About how he keeps up with all of, it and also, his Weekend Routine. Okay, by now you know that the former president has bee indicted this all may feel like a whole lot to digest, i know it feels like that even to me lots of evidence, lots o witnesses, and years O Investigation have led to this moment but, here is the bottom line this is an example of Ou Judicial System working like i should work. And how it works in democracie across the globe yes, i know that there is an outcry on the right, and there is a lot of political question about what this all means. Over the course of this next hour, this is what we are goin to talk. About the politics, th divisions in our country, an what comes next. But it is worth taking a ste back to remember how exactly w got to this point in thi particular case. It all stems from trumps role and scheme to cover up his alleged affair in 2006 wit adult from store, stormy daniels, when the National Enquirer got wind of her story in 2016, by the, way at th height of trumps first run fo president. The editor of the paper worked out a deal between daniels and trumps former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Cohen fronted 130,000 to pa daniels for her silence, hence the term over and over again hush money then of course, he had to be paid back. To reimburse him, trum reimbursed him to meet a serie of payments to cohen by check. Checks like this, one which wa signed by the former vic president. In an effort to conceal what that money was for, she falsel he falsely accounted for the payment of legal expenses. And dont take all this for me that is according to the u. S Attorneys Office that prosecuted Michael Cohen for this scheme back in 2018 that was five years ago. The truth is, this hush mone has been under investigation for a, long time, and there ar several prosecutors into different jurisdictions, s there are still a lot we dont know about how we got here to that point. The First Manhattan da t handle this investigation wa alvin braggs predecessor, cyrus vance. My bet is that if anyone can fill in the blanks for us, i is him joining me now is former manhandled, tierney cyrus vance, who is now partner at the la firm baker mckenzie. Thank you for joining me her this morning i want to start with there a been a lot of Reporting Abou your tenure as the Manhattan District Attorney with regar to this case and some of it is conflictin and is being used to attack th merits of the case so, i wanted to clear up any confusion here if we can one narrative is that yo declined to before didnt item on the Hush Money Case and Tha Alvin Bragg revived the case there is a conflicting narrative that you greenlit th case before you left office an bragg pumped the brakes unti now. So when you left office in 2021, how close were you to an indictment on the Hush Money Case well, good morning, jen thank you for having me on the show they are going to limitation about what i feel i ca communicate to you in answer t those questions because some o the response will includ internal deliberations of th office that i feel that need t be kept confidential but i think it is safe to sa that looking at the front en of the storyline, for th Southern District of new york, at the same time, as ourselves at the district Attorneys Office, we are looking at th socalled Hush Money Payment and then we learned from the Southern District of new yor that they asked us to stan down and by stand down, i mean, the were communicating that they had this Ongoing Investigation and they wished that we put ou efforts on hold while they completed their investigatio and obviously, that was discretionary call by me whether or not to do that. But i felt it was entirely appropriately. And obviously, the Souther District of new york is an Excellent Organization wit lots of leaders in prosecutors and i thought that was appropriate for me to press Th Pause Button and for the course of probably more than a year and a half, that is what we did. I was surprised, after Michael Cohen had pleaded guilty, that the investigation from the Southern District on that issu did not go forward by that time, we had moved o to other matters those other matters arent really a matter of very much o public record, which i cant discuss. Which, because, the presiden filed a lawsuit against myself in the office in Federal Court attaching a grand jury subpoen that we had made in addition t the Trump Organization seeking to block our efforts to bloc his tax returns anothe Financial Information that let us on about a two years saga t the Supreme Court twice. The merits were reviewed by tw District Court judges at several courts the parents and several. Times and twice to the Supreme Court, and ultimately, and the majority opinion, i, said some very important, things which i think reaffirmed the principle that even president s wer subject tO Investigation particularly for investing geishas and information that predated their presidency. That there was no politica motive, evidence, and anything that we were doing, and or t the tax returns to be handed over if they were, within fou months, the office had presented to a New York County grand jury, and Evidence T Indict The Trump Organizatio for numerous counts of tax violations, and the cfo of the organization as well and, subsequently, about a yea later, the case went to tria and the organization was convicted of all perhaps minus one of the counts. So that is the overarching storyline, in terms of the second part of your question when i left office i, what wouldve happene during the time i was in offic in this period was it was difficult time in new york cit to get work done number one, we had been aske to pause by the u. S. Attorney office, subsequently, covid hi in the spring of 2020. That greatly impacted ou ability to gather witnes evidence to convene a gran jurys because the courthous was not functioning. And so, it really was not unti the spring of 21 when the cour issued its order on the ta returns that we got thos records and we were able t move extradition sly but what happened is is that although he hopes to do, when left, i understood it was gonn be alvin braggs decision. Whether to continue Th Investigation that we were running, or to start his own so that is the overarchin storyline. Im asking this ver specifically because it is being used to attack the strength of bretts case and there have been reports, including by people who worked in the office, that you di authorize an indictment moving forward. So i guess the question, Jus To Go Back to, it again, is di you authorize won it before yo left office . Jan, there has been a lot o reporting on that, and i a going to answer it this way. If i did, it was on th understanding that i knew that we had not finished that wor and it would ultimately be District Attorney bragg decision whether to move forward in the investigation that we were working on, or separate one that he wanted to build. In terms of understanding o the process, i think that is important for people to know out there. Were you presented with Prosecution Memo that woul have been one of the final steps, if not the final step i the process before a indictment jan, again, you are askin the questions about internal communications that i really dont feel i can answer withou Breaching Confidence it is no disrespect, but tha is the rules of the road understand. When brag started, he suggeste that the case was not ready. Do you believe that is true an what specifically can you tell us about the strength of the evidence that you handed off because you did a lot of wor before you left office, even i there was not an indictmen issue. I brought Mark Pomerant into the office in 2021. I think very highly of mark an fought very highly of march. And, ultimately, as what mr. Bragg had said, ultimately, mr bragg decided that information and the case that mark was presenting him after i left in January Of 2022 was not a case he felt comfortable goin forward on at that time. And that is his prerogative as the District Attorney, just as it was my prerogative when i was distracted tierney t pursue evidence and further se of an indictment that i felt could be justified one of the people you engaged with during your tim was, of course, Michael Cohen, who was prosecuted in part for his role in this do you think he would be comfortable, at this point putting him in front of a tria jury the issue is not whether or not i would be comfortable, th issue is whether the offic today is going to be comfortable and it appears tha they absolutely are. As ive said earlier today, obviously, mr. Cohen as witness will be attacked crossexamined, on his prior statements and prior guilt plea but that does not mean that mr cohen is not a witness who cant be believed. I tried many cases wit witnesses with lengthy crimina records, and if there is corroborated evidence to support what he says, then juries, as they will b instructed by the court, are absolutely free to believe the witness whether he or she has criminal record or any other problem. So, i think that i dont kno the evidence that mr. Brag has none of us do at this point. We will wait to see Th Indictment in to see what that educates for us. But mr. Cohen it appears wil be a key witness, but that doe not mean, necessarily, that mr cohen wont be believed by a jury at whatever point thi goes to trial. Now, former President Trump has been relentlessly attackin both the manhattan da, alvin bragg, and he has received hundreds of threats. And also the judges overseeing this case, based on what youv seen so far, could you make th argument that what trump has said publicly amounts to a crime from what you have see to date, and would that be chargeable i discussed this earlie today with your colleague, chuck todd, and i said two points number one, i think that the president s comments and his tweets and writings an pictures are not jus inappropriate, they are wrong. They are wrong on many levels. So i think that from a Persona Perspective i, think it is terrible judgment. From a legal perspective, ther is a crime that is calle Obstruction Of Governmenta justice under new york law now it is a misdemeanor, but essential elements are t threaten, intimidate, and see public official in order t affect their decisionmaking now, you and your viewers ca look at the tweets in th pictures and the comments an looking to the comments and ask my comment was, earlier today, if i were trumps lawyer, would tell him to knock it off it is not gonna help him wit the judge, and if it is charged, it is not going to help hi with the jury. We have already learned thi morning that he, forme president donald trump, is planning to hold a Press Conference or make a publi statement on tuesday as well so the way the peopl understand what the options ar here do you think it will B Appropriate for people t restrict what trump is sayin in order to reduce the potential for violence, like a gag order or other options well, it would not be the first time that a gag order, i one was issued by the judge, would be imposed in the case i think that the challenge in case like this is that america is at a 50 50 on the issue o this prosecution, at least those who have spoken out abou it and mr. Trump could be told no to talk. But it is going to be very har to stop others talking for heim so im not, sure honestly, how effective a gag order would be but i would say that judge marchand would be well withi his rights to issue orders tha ensured to the degree possible and orderly and safe trial i know none of us have seen whats in the sealed document. To cover up a crime. During your time as th manhattan touched attorney, di you identify what the crime was, or was that one of the hurdles in moving the case forward i think that, during ou investigation, and i think i have karoun commented on wha has been reported in the press about the current das theory. It is that the false busines record of the misdemeanor is a fairly typical charge in the manhattan das office, i Business Crime in particular and i dont believe we eve applied that to a federa election law in order to dro the misdemeanor to elevate the false busines record to a felony and, to my knowledge, i do think we did that for a federa election events, but that only means that it is an issue that needs to be decided by the core and that is the challenge when you are charging the president of bringing a charge where the law is perhaps unsettled aside from the Hush Money Case you spent a lot of time in a lot of progress focused o the Trump Organization finances, trumps own finances, when you left office did you feel there was a viable financial fraud case to be made against trum personally, and could that b in terms of people expectations as separate indictment from brag on that case well, by the way, on that point, i am not sure what distric attorney bragg has done sinc leaving office, nor should i he whatever indictment he bring out tuesday does not mean that that is the end of the investigation, superseding indictments and State Court Ar as frequent as they are in Federal Courts so what im saying, jen, i that if District Attorney brag issues or hands down an indictmen that is focused on hush mone payments, that doesnt preclud him from Continuin Investigations Into Othe potential crimes and that is consistent Wit Malpractice in almost ever state i know of. Peoples expectations, i could be another case you coul be looking into. This may not be the last w hear from the das office on trump and a potentia indictment at the time you had handed i off, had you approved an indictment of trump on his finances before you left office . Again, jim, i have said tha i am not going to talk about m specific discussions with th lawyers in my office but as ive said, even had i made that decision it wouldve been mr. Briggs decision t review, because our, work we were unable to Complete Ou Work Given the restraints identified earlier covid, Supreme Court litigation, stand down requests from fello prosecutors. Obviously, you can predic what a judge would do, o whether they would be conviction i know you want to either of those things but is it conceivable that donald trump could serve tim in prison for this indictment . Conceivable, yes but i wouldnt necessarily think that is the likely outcome, simply because it i the lowest level felony, it ha a maximum Prison Sentence of four years, and a minimu Prison Sentence of no time of literally just a probatio or non carson rhetorical restrictions and typically, someone without any criminal record would no be sentenced, typically, T Incarceration if they were convicted of an e level felony obviously, as i said, th dynamics could change if there were additional charges that were added on. If conduct during the case led to additional conduct as i pertain to the court, or the District Attorney, or anyone else and as i said, that can turn and otherwise case which doesnt have the same jury impact, as one significantly impact, it can turn the case into a case that the jur becomes more serious about because they understand. There in the courthouse ever day. They know what the courts mean for security that could change the game former manhandles trick to tierney, thank you so much for joining me this morning. Up next, my take on ho democrats should be handling the news of Donald Trumps indictment plus, i will ask congressman adam schiff who happens to be former federal prosecutor an Impeachment Manager about th other investigations into th former president and later, i will tell you why we all get through this moment like many other countries have in the past. We are back after a quic break. Woman why did we choose safelite . We were loading our suv when. Crack safelite came right to us, and we could see exactly when theyd arrive with a replacement we could trust. Thats service the way we want it. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Sara federico at st. Jude, we dont care who cures cancer. We just need to advance the cure. Its a Bold Initiative to try and bump cure rates all Around The World, but we should. It is our commitment. 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