On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Trump pleads not guilty to charges in classified documents case
USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen recaps a historic day in Miami after former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to charges in the classified documents case. Plus, a federal judge allows E. Jean Carroll to amend her defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, inflation slows again, USA TODAY Consumer Travel Reporter Zach Wichter explains how airlines are taking more data from passengers, and Cormac McCarthy has died at 89.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 14th of June 2023. Today, we recap the historic arraignment of former President Donald Trump. Plus, inflation slows, and airlines are taking more data from passengers.
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Donald Trump yesterday became the first president, former or current, to be booked on federal criminal charges in the country’s 247-year history. I spoke with USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen to recap a historic day. Hello, Bart.
Bart Jansen:
Hello. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Bart, what did we learn in Miami yesterday?
Bart Jansen:
The most important thing was Trump pleading not guilty to 37 counts. Most of them were for keeping National Defense records at his resort Mar-a-Lago in Florida after leaving the White House. Documents were found during an FBI search. He also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice in basically hiding the documents, or not turning them over to federal authorities when they came looking for them under subpoena and then during the search. His aide, his personal valet, Walt Nauta, also appeared with him in court and Nauta also pleaded not guilty.
Taylor Wilson:
And have any bail conditions been set for either Trump or Nauta?
Bart Jansen:
No, they were released while they await their trial. Trial was not yet scheduled. But one order that the judge was considering, which is typical in criminal cases, was to tell Trump not to have any contact with witnesses in the case. The problem for Trump is that many of these witnesses, including his co-defendant, Nauta, work with him or his staffers at Mar-a-Lago or other places. And so it would’ve been very difficult to just say no contact whatsoever. So there was some haggling in the courtroom, and what they agreed upon was that he should not talk to Nauta or other witnesses about the case. The government is going to draft up a list of names of potential witnesses, and so he will presumably agree not to talk with those other witnesses about the case. Now, whether you think that hanging around with the same people every day, whether the subject of the case comes up, that’s what we’ll have to see going into the future.
Taylor Wilson:
Bart, you and I had talked about possible security concerns in South Florida around this hearing. How smoothly did things play out?
Bart Jansen:
Yeah, there were not the kind of widespread violent protests that would’ve been a worst-case scenario. Security experts were telling us that they didn’t expect the worst just because the arrests and prosecutions after the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, really discouraged a lot of these sorts of rambunctious people from turning up at this sort of event because of their own fearfulness about getting charged and sent to prison. There were a couple of hundred people set up outside the courthouse, many wearing costumes – Uncle Sam, prisoners, some carrying Cuban flags, many supportive of Trump. There was one man arrested for running toward Trump’s motorcade as he arrived at the courthouse, but he was arrested and taken away.
Taylor Wilson:
So Bart, going forward, how do we expect Trump and his legal team to defend this case?
Bart Jansen:
Trump has said from the beginning that he considered this a political prosecution. He’s accused President Joe Biden of basically wielding the Justice Department as a cudgel against him and his campaign to prevent him from being successful, winning back the White House in 2024. So he has proclaimed his innocence. He said that he had a right to have the papers that he could have declassified them and that he basically had a right to do whatever with them that he wanted to. Government, of course, says that you can’t retain government defense records after you leave the White House. And if you do by mistake, you have to turn them back. And so hiding them, moving the boxes allegedly around Mar-a-Lago, under the government’s theory is obstruction of justice.
And so we’ll have to see how this case plays out. The government is aiming for a speedy trial, perhaps as early as this winter. It’s possible that Trump could try to drag things out so that it goes beyond the 2024 election. Some legal experts think he could want a fast trial because either he could win an acquittal at trial and then campaign on that. Or even if he is convicted, he could remain free on appeal and continue to basically campaign as if it is a political prosecution. So we’ll have to see how the case progresses, but there’ll be plenty of time to think about it, I think, before we get to trial.
Taylor Wilson:
USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen. Thanks as always.
Bart Jansen:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
For the second time in two and a half months, Trump followed his arrest and arraignment with a rally like speech last night. He told supporters at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf Club, after flying up from Miami, “They will fail, and we will win bigger and better than ever before.” On his second indictment of the year, Trump made clear that he will make the charges a major part of his 2024 campaign, claiming without evidence that Democrats are targeting him via the legal system.
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A federal judge in New York yesterday allowed E. Jean Carroll to amend her defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. The move will allow her to seek additional damages. Carroll was asking the court for an award of at least $10 million. A jury last month assessed Trump $5 million in damages leading him to attack Carroll in a CNN Town Hall, calling her a “whack job.” He appealed the verdict and judgment against him after the jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll. She accused Trump of raping her in a New York Department store in 1996.
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Inflation slowed for an 11th straight month in May. Grocery price increases eased again and gas more than reversed the previous month’s rise. Overall consumer prices increased 4% from a year earlier. That was down from 4.9% in April and a 40-year high of 9.1% last June. According to the Labor Department’s consumer price index, the Federal Reserve today is expected to pause its 14-month campaign of aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at controlling inflation.
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Airlines are collecting more and more data from passengers. I spoke with USA TODAY Consumer Travel Reporter Zach Wichter to learn more. Welcome back to 5 Things, Zach.
Zach Wichter:
Hey, thanks for having me back. Good to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
So you went to this conference in Germany. Tell us a bit about what you saw and what stood out to you.
Zach Wichter:
Yeah, so this was the Aircraft Cabin Interiors Expo. It’s an annual exposition every year in Hamburg. And basically, it’s an opportunity for airplane manufacturers and like airplane component manufacturers – so seat makers, the people who make the bathrooms that go on the planes, all kinds of different stuff – to exhibit their latest and greatest products. And it’s a chance for companies basically to make deals with each other. It’s a big trade show. And so there are a lot of physical products there that were really cool. To me, the standout of the show is this concept for a seat on a plane that would allow wheelchair users to secure their wheelchair on the plane rather than having to have them transported in the cargo hold. So that showed a lot of promise and a lot of interest from the airlines. There was also this concept for double decker economy seating that always generates a lot of buzz because it looks kind of crazy and people have some questions about what their seat neighbors might do in that sort of situation.
So there were some really cool products, but what honestly stood out to me more than almost anything else was how much all of these companies were talking about tech and data. It seemed like every booth I visited either had an app that they were offering or were developing an app that they wanted to do something with. So it was a big part of the conference and it doesn’t generate the same kind of headlines as some of the physical products like seating concepts, but it was a really interesting theme that carried through all of the days that I was there.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. So walk us through some of the new technology you saw, if you would, Zach, that’s being introduced that could take even more data from passengers.
Zach Wichter:
So one of the pieces of technology that I saw at the show – I actually wrote about it and it won an award there, the system that I saw from Collins Aerospace, and they’re a big airplane seat manufacturer and other components on the plane – this IntelliSense system. Exactly what it sounds like, it is a series of sensors that go on the airplane. And they sort of pitched it as a way for maintenance crews to better monitor what’s going on the plane to kind of make their maintenance activities more efficient.
But the system actually won in the passenger comfort category. And I think the reason for that is in addition to all of those maintenance benefits that it brings, it allows flight attendants to use an app that, through the sensors, tracks things like how much you’re drinking, when you’re drinking, how full your glass is. So a flight attendant may be able to know like, oh, this person in 1B is drinking champagne, see how full their glass is from the sensor and go over with the bottle of champagne, without having to check if they want a refill, double check what they’ve been drinking. So it’s really interesting. There’s all kinds of data that technology is allowing airlines and other operators in the aviation space to gather that wasn’t previously available to them.
Taylor Wilson:
And what concerns did data privacy experts have about not just this technology but this overall push toward more data collection from airlines?
Zach Wichter:
This isn’t just an airline question. This is almost everywhere. One of the experts who I spoke to said something like, “I got a new washing machine and it wanted to connect to the internet because they’re going to try to send software updates.” And she said, “I don’t want my washing machine to be smart. I want it to be dumb. I just want it to wash my clothes.” Companies everywhere are collecting data, and what it really comes down to is it’s a chance for these companies to make more money. They pitch it as a way to personalize service for you.
Certainly, at this conference that I went to in Germany, all of the exhibitors were saying, this is going to make air travel more personal and more seamless. It will allow us to fine tune service to the exact preferences that passengers have, but they’re collecting all this data about you, and they can sell it on to other people. Just like Facebook uses your data to target ads, but makes all of their money from selling that user data to other parties. In theory, that’s what airlines in these other exhibitors could do with your data as well.
Taylor Wilson:
And any advice, Zach, for what passengers can do to protect their data as airlines increasingly install and rely on certain types of tracking technology?
Zach Wichter:
It’s a good question and it really doesn’t have a very easy answer. Let’s be honest here. When was the last time you, Taylor, looked through the terms and conditions when you clicked yes to sign on to free Wi-Fi in the airport?
Taylor Wilson:
It’s a quick yes and done every time, every time.
Zach Wichter:
Right. Exactly. So in order to protect your data, it really means like having to look at all of those terms and conditions, understand where your data is going, and possibly opting out if you’re not comfortable with where it’s going.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Zach Wichter covers consumer travel for USA TODAY. Thanks, Zach.
Zach Wichter:
Yeah, thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
Zach’s story is part of Cruising Altitude, a column at USA TODAY focused on travel trends. We have a link in today’s show notes.
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Cormac McCarthy has died. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Road and No Country For Old Men was both revered and criticized for his violent, morally ambiguous, and often flat-out bleak novels. McCarthy was born in Rhode Island in 1933, but moved to Tennessee as a child. And it was in the South that McCarthy drew much of his literary inspiration for his Southern Gothic and Neo Western stories. He was known for a unique style that used deceivingly, simple declarative sentences, sparse punctuation, and dialogue without quotation marks. Cormac McCarthy was 89.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like the show, please subscribe, and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts at usatoday.com. I’m back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump pleads not guilty, airlines and passenger data: 5 Things podcast