It went out of nowhere with a shock. We waited for mike to get back and my comment was i never been through this and dont know the right answer. That was, and i spoke to a lot of attorneys and legal scholars who said mikes calls was one of the more brilliant legal calls they are aware of representing me as his client. So we said no. Next day, the hearing is scheduled for is 11 oclock. I will touch on the judge never being on time. I did the math after calculating irritatingly and putting in my Court Journal he was late on average 40 minutes for trial whether that is in the morning, after break or lunch, it added up to 40 minutes on average and i think i am giving him the benefit of the doubt. I thought a federal judge wouldnt know better. We were there on time and we were properly ready to do your best. I didnt expect to hear back from mike until much later. While we were staying at the place we were at there was a slow drain in the sink the whole time. It irritated me but i could not focus on fixing it. I was under the sink fidgeting with it, never fixed it. I heard the text message beep going off on my phone. I had it on the counter. Got up not expecting to hear from mike and it was mike at 11 01 saying it is over, they dropped the charges, you a free man. [applause] thank you. I called julie over and told her what happened and she broke down in tears and we hugged and it was an incredible feeling of joy and relief that i hope none of you ever have to experience the way we did. All of that and the judge was on time for this hearing. If there is one thing i might have said to you today it is be careful what you say on the telephone, be careful what you write in email. Watch what you text. You never know who is watching you. And unfortunately, it might be the United States government. Thanks so much for this beautiful reception. [applause] this is from father ryan. What do you say about Jesse Jackson junior who stole three quarters of a million and your brother who stole zero with a line through it is in jail for 14 years. The question is clarifying in and of itself. I thought former congressman Jesse Jackson got away with a federal crime. I have been asked that question many times. And my brothers sentence was harsh and unfair. And when Jesse Jackson junior fled in federal court in washington, d. C. He spoke to the media and said i am taking the responsibility and i am manning up for what i did. And i have said repeatedly in response to that well, jesse, when are you going to main up to try to buy the senate seat and i dont expect that will happen. It speaks to the unfairness of the system. I believe this prosecution was an agenda prosecution to bring down another illinois sitting governor and used anyone they could to bring him down including his brother who they knew had done nothing wrong. What do you think is the real reason the Appellate Court is taking so long to rule on your brothers appeal . One thing i learned about our justice system. It is not linier, it is not logical, everyone has an opinion on how something might result. I heard all kinds of opinions from a lot of smart, experienced people in this business. I hope they are being deliberate and figure out how to write a wrong my brother is right a wrong. John lag. Professor John Marshall law school. They say what doesnt kill you makes you stronger. How has your experience made you stronger . That is a great question. And that advice was given to me by my son alex who if you read the book put together at my request a Business Plan to get through this whole ordeal. There were a lot of components and i religiously followed it and it gave me structure and focus during a time i had lost all control. One of the things he put in there which was so centering and grounding for me was try to look at this as a part of your Life Experience to learn, grow, benefit and be smarter from. That is what i tried to do because my son told me to. Did you find it hard to find a publisher for the book . That is a great question. I failed to acknowledge my publisher. Northern Illinois University press are here today. They have taken a chance to allow me to publish and tell my story in a liberating way. Getting the book published, if you would like to talk it about it, is very much like going through the federal justice system. There is no logical direction. In my case, i think got lucky and i am grateful for you helping me out with that. I can agree with that part. One question dealing with the family was answered and we have two questions left. Christine spencer. Where are you . Good place to be. Do you draw parallels to fitzgerald Scooter Libby prosecution and do you feel some vindication from Judith Millers book . Judith miller who you may not be familiar with the New York Times writer just came out with a memoir slamming patrick fi fitzgerald and how he manipulated her and used Scooter Libby to get at dick cheney. I hope to meet Judith Miller some day because share some of the same disrespect for patrick fitzgerald. The last question. The home run question. This is George Johnson and he wants to know do you think your brother had any accountability to what happened to you as opposed to Jesse Jackson . I dont blame my brother for what happened to me. I blame patrick fitzgerald. He overreached. He knew who i was and who the fbi was and they chose to harness me into an overreach and unjust prosecution. I blame fitzgerald and not my brother. How about a round of applause . If you buy the book, no u. S. Prosecutor is coming near you. One more . Dont worry. We have a big prize here. Here we go. It goes to graham gradey. On the next washington journal, a look at volatility in world stock. Then Mickey Mcintyre of compassion and choices and Kelly Buckman of the council on independent living on assisted suicide laws. And later from americas board of director of algeria here to talk about the funding and mission. Washington journal is live every morning on cspan. She is a significant force in her president s running. Despite everything, she would help define the role of the modern first lady. Florence harding, this sunday night on the first ladies series, influence and image, examining the public and private lives of the women who fill the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency from Martha Washington to michele obama. Sundays at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. Next on booktv, salt lake tribraun reporters thomas burr and matt cannon in their books mormon rivals write about the 2012 president ial election and the relationship between the romneys and huntsman from the Mormon Church. This is just over an hour. We call this trip base talk wide because it is similar to what we do every day on sl trip all day where we talk about the news of the day with newsmakers. Tonight we will talk about mormon rivals in the pursuit of power. Mormon rivals is the new book we are proud of written by thomas burr and mike cannon. I feel it the journalism that the tribune is capable of doing in utah and we are proud of it. Before getting started, i have to say thank you to few people. I want to say thank you to paris gibson and the team of leonardo for their work on this. And tonight we are on cspans booktv and i would like to thank nick crevelle and matt clark of cspan tv. So without delay i would like to turn the microphone over to jennifer pierce. It took 18 months ago but what happened is we found too many good stories and the tidbits that we didnt have to this as a first time in our life we didnt have to write shorter we went for it to. Host how much input did the family have . How much access and how open or they to the idea . Depending on your definition of open. We spent hours and hours with at the huntsman and we talked to a lot of family aides to the of huntsman family we were denied multiple request to mitt romney and iran romney we did talk to josh but senior aides from the campaign and there is 30 pages of notes and swords sources that we could compile over the 18 months for their great nuggets that was work to get people to talk to us but in the end we did we have talked to romney beforehand it isnt like he is an coated from our own research but they did not want to participate. Host the reason i bring that up readers perhaps lead a letter to the editor from Karen Huntsman a few days after the book came out she called it tabloid trash. How do you respond to her . Vivid with our second printing we will put a supermarket tabloid trash on the back because it is said to see. With Something Like this we respect the huntsman opinion but we are not surprised somebody doesnt like what we write we are political reporters it happens with frequency if i wrote a book about anyone in the audience ammonites they probably wouldnt like it because when i talk to people we write who they are and what they want to do with Public Policy and what they dont want you to know and that is what they dont like. It is not the most insidious things but everyone has foibles and mistakes and missteps especially families that have bitten the public eye as long as the huntsman and the romney. This is journalism we dont pull punches i am not surprised to see they are not huge fee and. This weekend we heard from the romney world but not the family but they thought it was John Huntsman idea and he pushed the book and gave as the equitation to respond to the concept that, jr. Was behind that reading verbatim. John, jr. Jealousy of mitt romney has come to the alltime high he should take a deep breath be grateful he has a family that loves him and stop pouring he will never be as successful as mitt romney. If you question in the premise of mormon rivals that underscores the ideas they may not like each other host lets get into a so looking at it from the outside they are powerful both heavily invested with the g. O. P. Politics with families of influence and wealth yet they are not best buddies. Why is that . They come from a similar background with mormon ruse and share genealogy which is something i did not know. Goes back to founding of a the lds church one of the First Founders was cracked practice and was married 12 times and has 50,000 of descendants and mitt romney and huntsman in there fifth cousins and retrace that history at one point the ancestors lived in the small same town in iowa and probably knew each other. And over time the genealogy and history go back and forth they know oh each other over time. Echoes back to my favorite part if i can read real fast since were talking history that the huntsman family settled in utah where the state house and there is a man named James Huntsman and Brigham Young stops by and says what i really want to ask is why dont you take another wife . He said get her permission from very she thought about it then threw a cup of coffee at Brigham Youngs face and said brigham and out of the house to drive himself off and said to have all the wives you can handle [laughter] we found fun stories about the romney is lake Brigham Young sent them in salt lake mail long journey across the country and almost immediately had to go to st. George then romney fell from building a window and died his son also named miles was told he had to go to st. Johns arizona which is very desolate back had allies and mexican immigrants at the time it was mexico but they did not like the polygamists newcomers in the neighborhood and miles romney was the example of them and he was the leader. This is a quotation from the apache chief newspaper written by the editor in 1884 called romney a massive putrid plus and rotten goose pimples the character of allows and the record ever perjurer. Calling ambase skunk and a boom phase laos was harsh most of the time no coffee know why it was not as strict as it is now theyre not supposed to have any but it was interesting times. Allied of colorful and shared history interwoven together. Lets fastforward to more recent history and the like the of political background of where they came from. Both had fathers who were very politically active. Start with George Romney. He ran for president in 1968 was an automobile executive of three term governor of michigan on the cover of Time Magazine very progressive republican and the interesting part first to want to talk about his past because it is more interesting than all of yours. [laughter] he was born on a mexican polygamist compound at the age of four with the mexican revolution came through and he became a refugee they left everything and had to flee to texas and from there they tried to build houses and it didnt work out a way to idaho so they came back east so George Romney saw his family lose everything. He started going to highschool and then he sees a pretty girl and falls in love is when he decides he was something he really wants it city goes on his mission and comes back to find out she moved to washington d. C. So he goes to washington d. C. So she is ahead of him the graduates and goes to york for the acting career city finds out how to get to york in right before he does she moves to hollywood gets a 50,000 contract with mgm that in the 1930s that is a huge money he was making 125 a month she is making 50 grand so he gets the Automobile Association and the convinces them to send him to hollywood so he follows her around and says i know you should come with she says it will never work out but of course, it does she gives up the acting career to moved to detroit making far less and just buy the power of his personality and her ability to soft in soften the ravages the wonderful career where he becomes a nonexecutive then runs the Constitutional Convention in michigan where they change the laws then becomes governor and skyrockets from there. A true rags to riches. He came in on the richest part mitt romney did the. [laughter] he missed most of the rise. He loves everything about his dads status. He wants to be his dad and every possible way as a young person he wants to run the auto company because his dad did their kids into politics because his dad did when his dad announced for governor there were two people onstage his wife and mitt romney he was not the only kid but the one that was the most enthusiastic he loved it. He had a relationship with the media pretty early in his life you rightabout his first gaf when george decided to run it had to do with something of the fourth of july . It was that that announcement reporters when asked what was going on then he is at an event it is fun to be here in United States for the for their july for the first time. They had a Vacation Home in canada where they celebrate the most american holiday each year years later there romney would last levitt is the great line. But what i find fascinating their future standing next to the father or mother but back then reporters often just went to talk to mitt romney in he would appear on his own. By this point he is getting used to the spotlight spunky at the governors side and did not shy away from the reporters in was in any celebrity in michigan. Whenever he talked it made the papers reporters said teammate ron dash rays to thousand dollars from neighbors the paper said robison help fight the school fire actually he just pointed the direction of the blaze. [laughter] he just wanted to be up parted in his dad loved to have him around. Host city idolized his father did he follow in the ideological footsteps . Yes that is what is interesting business is michigan you know, there is a lot of unions and racial diversity so for a white republican head of a corporation to be successful you have to figure out how to ingratiate yourself and he did a good job at that at the time the Biggest Issue was raised relations and vietnam fast for word mitt romney goes to byu then to harvard. Now massachusetts like michigan and if youre going to be a centrist republican you need to figure out how to play nice. They ended up to be social issues like abortion and gay marriage. How did he handle those . At the time he said abortion and i will not deal with that i will stop anything im not excited by what take action on gay marriage at least that was a step in the direction of those on the liberal end of the scale. Host what about huntsman . He was very close to his father as well and we have a great picture of huntsman, jr. He is 10 years old in the cabin room at the white house. He is in nixon seat. His dad was the staff secretary to the president when john sr. Control every paper that went in and out of the president s office with people got paid who had a car or limousine it was a pretty powerful position but also meant no days off because the president doesnt get off with paperwork proposal on the weekend he would take his oldest son peter and john and let them run around the white house in the all hallways of the of west wing of the run into people including the president to give them golf balls and it was his First Experience with government and if you talk to him now you dont really know who these people are you just know they have high positions and to respect the job they did for the country but his dad also starts of Huntsman Container Corporation to styrofoam then after reduce back to california and would make family deliver these tubers restores and go visit the contacts that say for the big stores at the time and that is how he got started and the business grew. So John Huntsman saw all of the growth but they didnt have anywhere near the wealth they had today in the formative years sitting she was 15 when huntsman coordinated to make a the big mac clamshell