Global News Podcast: Trump appears in court

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I'm Jackie Leonard and at 1930 GMT on Tuesday the 4th of April, we're doing things a little

differently. Hello, I'm James Reynolds and in this special edition of the Global News podcast we

are reporting from New York as Donald Trump pleads not guilty to criminal charges. 34 felony counts

including falsifying business records and as James says not guilty pleas have been entered.

Security was stepped up around the Manhattan court for the arrival of Donald Trump who becomes the

first former or sitting US president to face such charges. In other news we look at the significance

of Finland becoming the 31st member of NATO and a fiery final AGM at Credit Suisse as the chairman

apologizes to furious shareholders. A courthouse today situated at 100 Centre Street in Lower

Manhattan in New York became the centre of attention for US and global media. It was there

that Donald Trump arrived and was put into police custody. It's the first time in American history that

a former US president has faced a judge on criminal charges. He denies any wrongdoing and claims he's

a victim of a witch hunt. The charges against him 34 felony counts including falsifying business

records. They are said to be related to the payment of $130,000 in hush money to the porn star

Stormy Daniels in the closing weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. Our North America

editor Sarah Smith watched the arrival of Donald Trump at the courthouse. Well there was a great

deal of excitement here as that convoy of about 15 cars bringing Donald Trump down through Manhattan

to the lower criminal court arrived. He got out of the car and defiantly waved to some of his supporters

as he went into the courtroom. You would think he was arriving at a campaign visit but in fact as

soon as he entered that building he was officially under arrest. He'll be being processed inside

there now fingerprinted and crucially being told what all the charges against him are. He doesn't

have any of those details yet. We will see him appear in the courtroom where he will be asked by

the judge to enter a plea to all of those charges. He's just been informed to have been laid against

him. We expect he'll plead not guilty but those scenes when we get them will be quite something

to look at. Another historic moment in Trump's journey towards this criminal trial. Security

both inside and around the court was heavy. There are reports that 35,000 New York police

have been put on standby. My colleague James Reynolds was stationed outside the courthouse

and I asked him to describe the scene. Among supporters and opponents there's been a pretty

boisterous mood for large hours in the morning it was quite quiet then as things as the court

case is near the mood has got a bit more agitated among some partly jackets because of the fact

that this in this small park opposite the courthouse there is entranceways in which Trump supporters

and Trump opponents accidentally inadvertently have I wouldn't say mingled but come into contact

in the same area and that's generated a number of arguments but right around me now things are

quite quiet the three people in the rickshaw in favor of Donald Trump continue to chant about 30

meters away from us someone's put a banner on the back of the rickshaw ultra extreme MAGA the

Trump movement there's also just fascinatingly another group of people which look like they're a

film crew they look like they're filming a scene from a drama there's a man in a suit arguing with

a woman in a suit it might be that they've decided this Trump courtroom battle is not a bad

place to have as a backdrop for the drama that they are filming but a little earlier I did get

into the pro-trump enclosure when it was a bit quieter and I spoke to some Trump supporters

including Jamie and Nicole they're from rural Pennsylvania I feel like this is an injustice

that is politically motivated that if he wasn't running for president right now this wouldn't

be happening there's lots of other crime that could be investigated and that this is only happening

because he's running for president where have you come from today Pennsylvania so that's that's a

pretty long journey three hours you felt that strongly to come here to be here from the morning

I could take off we could find someone to watch our kids for us and then number two yeah we feel

that strongly that we want to be here I was not expecting the circus but then again what do I know

and the circus being the media there's more press here than there's people more press than people

yeah and can I ask how old your kids are 26 down to three we have 15 what do you tell them about

what you're doing here today and what kind of conversations you have with them the older ones

perhaps we're exercising our first amendment right and we're gathering and peacefully protesting

something that we feel is wrong and they know where we sit in history right now they know the

founding of this country and so they understand why we're here and why we have to do this we have

two serving and we have two in the middle one in the army one in the air force so it's the least

we could do how much is politics part of your lives well it wasn't a big deal until 2020 after 2020

it's become a more important part of our life but number one we're christian number two we're parents

and number three we're in politics we've never been to a trump rally i've never been one because

we were outdoor knocking or we had something with the children to do I saw the last time they were

here when it was trump was about to be indicted and brought in yeah they're about a couple weeks

a lot of supporters here and that's sad because there should be people here there should be because

the sentiment out out where we live everybody's trump and James you have been talking to anti-trump

protesters as well haven't you we have my colleagues and I have been going around trying to make sure

that we bring everybody a reasonably accurate editorially balanced view of opinions here in

New York bearing of course in mind that New York itself the city voted overwhelmingly against

Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections but we did speak to a number of anti-trump

people as they were described themselves as a system Donald Trump is a joke I mean right he's a very

dangerous joke he's been making fun of everything he loves the circus but today's a very serious day

in our country it's a historic day we're finally somebody with so much power the ex-president is

going to be arrested and hopefully held accountable I'm here because Trump needs to be held accountable

for one of the many crimes he's committed and I'm here in support of democracy because I think he's

a threat to it as New Yorkers it feels so good that we're the first place that holds him accountable

finally even if it doesn't seem like it's the biggest one you know covering up affairs and

like that he did it in a criminal way and he did it in a political way we're just here for entertainment

honestly and see the different sides even it's going to be peaceful violent everyone we've met

is so nice right now there's no indication that anyone wants to be violent they're just kind of

wanting to be heard definitely as a criminal and should be locked up so we're we're ready for justice

to be served the views of those who oppose Donald Trump and important for me to say that those views

were gathered by members of the BBC by partner broadcasters as well and then edited and brought

and put on this program as well and in addition Jackie is giving you that editorially balanced

indication of views around here I just want to pause and say that here in New York it is 17 minutes

past two if the criminal justice system is on time Donald Trump will now be making his appearance

inside a courtroom on the 15th floor from what we understand all other events on that floor have

been cleared we expect the court case if it goes ahead now if it's going ahead there are no pictures

from inside to last around 20 30 minutes as charges are read these current moments are a moment in

American history this has never happened before James Reynolds well Yalda Hakim spoke to Thomas

Gift director of the Center for US Politics at University College London so is this a new chapter

in US history we've never seen anything like this before and that's why it's so difficult to predict

what is going to happen next it is unprecedented and by nature the fact that it's unprecedented

we can't know what is going to happen going forward but you know whether you are for the

prosecution of Donald Trump or against the prosecution of Donald Trump I think you do

have to say that it's a sad day of the United States to see a former president and the most

likely I think nominee for the Republican side in 2024 facing criminal charges it's it's just

not a good look for the United States I think it's tarnishing to its reputation abroad you know of

course you could say that it's entirely justified and that this needed to be happened but just the

fact that it is happening I think you know it is somewhat worrisome and the other point I think

you've just made there is that that he is the front runner here at this stage I don't think that

there's any doubt that Donald Trump right now is the prohibitive favorite to obtain the Republican

nomination that certainly doesn't mean that he will get it but if you just look at the polls

I think you have to say that Donald Trump is the favorite and I actually think that a lot of the

polls may in fact underestimate Donald Trump's support because so many of the polls we looked at

are just one-on-one matchups for example Donald Trump versus Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump versus

Nikki Haley in those scenarios it looks like some of the opponents may have a chance to dethrone

Trump but we have to keep in mind that it's not just Donald Trump versus a particular candidate

it's really Donald Trump versus all of the other candidates and if Donald Trump is able to maintain

his floor of support in the Republican Party which is about 30 to 40 percent of the electorate

if the other candidates split the anti-Trump vote that really will allow I think Donald Trump to

kind of clear the table in some of these early primary states become the front runner and then

after that it could just be some sort of a rubber stamp again a lot could happen between now and

the primaries it's too early to speculate but if you just look at the numbers right now I think

it's hard to say anyone has a better shot at Donald Trump. So what perils might Mr Trump now face

here's our analysis editor Roz Atkins. Well depending on the charges a fine is by far the most likely

outcome though jail is possible if we should emphasize unlikely and as I tell you all of this

you might be thinking can Trump still run for president well the answer to that is yes because

being charged doesn't change that nor would being convicted though of course both scenarios may

impact his campaign and Donald Trump's facing other investigations too the FBI continues to

investigate his handling of classified documents some of which were retrieved from his offices

in Florida there's a justice department investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election

including the Capitol riots though it's not clear if Mr Trump is a focus here and then there's also

what's happening in Georgia there's a criminal investigation into whether Donald Trump interfered

in the 2020 election result there so today is of course a moment of legal and political jeopardy

for Donald Trump but there may be more of those to come. That was Roz Atkins. Well the court

hearing has been making news around the world our China media analyst Carrie Allen has been

looking at the Chinese coverage. There has been a lot of it because Chinese media are fascinated

with Trump and US politics in general so it very much is round the clock coverage today there are

live streams in Washington and a lot of attention and a lot of expectation to see what might happen

because you've got newspapers that are suggesting that there could be riots already people have

been seeing protests on the street and you do get some very inflammatory language suggesting that

this could spill over into an incident like that Capitol Hill in 2021 I've even seen the word

civil war be used. And is social media interested? Social media is very interested at long term

there have been nicknames for Trump like Comrade Trump and Chuan Jianguo which is it basically

means Trump builds China because there is a perception that because he's so unpredictable

it could be beneficial to China so you have got a lot of very positive jokey nicknames for him and

looking at how users are commenting on Weibo which is China's equivalent of a platform like

Facebook or Twitter you've got people saying this is showtime that there's a real feeling that

this is entertainment viewing even though it's news which can sometimes be quite drab and dull

they feel that this is really exciting and something they want to be keeping across.

So tell us a little bit more about about the tone of the courage and what people are saying

and the perception of Mr Trump in Chinese media what he represents.

The big focus really is that Trump has exacerbated tears in American society so whenever there's

mention of Trump in state media there's a real message that he is to a lot of people

still their leader in America there's a real feeling that with him back in the news there's

more and more division in U.S. society. As for Trump himself that there are people online who

talk about how they dislike him full stop because they think that he made a lot of damaging choices

but at the same time they often see media on him through the lens of Chinese state media which

very much says that if Trump was back in power this would be beneficial for China because

that there's a feeling that China's political leadership is more intelligent than Trump so

a real kind of feeling of love and hate when it comes to Trump.

There is interest isn't there about how about the phrase of him turning himself in or surrendering

to face the court isn't there?

There is yes because a lot of media leading up to now is really focused on him being this

very powerful vigor and now that they're starting to see images of him with his head bent surrounded

by security forces so there are people in China who feel that they might see a different Trump now

they might see a more muted Trump and that might change perceptions as well because

because yes they've enjoyed seeing him be this outspoken figure and yeah they're wondering

whether they might see a different Trump that they've just not seen for years.

Kerry Arlen

Still to come fury and a pocket full of walnuts as the chairman of Credit Suisse apologizes

to shareholders 16 days after the bank was taken over in a hasty deal with its large arrival UBS.

Now the other big stories of the day as we heard in the last edition NATO has officially

confirmed Finland as its 31st member during a ceremony at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels

the application to join the bloc was made last year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine

as Finland's flag was raised in Brussels a band played the national anthem

The NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it was an historic moment and the extension of an

existing relationship the Kremlin though says Finland's accession to NATO will force Russia

to take what it called countermeasures. Our Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford

who spent many years reporting from Moscow considers the significance of this latest

NATO expansion for Russia. When Vladimir Putin ordered the all-out invasion of Ukraine he gave

all sorts of pretexts including the claim that NATO is expanding its presence there

making it an imminent security risk even an existential threat for Russia but as a direct

result of that war NATO has grown and grown stronger Russia's border with Finland is more than 800

miles long in that sense Mr Putin's gambit has failed badly leaving the Kremlin to utter dark

warnings about countermeasures without clarifying what they might be a spokesman said Russia would

keep a close eye on how NATO uses Finnish territory then decide whether that constitutes a threat

the defense minister called it another anti-Russian move and that's how Moscow is handling this

domestically it's more fodder for politicians and propagandists there who insist that the west

is out to get Russia to surround and weaken it those who falsely present the war here in Ukraine

as Russia the victim fighting back inside Russia it's also useful new fuel for all the talk of

enemies abroad that justifies tighter control and more repression protecting Vladimir Putin

in the Kremlin still for Moscow Finland's joining NATO is different than having Ukraine in the

alliance but as Mr Putin believes he has the right to veto Kiev's membership just like he

believes Ukraine as a nation has no right to exist Sarah Rainsford investigators in Russia have

formally charged a woman being held in connection with the killing of a prominent pro-war blogger

in st petersburg gladland hataski died in an explosion on sunday in a cafe where he was due

to speak 40 people were injured in the blast daria trepova who's 26 has been accused of

carrying out a terrorist act resulting in death a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 20

years in prison 16 days after a hastily arranged deal saw the troubled credit swiss bank taken over

by its large arrival the chairman of credit swiss has apologized to shareholders axel layman was

speaking in Zurich at the final annual general meeting of the bank and our correspondent image

and folks says the mood was fiery we had far more shareholders turn up than usually do and some of

them were just kind of ordinary often late middle age swiss people who thought they put a bit of

money into what they thought was safe i.e. a big swiss bank and their fury is the way the one word

to describe it one man got up he said i'm wearing a red tie because it's to symbolize the red card

that you don't deserve and he pointed at the management another accused credit swiss management

of greed and incompetence another and this was perhaps the theatrical highlight of the day

they came up and emptied his pockets of a handful of walnuts and said these are worth more than my

shares today so that's the kind of feeling you got and and credit swiss management they apologized

over and over again but but the criticism just kept on coming yes the the chairman did say he

was sorry tell us a little bit more about how he handled the anger the emotion of the people in the

room i think they knew they just had to take it they had to pretty much get up there and eat

humble pie they they they're both the ceo um all the corner and the chairman of the board

accidentally they both said we're sorry we're sorry they did make the point it was either go

bankrupt with catastrophic consequences not just for switzerland's economy but for the global

financial system or this deal so we had no choice in the end but of course in the shareholders eyes

that doesn't excuse them from the mistakes that have been made over a longer period at credit

swiss the bank lost seven point nine billion dollars last year so you know there were weaknesses

in credit swiss which allowed this to happen and which had been building up for a long time

and i think they know that they will be in post for a few more months basically to um to smooth

this merger with ubs and then that is it and that will be the high point or low point in fact

of their cvs not giants of the global banking world but the men and they are men who brought a

167 year old bank a bank systemic to the global economy um to the end of the road

emergent folks now back to our main story donald trump turned himself into a new york court today

where he became the first former u.s president to face criminal charges he has pleaded not guilty

to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records the charges follow an investigation by

the manhattan district attorney's office into a payment made to buy the silence of a porn star

stormy daniels shortly before mr trump's election victory in 2016 james reynolds in new york spoke

to us just after the charges were released the arraignment is taking place it may be in its final

minutes and we know that from the pictures the still pictures that have come out from the courtroom

that one picture that you described a few minutes ago is worth pausing on it shows mr trump in the

center of a row of five two lawyers on either side including joe ducapina to his left mr trump

sits from what we can tell without any papers in front of him looking to his left perhaps towards

the still photographer what's fascinating about this picture is this there are two police officers

one man one woman with a with a face mask on standing behind him you can see on one of the

officers handcuffs uh on the right part of her belt those handcuffs have not been used they were not

used to escort mr chump into the courtroom he walked in without restraint he has entered that

plea of not guilty the charges have been unsealed the indictment is now known and that really begins

to bring to an end this part of the judicial process in a few minutes time then we would expect

him to walk through the corridor there may even be more fit pictures of that and then to head out

with his secret service entourage out of this courtroom along some of the streets around me

and then eventually towards the airport which will take him to florida where he will address

his supporters 34 charges is a lot it means that mr trump will have to put up a probably a significant

defense it may be that he will seek to change the location of the trial it may be that he will

seek various measures which might delay the length of the trial we don't know how long it would last

similar cases in the past have lasted 12 15 17 months if you add april 2023 12 15 17 months

on to that you get the height of the presidential campaign next year and given what has been going

on what has been your impression of this historic moment we keep saying historic but it really is

isn't it america was founded in 1776 45 men and they've all been men have served as president 36

made it to be a former president none until a few minutes ago had ever sat in a courtroom

as a defendant other countries will find that this has happened wherever they may be that

people have had ex-presidents judged or tried britain once did it to a king in the 1600s but

nevertheless this is a step that america had not taken until now supporters of donald trump

feel they have a strong defense that he might win this case there's something else to suggest

this is not just the first time that mr trump has been indicted a former president there might be

other times as well there are other cases going ahead against him one in the state of georgia

another a series federal national investigation into what party may have played in the attempt to

storm congress in the sixth of january 2021 we may expect to hear more from all those investigations

as mr trump's legal issues continue and as the 2024 presidential race continues with mr trump

a defendant perhaps not just here in new york city in lower manhattan but elsewhere as well

and just briefly you've been there throughout the day with opponents and supporters just briefly

what would you say the mood is right now the mood looks calm now i can see people walking away

quite slowly one person on his unicycle or uniscooter has just sped past me that was james

randall's in new york on the day that donald trump became the first former u.s president

to face criminal charges and that's it from us for now but because things are happening

we will not make you wait too long for the next edition charlotte gallagher will have a quick update

a little after two ish gmt and then normal global news podcast service will be resumed

as ever our email address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk you can also find us on twitter at global

news pod this edition was mixed by chris ablakwa the producer was leon mcchefrey our editor is

caron martin i'm jackie lennard and until next time goodbye

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.