. show sacrifice. tell people the truth. i can expect no differ then what we're seeing in the polls if the people that folks trust are telling them this is a hijab. >> adam kinzinger, harry enten, thanks very much. just ahead, we're gonna go back to the legal implications of the georgia indictment. we'll focus on one specific charge that, ironically, propelled on the 19 defendants, rudy giuliani to fame. as a prosecutor back in the 19 80s. details ahead.
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my blood pressure is borderline. garlique healthy blood pressure formula helps maintain healthy blood pressure with a custom blend of ingredients. i'm taking charge, with garlique. 15 out of the 98 pages of the georgia indictment, or 60% of the total concerns just one of the 41 charges listed, that's the rico or racketeer influenced and corrupt
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organization act. it's a charge whose federal version has been made famous in tv and film, ironically, but one of the 19 defendants, rudy giuliani, who used it as a u. s. district attorney against the new york mob and others in the 19 80s. jason carroll has more about it. >> this is the 11th rico indictment -- >> the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act, rico for short, was originally passed in 1970. as a tool to help wipe out organized crime. >> the verdict was like a bullet, puncturing john gadi's longtime image of invincibility from the law. >> at the time, it was dubbed the trial of the century. the u.s. versus john gotti. >> the boss of the gambino crime family was found guilty today, on all 13 counts of murder and racketeering. >> in the early 90s, prosecutors took down gotti, and charged him with racketeering, extortion, and murder. the law also used to take down the -- family, and mafia underlings throughout organized crime. rico laws allowed prosecutors to connect multiple crimes among multiple defendants, to tell a story of corruption. >> this case charges more mafia bosses in one indictment than
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any ever before. >> the prosecutor credited for using rico to take on the mob was a young, ambitious u.s. attorney, for the southern district of new york. rudy giuliani. >> this is a great day for law enforcement. this is a bad day, probably the worst, for the mafia. >> now, in an ironic twist, giuliani is among those charged in the georgia case, now having to defend himself against a charge he once prosecuted. >> this is a ridiculous application. the racketeering statute. this is not meant for election disputes. >> it's not just for people who are an organized crime. also for people whose colors are white, and you may have ivy league degrees. so, that's what we've seen in a variety of cases. >> rico sent shudders throughout wall street, after jurors sent american financier, michael milken, to prison in 1990, for fraud, related to insider trading in tax evasion. >> well rico is a federal law, many states, including the state of georgia, have developed their own versions. prosecutors have used these laws to prove racketeering
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conspiracies. in other words, they string together separate allegations of misconduct, committed by different people towards a common goal, or purpose. into a single indictment. >> fulton county georgia's d. a., fani willis, is well known for using rico. as an assistant va, she is the law to prosecute a case against atlanta public school educators, accused of scheming to inflate standardized text scores. in her current position, she again, used rico against rapper jeffery lamar williams. known as young thug, alleging he oversaw crimes, ranging from armed robbery to murder. he pleaded not guilty, his trial, still underway. legal experts say, the rico case involving trump and the other 18 defendants is faced with many legal challenges. >> the length of the trial is
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tax on a jury. this is a long trial. the jury instructions at the end or hard to follow. they're complicated. in the jury will have to really pay attention, closely. >> jason carroll, cnn, new york. >> we're joined now by our chief law enforcement intelligence, analyst john miller. former fbi -- covered organized crime's demise in new york under rico, a reporter back in the 19 80s. i would expect to see you and do see you in those old mob -- that's my hitchcock exactly.
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how, in your, experience as a prosecutor, benefit from arreola. >> you know, the rico law was written by robert blaikie. a professor at notre dame law school who is trying to with cases involving organized crime in the mob where the boss was insulated from all the crimes, which were done by the people at the bottom of the middle. he said, what about we charge the organization. so the organization is the enterprise, and anybody who works within the enterprise, including those who run it, are equally guilty. for all the enterprises crimes. so, rico gave prosecutors a way to tell a story to a jury that this is about a corrup t
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enterprise. and it's run by a boss. and these henchmen do these things. they're all responsible. >> giuliani, how did he use that. was he the first to do it against the mauve? >> it's a great question. anderson, robert blaikie was sitting there writing this law, trying to figure out how to make it interesting, because it's complicated, he was watching the edward g robinson movie, little caesars, in the end he screaming, is this the end of rico? rico, we'll call it rico. and then he had to fit the words to actually fit the letter. >> that's amazing. >> racketeering, influence, corrupt organization. it sounds awkward because it is. the acronym came before the word. the point is, it sat dormant for ten years, from 1970 to the late 70s in the 70, eight 79, 1980. giuliani revolutionized it.
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he took it and he said, we're gonna charge the bosses of all five organized crime families of new york city. the leadership of la casa no, struggled on aboard directors called the commission. the enterprise is gonna be the commission, the board of directors for the mafia. we're gonna charge all the leaders. not any of the little henchmen or anything. he got convictions across the board in that case. after that, people look at rico and, said this is a real tool to take down criminal organizations. cartels, gangs, and it applications that are strange, where you see the corruption in the police department, so, the key west police department was identified as a racketeering organization. and put out a business in a rico prosecution. the hells angels, street gangs and so on. >> very quickly, there is this person who's been charged in texas for making a threat against judge tanya chutkan and others. no surprise, given the climate that were in. and the rhetoric that's being thrown around. >> so, we've seen threats to the manhattan d. a. since alvin bragg brought the first trump indictment, threats to fani willis in atlanta, and even to the sheriff. now, to this federal judge who is particularly tough on donald trump in the first hearing this arrest is basically a signal from the federal government, if you make the threats, we're gonna find, you are gonna track you down. we're gonna charge you. it's a measure of behavior modification. you can't get away with this, just by doing it and thinking nobody's gonna follow up. >> john miller, thank you so, much appreciated. breaking news out of hawaii, the death toll has risen. we move information about the large number of people still
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missing more than a week after the fires began. the latest on what president biden will visit in hawaii, a report on how responders are still try to put out, fires even as the trying to identify the victims that they recovered. also tonight, the latest in the continuing legal saga surrounding this guy indicted congressman george santos. the federal indictment against the campaign aide was unsealed today, details on, that ahead. from pep in their step to shine in their coats, when people switch their dog's food to the farmer's dog, the effects can seem like magic. but there's no magic involved. (dog bark) it's just smarter, healthier pet food. it's amazing what real food can do. hi, i'm sharon, and i lost 52 pounds on golo.
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could you turn down the volume? here, you can try. get way more into what your into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. >> breaking news -- a short time ago the governor of hawaii announcing the death
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toll from the -- maui wildfires rose again. 110 people -- five bodies have been identified so far. governor josh greene also told cnn today that the things that probably over 1000 are missing, but he also said it's difficult to get an exact number. we also learned tonight that nearly 500 members a theme and 270 members of the red cross there with dna experts to identify victims. earlier today the white house announced president joe biden and first lady jill biden will travel to maui next monday, whenthey expect that search and rescue reverts will be underway. despite the's national response to the wildfire there, -- bill weir is in maui with more on the continuing struggles of people there. >> with an up country fire not fully contained mao's fire department stretched painfully thin and winds kicking up again
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-- >>,,. >> and i meant volunteer first responders -- with bottled water. >> man, you can feel the heat. a smoldering pit over there -- a lot needs is a good rain to get it going. by the time we got there, it was already flaming. >> really? >> yeah at started off with a little smoke minute said to get some water over there, and by the time we get over there it started flaming already. so we're gonna go back and put some more water on it. >> in the city, smoky brush, one long step in a smoldering ash means a burned foot. >> i want to go check that out and this is so dp can't get through it. >> but they stay at it until they're spotted by -- water scoop from swimming pools and they finally get the help they need. and then they wonder why more skilled firefighters aren't being brought over from oahu.
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>> -- >> how is this even happening? this whole road -- >> -- finally -- hands on deck. obviously, the people -- enough. it -- >> i stayed up to two in the morning watching because i knew the gas station was going off and they propane -- my favorite store that i used to go get for gardening supplies it's gone. and the people that lost their, homes, i was watching that. >> brenda's 83 year old mother law was in her home on the day the storm. and her husband was the first to provide a dna sample so now they are in grieving limbo. >> has he accepted the idea that she is gone? does he have to get confirmation before -- >> i mean, the truth about it -- we accepted it on the day that we saw that there is no house.
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but you never give up hope, so, it's both. when he needs to talk we just check in -- we check in on each other. we say, how are you doing, mentally? spiritually? physically? emotionally? and we take time after each to check and answer. and my husband was saying, i'm okay, i'm okay. and i said, no you are not. and if people ask if you are okay, no, you are not. the word is, i'm concerned. >> and our chief climate correspondent bill weir joins us now. i also understand -- sirens is -- them never activated during last week's fires. >> it's mostly conflicting information over the weekend we heard the fire chief in maui always -- someone else going to compute, are sounding the alarm, and that the fire moved too fast for that. the latest story from the governor is that it it is an
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aging system, so some of the sirens might not have gone off. but he's also pointing out when you hear a siren kansas you think tornado, when you hear the maui think tsunami. so running up the hill wouldn't have been the best idea. but a lot of people didn't know there was a fire so the argument is that anything, especially since so many children were were home that day -- getting around looking around seeing the smoke and out of harm's way but this is all part of the investigation so many unanswered questions, anderson. >> a lot to still learn. bill weir, thank you so much. coming up next, why a campaign fund-raiser for serial liar congressman george santos is also facing a legal fight. what happened in court today. coming up. zing scent of gain flings... time stops. (♪) your heart races. (♪) your eyes close. (♪) and you realize you're in love... steve?
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david: as we start a new school year, there's something new happening in california's public schools. they're called community schools. leslie: it really is shared leadership with families, students, educators, and communities. jessie: i feel like we're really valued as partners. david: it's a more innovative, holistic approach. grant: in addition to academic services, we look at serving the whole family. narrator: wellness centers, food pantries, and parental education. jessie: they're already making a difference. david: california's community schools: reimagining public education.
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>> tonight a fund-raiser for indicted congressman george santos is facing his own legal battle. the campaign aide is charged with four counts of war fright wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity thought. his pleaded not guilty to the charges. according to a source familiar with the case, the fund-raiser allegedly impersonated a top aide to house speaker kevin
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mccarthy for- us to get contributions desantis's campaign in 2021. according to the indictment, letter to santos, the campaign, it wrote, quote, faking my identity to a big donor, high risk, high reward and in everything i do. cnn's omar jimenez. i don't know how dumb you have to be to actually put that into a text -- >> into a letter. >> a letter. so, how did this fund-raiser for congressman santos allegedly impersonate kevin mccarthy? >> this is someone who worked for congressman santos in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. his name is sam neely. he allegedly sought a contributions from over a dozen potential contributors, pretending to be a top aide to house speaker kevin mccarthy. and as you just talked about, and he likely was bragging about it, sending a letter to santos saying, i'm taking my name to a big donor, i am a high risk high reward kind of guy, now here we are with an indictment, seems like he got cocked up in the high risk part of.
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it. >> has there ever been any response from this person or their attorney? >> we are just hearing from his attorneys tonight. for starters, they're not taking these allegations lying down. e attorney saying that neatly is not guilty, specically not guilty of these charges, he looks forward to complete vindication at trial as soon as possible. but this, of course, is as the person he was working for, santos -- george santos -- faces his own set of federal charges that, of course, he was indicted for in may of this year. >> in fact, the same prosecutors who filed, is they are the ones who -- including him for wire fraud. >> right. so this is out of the same district, the eastern district of the new york, and this is something prosecutors are arguing to formalize. so, they sent a letter to the respective judges in each of the cases just today, basically saying that, look, we think the facts from each of these cases and deal with overlapping events, and so, from a practical standpoint, it could just before the judges to figure out, all, right how we best going to handle this when
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we've got a similar set of circumstances? but also it tells us that what comes out of one case could likely inform the other, especially as we go through the discovery processes. >> but are the two cases connected at all? >> that's what prosecutors believe. and honestly, they deal with a lot of the same events. so, i would say yes. >> omar jimenez, appreciate it. we'll be right back. they are more news ahead.
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does life beautifully. >> alec baldwin facing a new renewed possibility of charges in the fatal shooting on the movie set of the movie rust. independent gun testing on the movie gun used on the -- trigger of the gun had to be pulled. the gunfire normally did not malfunction according to the report, file as part of a defense motion on behalf of the armorer, who has been charged in the case. the report, which was compiled by forensic science or misses in arizona, appears to open the door to the possibility of filing new charges against baldwin in the shooting of cinematographer hutchins in 2021. a program reminder. this saturday at 8:00 the am eastern, cnn will air its original series, giuliani -- what happened to america's mayor? major giuliani went from one of america's most famous crime fighters to one of america's most election and notorious election deniers.