that these service members, many of whom have said since last year that they believe they did see that bomber and had the opportunity to take him out before he actually detonated that bomb. actually did not. those service members did not. in fact see the individual who was ultimately deemed to be responsible for that deadly bombing. his name is abdulrahman allegory and he is a member of isis k, and he was as cnn previously reported, released by the taliban as part of a prison break just days before the fall of kabeles so you see him there on your screen now, many service members, including one sergeant tyler vargas-andrews of marine corps sniper, who testified last year about this, had identified someone that has been described in these reports as the bulb menn in black, as the individual who is suspected to be that bomber. you can see them right there on the screen. greene in the middle there it turns out, according to this exhaustive review >> by, by the us military that

he was not the one who ultimately carried out hours up prior to that attack. and so you see clearly that the military is trying to address these concerns, that they could have prevented this. but clearly, according to the military, they could not have. >> so it's actually there are also questions about a marine battalion commander on site at abbey gate and whether he the understood the rules of engagement. did the report look into that? >> this was another complaint that some sniper marine corps snipers had, which is that they informed their battalion commander about this bald man in black and saying that they nt to enga him. itas not ear what the response of that request, but of cours ultimately tt shot was not taever, e military sayst the battalio coander understoodery we

what the rules of engeme re in at theres no evidence to thcontrary, jake. all right. natasha bertranat the pentagor us. thank you so much. you can flow on fabook, agram,hread's x, formerly known as twitter, also on the tiktok all about under jake tapper, you can follow the show on x at the lead cnn. if he ever miss it episode the lead, you can listen to the show once you get your podcasts all two hours, just sitting out there like a big ripe peach. are covered. engineers now with wolf blitzer in the situation room. i say tomorrow happening now, we're following two major breaking stories tonight first, the breaking news out of manhattan, donald trump's unprecedented hush money case begins it's the, first time a former us president has ever stood trial on criminal charges. jury selection now underway as the judge, the defense attorneys and the prosecutors marrow down a massive list of potential jurors to find the 12th new yorkers who will consider trump's vape also tonight, the

middle east, i'm edge after israel vows to exact a price for an iranian attack what israeli official tells cnn, the war cabinet is determined to act, but it's still unclear where when and how the idf might retaliate the white house. meanwhile, urging calm in the region as president biden turns his focus to diplomacy and de-escalation welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i will blitzer a urine the situation room the skis, cnn breaking news. >> we begin our coverage tonight in new york, regardless, trump's historic criminal trial is finally underway. the court adjourning for the de just a short time ago after getting started on the first order of business, jury selection, cnn's kara scanll h more on all o today's developments

>> s >> or thing like ts has ever happened before is never been anything like it. >>er wee of delays a last-ditch legal maneuveng, juries selection nownderwa in the hisric unprecedentesh money case against donald trump following a series of rulings clarifying the evidence allowed in the case 96 potential jurors passed through magnetometers to enter the courtroom with trump they were sworn in and questioning began a few minutes later, at least 50 perspective jurors were excused because they told the judge they could not be fair and impartial of those who remained three question by the judge listed the new york times and cnn as their sources of news none said they had read any books by michael cohen or trump and none of them said they worked or volunteered for any pro trump or anti-trump groups. nine members of the jury pool were questioned and not dismiss by the time court adjourn for the day. trump faces 34 felony counts of

falsifying business records the manhattan district attorney, alvin bragg's as the former president, attempted to cover up payments made to adult film actress stormy daniels just before the 2016 election, trying to stop her from speaking out about the alleged affair with trump. judge juan merchan started the day by denying a motion from trump's lawyers to recuse himself as it attorneys debated judge juan merchan said he would not allow the infamous access hollywood tape to be shown or video of trump's deposition in the e jean carroll lawsuit that found him liable for defamation. karen mcdougal, a model who says she had an affair with trump in 2006 and was paid $150,000 to keep quiet about it. will be alleged how to testify. attorneys also argued about how much the jury can be told about michael cohen's crimes. >> i did it at the direction of in concert with and for the benefit of donald j. trump, the credibility of trump's former fixer, who admitted he orchestrated the hush money payment to stormy daniels will be one of the most bad over

elements of the case. prosecutors also ask the judge to find trump for social media posts attacking witnesses involved in the case, saying he violated a gag order. the judge scheduled a hearing for next week to settle that matter. the trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. it may be the only case against trump to face a jury before the 2024 section. the presumptive republican nominee, complaining about the judge as he walked out of the courtroom >> judge, divorce is not going to allow us is a very conflicted allow us to go to that anymore leave here for i have to take go pc and you before the united states supreme court because he thinks you superior >> trump's lawyers asked the judge to excuse him from cte next thursday so he could attend oral arguments before the us supreme court. where trump's lawyers for argued that the former president because it has presidential immunity from the february, from the january 6 case in washington, dc, the judge

denied that, requesting that trump is a criminal defendant and he is required to be here. wolfe juror scannell in new york for us. thank you. let's get some analysis from our legal and political experts in elliott williams, let me start with you. more than half of these potential jurors hur's were excused today. what does that say to you? >> oh, okay. so jurors can't serve if they can't pledge to be fair and impartial. now there's a big caveat to that. a judge can actually rehabilitate them and say, look, if i instruct you as to what the facts and the law are codes you serve on this jury. the judge seems to have changed there was a not to do that here for a big reason. i think he knows it's going to take a very hard time to pick a jury here. and if you can weed out as many people as possible, people who raised their hands and start from the position of saying that they can't be fair, are good folks to skim off the top. so i think that's what the judge did just trying to find the herd because jury selection here is going to be a beast it's certainly could take days. and what does it say to you? andrew mccabe, that

this suggests that this whole jury selection process could turn out to be rather difficult. >> i think it absolutely will be difficult and i think that the judges action today is an implied acknowledgment of the fact that he understands that that jury population probably leans against trump. and so today's cattle call approach to dismissing a 50, 50 jurors at once is kind of acknowledgment of that. he doesn't want to spend his time as elliot laid out trying to rehabilitate and really drill down on each one of those 50 people. he's going to let them go in mass to try to boil down founded that group of folks who are more impartial in who can pledge to do the fair analysis that he requires during the process of the trial. >> jaime gan galas with us today is any reason to think trump can't get a fair trial in manhattan? i >> don't think there is the there have been very high celebrated trials where well-known defendants got off, o.j. simpson comes to mind. and

i am old enough. one of the first trials i covered was john hinckley, who in 1981 attempted to assassinate ronald reagan. he almost killed him, shot three other people, john hinckley in 19 in ad was found not guilty by reason of insanity. everybody know about the case. this shooting actually happened on camera i do think to andy's point this jury pool in manhattan, they did not vote for donald trump by enlarge that said trump's lawyers are looking for one thing, one juror to hang this group >> that's all it takes, right? and so to eliot's point though the getting rid of these folks who volunteered to say, i'm not going to be impartial, i'm not going to be able to do that it really robs trump and his team of this amine ed. when i say rob's, they're going to still make this point. i'm not suggesting the former president's could all of a sudden say this is a totally

fair trial. but i think it robs them substantively of this point that whatever gets seated is somehow skewed against them because at the outset, the judge's completely just excusing all the people that they themselves say, i can't do this it's in any kind of impartial way. >> they would the trump team would very much like to have the individual explanations of why these people feel like they can't possibly be fair because that would all be very helpful to them in the event he receives a final verdict of conviction. that would be very important data to you in an appeal challenging the choice of venue essentially, he filed a motion wanting to move the trial to someplace where we'd have a more favorable jury that was of course, denied, and that could be grounds for years through i'll get a little bit of the mechanics of jury selection. this is such a critically important part of this page, and people don't understand it. we all go to jail very duty, but people don't sort of know the behind the scenes. judges are seeing number one, who can be fair and impartial in the eyes of the law. and then both sides are

allowed to get rid of some jurors. they simply don't want these are people who aren't legally excluded. these are the people who could still be fair and could still follow the law and don't have a major conflict. but one side or the other just doesn't lie. by. now. the questions aren't as straightforward as you think wolff. a lot of times, even things like what's your education, what zip code you live in, what magazines do you read? our little ways of teasing out. number one, how might this person work in a group how whizzes personal leader is this person going to block tradition or leadership or anything like that? at and in a case like this, where politics is a little bit of a proxy even education is something valuable because of the fact that i think the prosecutors here might want more highly educated traditionally voters, trump folks may want to see more of joe six pack. >> i mean, education is the defining in faultline in american politics today, i was being polite about it, but yes, it is. >> i >> think in the pop psychology of jury selection, those are

the kinds of things that prosecutors and defense attorneys are trying to tease out to see if they can divine how a particular juror might one way or another. so jimmy, what other challenges will both sides face in picking? jurors? >> so look, these lawyers have a lot of experience. they have a sense of what they're looking for. the judge merchan has this very extensive questionnaire as elliott pointed out, but lawyers will tell you very good. >> you >> can get fooled. you can think someone is sympathetic and they're not, or juror who might lean one way or the other. that's persuaded by the other jurors >> at the end of the >> day, they do run out of strikes and that will be the panel they i should have clarified that both sides have a finite number of what are called peremptory challenges are strikes of jurors. so they've got to be selective and playing them, right? yes. ten each side here to play a game of chess, trying to get

them the other sides had to figure things out. but look, we've all been burned by a juror who was nodding and smiling along with we are saying jury selection or who on paper, whether it's education, class politics victim of a crime, crime, dog node, whatever else, simply voted a way that we weren't anticipates art, not sayyed. it's you go with your gut. you tried to make these very meaningful decisions based on very superficial information. gen. very limited information. but at the end of the day, a jury will be in paneled and i'm i shared jamie's confidence that we'll have a fair lins interesting. >> they're related development. the judge next week will hear arguments on whether or not trump has already violated the gag order that has been imposed. >> had to do it. absolutely had to do at those >> tweets over the over the weekend are pretty clearly far beyond the parameters of what's been permitted under the gag order to not address the prosecutors demand that he be sanctioned for that conduct over the weekend, would have sent a clear signal to trump

that they're gagewa what are is useless. it's not going to be enforced. and would have made the whole thing meaning it's interesting. david, the biden campaign announced that president biden will remain quiet. he won't comment on this ongoing trauma for now. >> we'll see if that holds. they didn't today and the white house press secretary, karine jean-pierre was asked at the briefing today and she just danced around this xu clearly, what they don't want to do with their hyper aware of when you talk to folks inside biden moral days, they don't want to feed into this already false claim, quite frankly, from donald trump, that this is all politics and this is team biden exacting of persecution in the form of a prosecution against him and they want to make sure but they stay away from doing anything that gives him any kind of rope on that matter. and so you'll see right now, quiet, the contrast will be on display though. i mean, joe biden will be in scranton, pennsylvania tomorrow talking about the economy and donald trump will be sitting in a courtroom for jury selection. >> yeah, that's quite a different way of campaigning

our guys, everybody standby. we have a lot more coming up just ahead. we're getting more on this historic trial of donald trump, including a closer look at just who is expected to take the witness stand but first israel vowing to hit back against iran after that unprecedented drone and missile attack i live report from tel aviv is coming up. i will also speak with the key us senator. stay with us. you're in the situation >> sparks engineered for the spontaneous, a dual action formula with the active ingredients of viagra and sialic faster acting and long-lasting grabbed the moment get started at row.com slash sparks. >> what is circle surplus the fuel to take flight circle is the energy that gets you to the next level circled is which hoped for life tosses limits away so available at walmart and drinks circle.com. >> a heart attack. >> do they have life insurance? >> no.

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designer brands, it has the designers that get your heart racing had inside a prices new every day, hurry. there'll be gone in a flash designer sales at up to 70% art shop gilt.com. today, i'm arlette side at the white house, and this is cnn >> right now. we're keeping a very close eye on the extremely tense situation in the middle east israel, vowing to respond to saturday's or rainy and drone and missile tack athe trieso keephe conflic from spiraling outcontrol. let's check then with our chief international correspondent, clarissa ward. she's joining us live from tel aviv, right now. clerk clarissa, how israel weighing its next steps well, today, wolff, we had the fourth session of the war cabinet since saturday nights attack >> that meeting went on for something like three hours and there was no announcement at the end of it as two what israel's leadership has decided in terms of a response to iran. but there are

definitely, i would say growing rumblings that that response is likely to be sooner rather than later. the question becomes, what will it look like? we'll israel, he, the caution that is being urged by many of its allies, including the us, to try not to escalate, will it? he'd the forceful cry hi is from some elements of the government here, particularly part of that right-wing coalition that netanyahu has, who are calling for a forceful attack to re-establish a deterrent? will it be a direct for tat hitting some kind of military installation? would it possibly be? an asymmetric attack focusing on one of your ron's numerous proxies in the region, could it be a cyber attack? these are all the various options that have been considered and now the region really does bracing itself, waiting and watching to see what will happen. and of course, real concerns from some quarters that this could potentially escalate the situation further

>> how does all this tension between israel and iran right now impact israel's war against hamas in gaza well i think it depends on the perspective you're looking at it from wolf, some will say that this has been a lifeline to netanyahu because it's really >> deflect attention away from gaza, away from the withering criticism that israel has faced about its handling of gaza, israel is still adamant that it is going to proceed ahead with that incursion into rafah, where some 1 million palestinians are currently hunkered down unclear as to how this will affect the timeline, whether the focus on iran detracts from the focus on gaza. but there are certainly domestic pressure from here in israel for some kind of a when or what would we viewed as a win in israel on that front particularly with those hostage ceasefire talks just completely stalled >> wolf said completely stalled. and indeed, clarissa ward and tel aviv for us. thank

you very much. let's get some more on the breaking news. cnn has learned that house republican leaders will try to pass four separate britt, foreign aid bills to provide assistance to ukraine, israel, and taiwan. but it's unclear whether conservative hardliners in the house will accept that joining me now, democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut. he's a key member of the senate foreign relations committee. senator, thank you so much for joining us. what's your reaction to this latest plan by the how so republican leadership, to pass four separate bills decoupling eight israel from ukraine aid that may potentially bundle these before sending them to the senate. but is that something you could support decoupling all these bills? >> well, i haven't read any of the details of these four different proposals, so i certainly can't comment on how they would fare in the senator, whether i'd vote for them, but it's a development the speaker of the house has a bill in front of him right now that has passed the senate with 70 votes. a huge bipartisan

majority it funds ukraine, it funds israel, it funds important humanitarian relief, and it helps taiwan defend it self that bill is supported by the majority of his members and he is still continued to refuse to call it up for a vote that bill could be on the president's desk tomorrow. if. speaker johnson just called for a vote. so every two days, he seems to have a new plan as to how he is going to avoid doing the right thing. just taking a vote, letting his members decide on what they feel about the senate proposal that funds ukraine. this new plan. >> i don't know how >> it will fare in the house. i don't know how or fair the senate, what i know is that it inevitably just delays getting funding to both israel and ukraine, both of those countries need that help desperately right now >> as you know, israel at this time is snell deliberating its response to that iranian attack over the weekend. when you look at how successfully israel and its partners defended against

the all those missiles that were coming in. how little damage iran actually did on the ground in israel would a direct counter-strike from israel, honore run. do you think that would go too far >> well, first of all, this attack from iran is unacceptable, and i am glad that israel was able to shoot down all these incoming missiles and drones. but you, there's a lot of skill involved in that, but probably some luck as well. we could easily be dealing with dozens, if not hundreds, of dead israelis today, israel has a decision to make. i think everyone knows by now that the united states is counseling israel to engage in a strategy moving forward that doesn't escalate this conflict any further. it certainly appears that the way in which iran conducted the strike was telegraphing the fact that it does not want to be the engaged in a deeper, bloodier, long-term conflict. and right now, with our ships being shot

at in the red sea with gaza still on fire, with the unrest in jordan. this is the absolute wrong time for there to be an additional new broader conflict in the region, right? >> says this decision is now up to israel. listen to this, listen this is an israeli decision to make whether and how they'll respond. we're going to leave it squarely with them. we are not involved in their decision-making process about a potential response so senator, what should the us roby and what advice should the israelis should be receiving from the united states? considering the risk to us >> troops throughout the middle east region, if this conflict were to spiral what israel is a sovereign nation. and this was undoubtedly a vicious attack on their territory and on their people. so israel has a right to determine for themselves how they respond. i think the president has been right to say that this is israel's decision.

the united states is not going to participate in this attack. and i think it's important for us to signal to israel that the way in which they respond needs to be it should be calculated so as not to get israel or the united states more deeply involved in a direct confrontation with iran, rights. now, that is not good. for israeli security, is not good for us security. our focus right now needs to be on getting those hostages out of gaza, bringing the war in gaza to a close. there's are already been enough damaged and israel's national security and to the us national security we don't need another wider, dangerous conflict with iran. >> senator chris murphy, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> coming up. we'll have more on the first criminal trial of a former president of the united states with a closer look at the key players in the case of the people of the state of new york versus donald j trump

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tomorrow at 11 eastern on cnn >> we're back with the breaking news, donald trump's hush money criminal trial dow underway. a historic first for a former us president, seen as brian todd takes a closer look at some of the key players in the case this is an outbreak. at this case was brought other than the protagonist himself, who's on trial. there are some critical players who will determine the former president's fate in this case, starting with the man presiding over it, juan merchan, the colombian-born new york supreme court judge, who is in his early 60s, has already stood firm against donald trump. trump's moves to delay and throw out this case and expanded a gag order after trump's personal attacks against merchan and his family, he will be have a very commanding presence in the courtroom in a very quiet and understated way. but he has no needs toe sparri beforf he dge merchan will be a prosecution team led by

manhatn de alv bra, who will go against trump's le dense lawyer todblanch and his team >> who get praise from legal analysts for their track record. >> unlike some of trump's prior representation in some of his other cases that i wouldn't put in the same caliber or the same quality we have lawyering, trump's got excellent lawyers here, but it's the witnesses will likely bring the most sizzle, possibly the most critical one, michael cohen, trump's former lawyer and fixer. cohen is central because he made the hush money payments to daniels and was reimbursed by the trump organization. >> and he had told me that he had spoken to a couple of friends and it's 130,000 it's not a lot of money and we should just do it. so go ahead and do it >> trump denies the charges of falsifying records of the payment. one analyst says the pressure on the prosecution to establish cohen's credibility will be enormous if he fails and he looks like this is an agenda and he's a scorned individual and we know it's admitted lying, and we know that he's a criminal conviction that is not going to be

favorable in any way shape, or form to the prosecution. >> they're stormy daniels, the adult film star, >> whose alleged sexual encounter with trump was the reason for the hush money payment her testimony on the affair, which donald trump has denied will be pivotal in this trial as with counts of the payments david former chairman of the company that publishes the national enquirer, will be asked about his efforts to bury media stories about the affairs but a witness who could provide the most dramatic testimony hope hicks, trump's former communications adviser, who helped the campaign deal with the stormy daniels fallout anyone who was in trump's inner circle and who can provide that context and that perspective i think is someone that the jury will be >> listening very closely and intently to what they have to say >> we should point out that karen agnifilo provided analysis for our peace works for a firm that represents michael cohen but agnifilo does not have any contact with cohen, does not work on any case relating to him and we did

not have her speak about cohen for our story. wolfe right-side reporting, brian, thank you very much. let's bring in our political and legal experts for some serious analysis right now, elliott, let me start with you again. which of these high-profile witnesses who will be called upon to testify? stands out to you. >> of course, michael cohen only in so far as credibility being a central issue at trial witnesses only as good as whether jurors choose to believe that witness and there might be questions seen about michael cohen's credibility, his former ties, a former president trump, and so on. now, there are other witnesses who can corroborate great some of the statements and michael cohen makes about the order of the payments and what they serve to do and so on. it's really just a question of what the jury believes and do they trust the people that are putting in front of them? so i'll be really be watching. apparently there's a lot of documentation. the backup. what he says at the same time as you know, andrew near the former fbi deputy director michael cohen yes, he is a key witness, but he he has perjured himself and he actually went to jail as a result of that. so what does

the prosecution attempting to achieve by calling on him every >> witness brings a certain amount of baggage to their role at the trial and coen certainly has a lot most significantly that perjury conviction. however, prosecutors build cases every day across the country on the backs of witnesses who are troubled, who've been in who have criminal convictions, who have lied of committed acts of violence and they're able to rehabilitate those witnesses on the stand with things like documentation. if it's not just going to be that michael cohen says, i paid stormy daniels this amount. he's going to they're going to actually show him the check with donald trump signature on it that includes that payment. so there is a way to get beyond even significant baggage that cohen presents and wolff, can i just add to that and andy and elliott can address this, but michael cohen has already served prison time. he is not getting any benefit out of doing this. this is not a deal that's going to lessen the

sentence he's already had. we've also been told by his former lawyer, lanny davis that there are emails, text messages, other things that this is a case that will be let's say, won or lost on paper, not just on on michael cohen's. one other thing we don't >> know what hope hicks is going to say. in every case, there are potential surprises there are several people who are going to be called who like hope hicks were in the inner circle who heard things saw things that may very well support what michael cohen says, you agree? >> no, i absolutely do agree that more to the point he made, he repeatedly says i lied and did what i did at the direction of the defendant, mr. trump. now, there may be questions about whether he can get that statement in court because he's expressing an opinion and maybe the defense might try to strike it, but he says, no, look, yes. i have a lying perjury conviction and i did it

because the guy that's on trial right now, that's could be very compelling evidence in a statement if he's allowed to make as you know, david david show you in this case is often seen as the least potentially important of the four criminal charges. charges, four criminal cases that trump is going to have to deal with in the coming months. we had a recent poll. we saw recent poll that showed a majority of voters look at this 58% say they see this case as very or somewhat but serious, including the majority of independent voters break that down for us. >> yeah. i mean, nearly six in ten americans, he does vary somewhat in serious and i never really understood over the course of the last year how we sort of why we rank these trials. they don't happen that way, right? i mean, it may be that some people see january 6 trial is a more serious matter, but that's it doesn't take away from the fact that we're seeing today this process go and play out on its own in a courtroom in manhattan for these charges in this case that he is on an a jury will decide his guilt or innocence on that and so i do think we should

treat this case as that a standalone case here, not in comparison to the others. and clearly americans, as you noted, also a majority of independence pendants think this is a serious matter or the classified documents case down in mar-a-lago in florida. that's a very serious. cases are pretty serious. how do you think it's going to play literally? >> well, donald trump will be campaigning from the courthouse steps. we know that he will be playing the victim, which i think works for his base i think again, to the point of we don't know everything that's going to come out in this case. there may be testimony that is damaging to him. he may also get off and that is that will have its own political ramifications. >> we'll see what happens on that front in a significant tomorrow morning, the us supreme courts can hear oral arguments on a federal obstruction law. those used to prosecute trump and others involved in the january 6 insurrection set the seed first, walk because through

what we should anticipate, sure, so it's a white-collar offense. people may have heard of sarbanes oxley many years ago that put in this crime of obstructing an official proceeding, obstruct influencing, or corruptly, obstructing are influencing an official proceeding of congress. now the question is, was that intended just to apply to people like accountants and white-collar criminal? when ols who behaved in a self-serving are corrupt manner or candidate based on what the language of the statute says be applied to people who stormed the capitol on january 6. they were also obstructing an official proceeding. and so the supreme court is going to be looking at number one, what did congress mean when it passed this law? and two, what is the history of these prosecutions for? i'm to official proceeding actually made the decision of the supreme court could directly impacts a lot trump, obviously as well. our it guys. thank you very, very much. just ahead, an inside look at how this unprecedented drought will play out. a former new york judge is standing by live. we'll discuss

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preferred better science, better results >> blue carbon, a cnn film. sunday at nine more now in the breaking news, we're following donald trump's first criminal trial is officially underway in new york city with jury selection >> beginning this afternoon, joining us now to discuss this

and more of the former us district court judge shira scheindlin judge xianmin. thank you very much for joining us. you know, these players take us inside this case from the perspective of a judge, how is judge merchan approaching this jury selection process >> not jury selection is a difficult phase of a trial, particularly when it's so high profile, that's why he's used a written questionnaire with so many probing questions that helps to move the the word deer that is the questioning of the jurors along because you can read those answers. but in this court, the lawyers are allowed to question each juror individually and really try to tease out the biases that they may have. so it's not going to be a fast process are the challenges of seating and impartial jury jud greater in wind ugetting a fair trial? >> i believe he can get a fair trial, but it's not an easy

job to read out those who are biased against him as even he has pointed out, this is manhattan, this is a district that when 75% for biden in the election so he has a right to really question each juror are carefully and be sure that the people who are eventually ceded really can be fair and impartial. look, this is so high-profile that there's almost nobody who hasn't heard about it. certainly there's nobody who doesn't know. this is the former president. it's not going to be an easy thing for them. to listen to the evidence and decide the case. as we always tell jurors solely on what you hear in the courtroom, that's the instruction judges give. >> so they tried to do it. that's absolutely right. the judge will hear arguments on unrelated matter on whether trump actually violated the gag order in this case. how significant is this, judge? judge. and what are you expecting >> well, this is tricky. chu in the gag order, he is not allowed to sort of make

comments about the prosecutors or the judge's family, or the witnesses, or the jurors. >> and he's always >> going way up to the line of nano over and he can't seem to stop himself. so he made comments. of course, about michael cohen and about stormy daniels. i forget her real name, but he certainly went on on social media yesterday and made a lot of comments calling them liars and trash, and all kinds of things prosecution is added mr. ready for contempt order and they've asked him to start imposing fines of $3,000, which isn't much of a deterrent for him, but it can ratchet up from there. it could be daily finds that increase the exponentially and eventually he may have to consider if you won't stop, i can incarcerate you for violating a court order so we'll see what the tug of war between the judge and mr. trump is with respect to that gag order. >> yeah, we'll see if trump actually does shut up trump has

railed against this prosecution from the very start, from your perspective, judge, would a defendant not named donald trump have faced these charges in this case? >> yes. i think i think someone else would now, i know his argument that this is unprecedented and a witch-hunt and it's just done to get him. i don't buy that there are a lot of prosecutor prosecutions for making false business records. but what makes this felony and not a misdemeanor is that if you file these false business records in furtherance of another crime, then it can be a felony. and that's what's unusual here. the other crimes that underlie it our election fraud we have to see if that can hold up as an underlying crime. both federal and state election fraud or election interference. and the third crime is tax fraud. so there are three underlying crimes. now, they don't have to be

proved beyond a reasonable doubt. not at all. the jury has to just find that the intent of filing the false business records or making the false business records was to further the underlying crimes and then it becomes a felony. so it is unusual, but i think other people have many people have been prosecuted for the misdemeanor, a filing false business records. the question here is the underlying in crimes, and that's that's a bit of a first impression case. the election interference in the election fraud charges. that's new that's new. >> excellent explanation of why these are felony charges and not simply misdemeanor charges. a judge sherman, thank you. very much for your expertise. thanks very much for joining us and thanks for all your service. we appreciate it very much. thank you. thank you. wael for having me. >> thank you. coming up around now, warning it won't show restraint should israel respond after that iranian drone and missile attack against israel? our anderson cooper is now back in israel. you'll join us live.

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saturday's barrage of >> iranian missiles and drones. cnn's anderson cooper is standing by for his life in tel aviv. he's got an update for us, anderson died glad you're back there and israel right now reporting on what's going on, what do we know? so far about israel's potential response >> well, the idf chief of staff said today that there will be a response that there's no question about that. the question is exactly what is the nature of that response is going to be the israeli war cabinet after several hours today, they've had a number of meaning since this attack. obviously, we're told at times it was has been very tense discussions inside inside that council. >> we don't know if >> a decision has been made, nor do we know what exactly the nature to response will be. obviously, there's a number of factors involved >> both >> the nature of the response, whether it be diplomatic or military, which would be more likely. and also that the

timing of it, is it something that needs to happen quickly? there's some thought that the quicker the better as far as israel may see it because they want to still try to maintain the international cord they've gotten in the longer they wait to respond, that any kind of support or sympathy for israel may diminish in terms of a response so there's a lot still, we don't know and obviously we are watching very closely what happens here on the ground will >> anderson we also just learned that hamas has actually offered a counter proposal in the ceasefire negotiations. >> what are we learning? >> yeah, this comes from an israeli source, close to the negotiations telling cnn's jeremy diamond that there has really been what can only be described as a setback in these negotiations. what has been on the table and has been being discussed for months was it release of some 40 israeli hostages being held by hamas

and other groups inside gaza in exchange for what would be a six-week ceasefire and the release of palestinian prisoners in jails that now it according to this source, talking to jeremy diamond, that number has been cut in half by hamas from to about 20:20 prisoners. they also want to, excuse me, 20 hostages. they also want the number of palestinian prisoners being held they want a higher number of those released and a higher percentage of those who are have life sentences release. so that would be a big setback in the negotiation. in the negotiations for the release of the hostages. and a lot now depends on whether there's going to be a ground operation in rafah which it was expected to take place. this week. but right now, there's no sign of exactly when that may occur. >> well, there's an cooper and tel aviv for us stay safe over there, anderson. thank you very much, anderson. of course. we'll be back for his show, ac30, 60 in a little bit more

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in match roger, that robin hood goal. get you the biggest match up any ira on the market >> i'm zachary cohen in washington and this is cnn a new mexico judge has just sentenced the armor for the film rust to 18 months in prison. the maximum possible punishment, hannah guttierez reed was responsible for firearms, safety on the movie set where cinematographer, halyna hutchins was killed by a prop gun held by the actor alec baldwin. baldwin has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter for the shooting. he's expected to stand trial in july and has pleaded not guilty. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. thanks very much for watching the news continues next on cnn good evening from tel aviv, which is now bracing for what comes next. if israel's armed forces already at war on a number of