Blue carbon. Plus cnn filled sunday at nine Closed Captioning brought to you by rule or law, iconic brands up to 70 off retail that rule or law. Com at rubella you never faithful these the deals on top before there today a jury is set. Former President Donald Trump back in new york courtroom Opening Statements could start on monday for this historic trial. Were going to have a preview of that also, Israel Hits Back retaliating against iran, the Biden Administration sawas not involved in any offensive operations and now the focus is deescalation. So what comes next . Well, its a rare show of bipartisanship now setting up a final vote that could finally send us aid. To ukraine in israel and taiwan. But that very same vote could also cost speaker Mike Johnsons job. Were following these major developing stories and many more all coming in, right . Right here. The Cnn News Central we are Tracking De For and the Historic Trump Hush Money Trial is Jury Selection could be closing, wrapping up 12 jurors two alternatives have been seated. One wall was selected just a few moments ago for additional alternates are now needed and the judge thinks they are on track to start Opening Statements on monday now, ahead of that, the prosecution is playing hardball with the witness list, refusing to tell trumps attorneys who there they will call the stand first. They are not extending that courtesy due to trumps repeated posts about the case the defense even offered to assure the court that the former president were not post about anyone on the list. But judge merchan appeared skeptical that they can hold him to that. Cnn chief legal analyst and anchor laura coates, ys outside the court. Laura, were learning more as this process continues, how are things progressing today . Well, this has been quiet, the de, very exciting at time to know we were that much closer to having the covenant 18 jurors remember, we already have the 12 who are to sit and good will deliberate, then you have to add the six alternates. So there were questions today where they could actually get to that number given that yesterday, even those two jury first, who had already been seated, were then eventually dismissed. One, because she felt she could not be impartial given that her anonymity she felt had been compromised. The other who apparently had been disingenuous on a form and respond to that jury questionnaire. The question now has been whether theyre well be the ability to get those six alternate jurors who were told are likely aware that they indeed will be alternate jurors, but they will have to still be focused. Nonetheless, i want to bring in evin france and were learning a lot of information since today, evan, its interesting because we know that donald trump coming into this has said in no uncertain terms, he does not. The gigging get an impartial juror that there will not be jurors in manhattan who would be partial to him in any way. Well, the question because afternoon intend to Say Something very different. Oh, absolutely. I mean, first of all, i mean, just think about how quickly weve actually gotten here. I mean, we had some doubts yesterday morning when you had a couple of jurors who got dismissed after they had been seated. But the questions you see that both sides are asking are getting some very interesting response. Some of the very emotional responses from some of these perspective, jurors, including people who have gotten went through some tough times in their life and didnt feel like they could actually serve on this on this jury, 1 that conviction that she was very personal about and the other was overwhelmed with the stress of this justice stress of this and what really i think it reminds this is about this process. Laura is that these are just average people. These are averaged new yorkers with average people from, you know, from an hadnt who are going we need to be serving on this jury and some of them are actually seem to have very positive opinions of the former president so the idea that everybody but he in manhattan is stacked up against them. Its just not true. And what youre seeing is that people are a lot more thoughtful, frankly in the way they are responding to some of these questions from the lawyers. Thats a good perspective for the idea of the justice system. A couple of points on that. One woman was saying that she believes that his policies are in line with what she wants and hes good for the country hey, that she was asked what she felt pressure by her friends who dont like trump. She said she got a measure at all because i dont feel another jury said, look about being im not starstruck. Im from new york. Would paraphrasing here. And then there was also this question by the attorney, ms nicholas as we have said, id ask the question. Would you essentially have an issue with the allegation that he has been unfaithful, which goes to the heart of it, part of the allegations talked me about that. Well, yeah. I mean, thats part of thats part of the response that you do you solve from this way where people are like having to put aside their own personal bias. Everyone obviously has their biases. And thats one of the things that lawyers bring up too. To some of these jurors and its not surprising, i guess, because, you know, when you when you walk around new york you know, people, new yorkers are kinda different, you know, and its not surprising that for example, people who are have views about infidelity or Extramarital Affairs are like luck. Thats just kinda thing that happens. You know, its interesting in this case. Im jessica and boris because on the one hand, whether or not there is veracity to the allegations of an affair, might not even have have to go to the heart of what the prosecution has to prove. They have to prove that there was an intent to engage in some kind of fraudulent behavior to falsify business records. And if there was the allegation alone to mock demotivate that, that might be part of it. But the good news in terms of looking at this whole system is that look, you have the opportunity for impartiality. The batteries of your Donald Trumps defense team. These are alternate jurors were talking about knots the primary 12 who might be ultimately deliberating by the end of the day, any one of the 18 who will be set might have to take on the role of the ultimate deliberate and decide the fate of a former president of the United States. Some 200 days before a president ial election yeah, the stakes are very high in history is being written as we go. All right. Laura coates for us. Thanks so much. And evan perez boris lets dig deeper now with cnn legal analysts carry cordero, kerry, thanks so much for being with us this afternoon your view of how Jury Selection has gone so i think its gone pretty quickly. Really. I mean, given the highprofile nature of the defendant and the fact that this is a former president the fact that theyve been able to sort of keep order within the courtroom. Im sure there was its very intense Security Issues that go on with having the former president there all the time. So i mean, really the smoothness with which this process has taken place this week, i think is a really great testament to all of the Court Personnel of the security personnel, the way that the judge has ruled well, the proceedings, its gone about as smoothly as i think one could expect, given the highprofile nature, i chuckled when you said keeping order in the courtroom because as weve seen before with donald trump and given the gag order that hes facing facing, that can be a challenge. I do want to ask you about the witness list because the prosecution isnt sharing which witness theyre going to call a first with the defense team, something that is typically seen as a courtesy, not something that they have to do how uncommon is that . Well, so with respect to new york law, so im not a new york lawyer, so i would i would want to know sort of those who have had that particular background in terms of the practice there. But i think its up to the prosecutors if they have the jurisdiction to make that decision as to whether or not to share the information normally, you would disclose that. I think one thing that prosecutors will need to keep in mind and the judge will have to accommodate as well. Is the defense is going to be looking for every single potential opportunity to reserve for appeal in this particular case. And so if theres any deviation from practice or a precedent, then that is going to be an area that the defense is going to latch onto and they are going to use that in the future. So everything related to the Jury Selection, everything related to the introduction of evidence, all of those things the defense is going to be laserfocused on to preserve issues on appeal that makes perfect sense that the prosecution is essentially arguing that they are doing this. Our understanding is because of the way that trump has posted on social media about different folks, the way that he has violated other gag orders in the past and theyre concerned that it could potentially affect the case now, the defense tried to assure the court that if the witness list we shared, trump wouldnt make a post about say, Michael Cohen or others that are involved. The judge didnt seem to buy that argument. He seemed skeptical could that potentially hinder the defense if they dont know whos coming up first to the witness thing. Sure. I mean, because they have to crossexamine and so they want i mean, its certainly is in the defenses interest to have all of the information gen. About what witnesses are going to be called so that they can adequately prepared. They have an idea of who its going to be. But to know that on this particular day, which is always you just as a lawyer, you want to be as wellprepared as you possibly can be. And so they would want to have that information, but the security concerns variations, both as it pertains to witnesses in a pertains to the continued anonymous nature of the members of the jury are really important considerations in this case considering all of the attention that is given to both of them so as you were answering that question, a producer, ganim era to let me know that a third alternate juror has been selected, so they are moving at a pretty quick pace and we could see Opening Arguments set for monday. What would you he expecting them . Well, for the prosecution, they are going to have to really lay out the theory of their case so far based on their briefings, it appears that their theory of the case and theyre charging documents is that the underlying intent to influence the election is what is the basis for the Felony Nature of these document . What is really a documents case falsifying of records. And so theyre going to have to lay out how those connections take place. They also are going to have to lay out what they intend to present as evidenced in terms of the knowledge that the former president had and the intent that he had. So they have i think a tall order in order to to do that. As you were speaking, a father one, a fourth alternate juror has been empaneled stepping back. Whats the fundamental difference in what a a juror thats been empaneled on the initial 12 experiences and while the alternative experience. So the alternate, i mean, really they should experience the same thing in terms of receiving all of the evidence and observing all of the proceedings because the purpose of the alternatives is that in any circumstance that a sitting juror cant continue to serve, and there could be a whole variety of reasons. There could be something that actually comes up like weve seen earlier in this week where someone has then dismissed that indicates the judge decides that person cant sit on the jury anymore, and you know, it could be someone talks to the media. I mean, theres a whole range of issues or it could be something personal of nature. Somebody gets sick or it has a family issue, and so they just cant continue to serve. So those alternatives, particularly in this case given the scrutiny that both the prosecutors and the defense are going to give the jurors on an ongoing basis. I think these alternates are so important they might wind up getting called a fairly quickly care record arrow. Thanks so much for the analysis. Appreciate it. Jessica. Lets go now to the middle east today, a global call for restraint after israel appears to follow through on its vowed to retaliate against iran for night. Explosions were reported about 200 miles south of tehran. Youre a major Iranian Military airbase around claiming its shot down three drones their Satellite Images exclusively obtained by cnn show no extensive damage at that site and the us says it was not involved in the attack as secretary of state, tony blinken says, the focus is on deescalation to avoid a broader war in that region, seen as Nic Robertson is in jerusalem for us, nick, what, if anything israel saying about this attack well, its interesting because israeli officials arent saying anything about it at all. And it really does seem to indicate that were into a period now of ambiguity and not escalation shan and is a sort of strategic offramp that both israel and iran appear to be taking. The reason i say that is a few hours after the explosions were reported. In iran, i contacted a regional intelligence source who told me from all the information he had, it didnt appear that iran was going to respond. And what we heard from iranian officials today was saying that this these incidents were under investigation, that the air Defense Systems that have been triggered earlier in the night had intercepted some objects which in iranian political he called speak really is nothing to see here. The reaction that we did see in tehran were clearly governmentsanctioned protests on the streets of tehran antiisraeli aunty israel protests taking place. So the voice that the government is speaking with is not missiles. And that was the threat, of course, by irans foreign minister, almost as those strikes were taken place, a told cnns erin burnett, there would be instant and devastating response if israel was to strike. So we dont seem to be in that place. And the ambiguity is also on the israeli side because were not hearing from the Prime Minister or anyone else saying, yes, we responded, we did our job. This is what we did, x, y, and zed. Its not that the only things that weve heard from was from a far right member of Prime Minister netanyahus cabinet. Its my ben gvir taking too the social, social media platform x, saying lane and he was quickly lambasted by Opposition Politician yellow pea, who said that this was damaging to israel while security interests, something that can be heard from tehran to washington, even neither of them actually saying that israel had carried out the strikes implicit in the statements. But yes ambiguity rather than escalation. And of course thats what all regional partners here, United States, european allies as well, have all been calling for doesnt mean the war and the tensions are over between iran and israel just means that the direct strikes and not going to happen at the moment. The red lines though, a really unclear about what prevents another strike. Yeah, its really what underlining ambiguous qwerty, not escalation. Nic robertson said so well, thank you so much for that. So what message it israel intend to send with the strike on iran . And where does the risk for wider conflicts . Dan, right now, kernel late is standing by with one that anna potential School Shooting in maryland foiled. Police, say a High School Student wrote in nearly 130 page manifesto detailing his plans for a mass shooting how his plot was thwarted. Thats ahead on Cnn News Central new ally, in the fight against climate change. This is new car business blue carbon. We just need to protect nature will do the rest. Corbyn plus cnn filled sunday at nine dry skin is sensitive skin two, and its natural treated that way, the Vino Daily Moisture with prebiotic is proven to moisturized dry skin all day. Feel love our formula for phase two a v. Now Arthritis Pain. We say not today. Tylenol, eight hour Arthritis Pain has two layers are really the first is fast second is longlasting. We give you your day bag, so you can give it everything. Tylenol. 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