We begin with the
latest maneuvering
as 19 defendants in Georgia's election
subversion case
all jockeying for position
and for many start
drifting apart from one
another on the court calendar
and maybe otherwise.
Late today, Rudy Giuliani and six
others waived arraignment,
pleading not guilty in court filings,
same as the former
president did yesterday.
Also today, pro-Trump attorney Kenneth
Hesburgh,
who asked for a speedy trial,
along with campaign lawyer
Sidney Powell,
filed to sever his case from hers.
We're still waiting for a federal judge
to rule on removing former White House
chief of staff Mark Meadows case
from state court.
Another item with the former president
not helping to pay their legal bills
we learned today
that some co-defendants
have turned to crowdfunding.
And in one more sign
that justice can be life changing
for those
who answered his call on January 6th.
A judge today sentenced
another so-called proud boy,
Ethan Nordin, as his name
to 18 years in prison.
That is one of the lengthiest sentences
yet for the Capitol attack.
Another member,
the guy in the now
infamous window smashing
video, Dominick Barzola.
He drew a ten year sentence today.
Another busy day
at the end of another eventful week.
Seen as Jessica Schneider
joins us now with the latest.
There were a number of not guilty
pleas today.
Jessica, what have you learned?
Yeah, John,
the not guilty pleas now total.
12 of those 19 defendants, Rudy Giuliani,
just the latest here to plead not guilty.
And, you know,
by pleading not guilty
before September 6th,
all of these defendants,
they're going to be able
to avoid those in-person arraignments
at the Fulton County Court.
And that includes, John,
the former president
who did plead not guilty
earlier this week.
Anyone, though, and their seven
remaining who doesn't arrange
to waive their arraignment beforehand.
They will have to appear in court
on Wednesday morning.
So we'll see
what happens in the coming days.
We're also seeing this flurry
of legal filings from Kenneth Cesaro.
He's set to go to trial October,
October 23rd.
But first, he's saying
he wants the prosecution
to speed up
their production of discovery.
His lawyers are saying it's unacceptable
that prosecutors are planning
to hand everything over
only by a September 15th deadline
and not sooner.
His lawyers are saying
prosecutors can't have it.
Both ways saying
they're ready to go to trial,
but then slow walking
the production of these documents.
And then secondly, John Cesaro
is also telling the court
that he wants a solo trial, specifically
he's saying
even though he and Sidney Powell
both filed
those motions for speedy trials,
he does not want to go to trial with her.
He says he never had any direct
contact with Powell
they're not accused of
doing the same thing.
So very much
distancing himself from Powell.
So in a separate courtroom
in terms of the judges,
the federal judge's decision
regarding Mark Meadows
bid to move his case to federal court.
Any idea when we could get
a ruling there?
It could be any day now.
It probably won't be over the weekend,
but maybe even Monday.
Likely Tuesday,
because the judges received
all the briefing
he's asked for from both sides.
The prediction is it
will come before Wednesday
when, of course, Meadows
is still scheduled for that arraignment.
And it appears here, John,
the judge is facing
one big legal question
is, can Meadows
move his case to federal court?
If he proves that
just one of those underlying
acts in the conspiracy
was done as part of his role
as Trump's chief of staff.
Now, Meadows
team obviously arguing,
yes, they're saying it should be moved
even if there's just one act
in this huge indictment.
That somehow touches on
any part of Meadows Roll.
Finally, Willis and her team,
of course, are arguing, no,
the indictment is about conspiracy
and not a single act.
So they really don't want the bar
to be that low for Meadows John.
And Jessica, as we mentioned,
several of the 18 co-defendants
in this case
are struggling
to pay their mounting legal bills.
What methods are they resorting to?
How are they getting the money?
Yes, some astonishing numbers.
They're mostly
resorting to crowd funding.
We've got Jenna Ellis
already raised more than $180,000.
John Eastman raising more than $500,000.
And you know John, upcoming.
We do know that even though
the former president
has distanced himself
from many of these defendants,
our team has learned that he's
hosting a $100,000 per person fundraiser
added at his Bedminster Club next week
for Rudy Giuliani.
So he's still helping out
at least one defendant in this case.
All right, Jessica Snider,
thank you very much.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Perspective now
from CNN political analyst
and New York Times
senior political correspondent
and Trump biographer Maggie Haberman.
Also CNN legal
analyst and former federal prosecutor
Jennifer Rogers.
Maggie,
what do you make
of the former president's co-defendants
saying he is not friend
funding their legal costs,
he's not coughing up money to help them.
He in
some cases says he doesn't know
a lot of these people
Right.
This has been an
ongoing issue, John, about people's
legal fees, various people
we're talking about witnesses, anybody
with any connection
to any of the investigations into him
for quite some time going back to 20, 21.
You know,
he started paying people's legal fees
around the time
that a bunch of people
were being called before the house
January six, select committee.
And then it sort of grew from there.
But not everybody has been covered.
And now you have these co-defendants
who his team Trump's team
clearly does not want to pick up
the legal fees
whether it is just because they don't
want to have that output of money,
whether there's even
enough money
available in Save America,
the PAC that he's been using
to pay
legal fees his own and other
people's is a huge open question.
They didn't have a ton of money
heading into
the second half of this year.
But there is also the question
of whether
and I have heard this
from some advisers to him.
Is there going to be an issue for him
if he is funding co-defendants
and therefore
taking on some responsibility for them
and I don't think he wants to do that
because co-defendants
might get convicted.
He doesn't want to be tied to them.
Is that the idea?
Well,
because it essentially says
you're all part of the same thing.
And as we're seeing
with a number of people
who are trying
to separate out their trials
and sever from other people,
they don't want to be part
of a larger conspiracy.
If Trump ends up
funding people who have been charged
funding their defenses.
I think the concern
for people around Trump
is that that raises
a bunch of other questions.
In addition
to the fact that he doesn't
like paying for other people's legal
bills, let alone his own.
So, Jennifer, to that point,
it's expensive.
You know,
funding a legal
defense is very expensive.
This is extravagantly expensive
for many of these defendants.
On the other hand,
what are the advantages, if any, to them,
if they can get their own representation,
if they can separate their
own defense from Trump's?
Well, they really should, John,
because you really need
an independent lawyer
who is working in your best interests
and not considering
the interests of the person
at the top of the indictment,
Donald Trump.
You know, prosecutors charge 19 people
they're going to need
for a lot of those people to plead out.
Some of those people,
they're going to want to be
cooperating witnesses, meaning
they will testify
at trial
against the remaining defendants someday.
That means that some of these people,
prosecutors are going to want them
to turn on Donald Trump
and whoever else
they have testimony against.
So you really need a lawyer
who can advise you
independently about your best wet,
best interests as a defendant
and as a potential witness.
And to the extent
you have your representation paid for
by someone else in the case
that jeopardizes that independence.
So, Maggie, Rudy Giuliani
pleaded not guilty today.
We learned that Trump is headlining
this thousand dollars
per person
fundraiser for Giuliani next week.
What's the relationship right now between
these two men?
I think
a couple of things
are important here, John.
And one is any
what came up before
that he was hosting at Trump.
I'm not sure he's hosting it.
I think he's having it at his club.
I have no idea of his
charging a rental fee
or what for this event.
He is headlining it.
That is true.
Their relationship is strained.
Look, you know,
Trump is said
to still have
some fondness for Giuliani,
but Trump has often been
very critical of Giuliani over
the last couple of years.
He has said to Giuliani and to others,
while you didn't win these cases,
and therefore,
he wasn't going to cover the
the fees that Giuliani
was looking for back in 2020 when he was,
you know, offering all of these
these false
theories and claims
about widespread fraud.
They see each other.
They have known each other for decades.
So it's important
to look at it in that context.
But these are not people
who are speaking on the phone every day.
Trump has a separate relationship
that he had for a long time
with Trump's son
excuse me, Rudy son Andrew,
who is
one of Giuliani's
closest advisers and confidants.
But that's a very separate track.
This is not a relationship
that has ever gone back to where it was
in, say, 2018. Interesting.
Jennifer, we mentioned that Kenneth
Hasbro is trying to sever his trial
from Sidney Powell here.
Why do you think that is?
What is the goal here?
Well, this is a RICO case.
And so they are allowed
prosecutors are allowed
to put in evidence
of the existence of the enterprise
and the predicate acts
and the goals of the enterprise
as a whole,
which means that if you're a defendant,
there's
going to be a lot of information,
a trial
that doesn't directly implicate you,
but could dirty you up in a way.
Right. It's bad information.
It sounds terrible.
And so you can be
tarred by that in a way.
So what
Jasper is trying to do
is to avoid having anyone else
at the table,
because he thinks that will minimize
the amount of information
that could be derogatory
that will come in at his trial.
But, you know,
John, it's not going to work
because they're never going to make
these prosecutors
try to speedy trial cases in two months.
The RICO statute is broad for a reason,
and it's designed
so that you can try people together,
charge them and try them
even if they don't know each other,
if they're both part of the enterprise
and they're both working
towards the enterprise as false.
We will learn a lot of this soon,
maybe even as soon as next week.
Jennifer Rogers, Maggie Haberman,
thank you so much for being with us.
Happy Labor Day,
if that's something that
people actually say.