1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,239
Speaker 1: Manhattan U S Attorney pret Berrara is the highest profile

2
00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,640
Speaker 1: U S Attorney of the ninety three across the country.

3
00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:09,240
Speaker 1: He earned his name as the Sheriff of Wall Street

4
00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:13,119
Speaker 1: with his aggressive prosecution of insider trading in the financial world.

5
00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:16,480
Speaker 1: His most recent assault on public corruption New York has

6
00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:20,880
Speaker 1: been equally aggressive. Barrara, a Democrat, was appointed by President

7
00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:24,160
Speaker 1: Obama in two thousand nine. The U S Attorney serves

8
00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:26,599
Speaker 1: at the pleasure of the President, and usually there's a

9
00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:30,480
Speaker 1: shuffle with the change in administrations. But President elect Donald

10
00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,280
Speaker 1: Trump asked Barrara to remain as U S Attorney and

11
00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,239
Speaker 1: he accepted, making it clear to the press in a

12
00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:39,959
Speaker 1: typical Barrara way, that it was on his own terms.

13
00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:44,480
Speaker 1: President Elect asked, uh, presumably because it's in New Yorker

14
00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:46,600
Speaker 1: and is aware of the great work that our office

15
00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,479
Speaker 1: is done over the past seven years. Asked me with

16
00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:52,080
Speaker 1: me to discuss whether or not I'd be prepared to

17
00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:55,600
Speaker 1: stay on as the United Attorney Um to do the

18
00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:59,280
Speaker 1: work as we have done it independently without fear of

19
00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:02,480
Speaker 1: favor for the last for seven years, Barrara's office has

20
00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:05,520
Speaker 1: convicted the leaders of both legislative houses in New York,

21
00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:09,560
Speaker 1: and there are ongoing investigations focusing on the administrations of

22
00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:12,880
Speaker 1: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor

23
00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:16,240
Speaker 1: Bill de Blasio. Our guests are Peter Henning, a professor

24
00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:19,600
Speaker 1: at Wayne State University Law School, and John Coffee, a

25
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,440
Speaker 1: professor at Columbia Law School. Peter, the Manhattan U S

26
00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:26,760
Speaker 1: Attorney is considered the most powerful of the U S

27
00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:28,840
Speaker 1: attorneys in the country, and there's been a lot of

28
00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:33,720
Speaker 1: speculation about who Trump would appoint to this high profile position.

29
00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:38,319
Speaker 1: Did this announcement come as a surprise to you, Not really,

30
00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:40,840
Speaker 1: I know it had been leaked out a little bit before,

31
00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:46,960
Speaker 1: and typically the president looks to local Republican leaders UH

32
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,640
Speaker 1: to guide this decision, but of course there aren't that

33
00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:56,240
Speaker 1: many senior elected Republicans in New York, and picking Berrara

34
00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:59,960
Speaker 1: gives him some political cover. Yeah, there's concerned been expressed

35
00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:02,920
Speaker 1: about the people he's putting into his cabinet, that these

36
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:05,920
Speaker 1: are members of the Wall Street ELDE and certainly Barrar's

37
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,560
Speaker 1: reputation as someone who is willing to take on Wall Streets,

38
00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:15,240
Speaker 1: so there's some real benefits here to keeping him on. Jack,

39
00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:18,000
Speaker 1: How about you would you have expected Donald Trump to

40
00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:21,440
Speaker 1: pick his own guy for this position. Well, now, for

41
00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:24,840
Speaker 1: these two people, Bahara and Trump, this was a marriage

42
00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:28,520
Speaker 1: made in heaven for both of them. Mr Trump, loved

43
00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,760
Speaker 1: him or hate him, has shown a unique ability to

44
00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:36,359
Speaker 1: understand and even exploit the new populous sensibility of the

45
00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:40,000
Speaker 1: American public, and he's written that to the White House. Now.

46
00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:43,600
Speaker 1: Part of this new popular sensibility is the public sense

47
00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:48,240
Speaker 1: that senior financial executives escaped just punishment for the two

48
00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:51,400
Speaker 1: thousand and eight crisis, and also a sense that public

49
00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:55,160
Speaker 1: corruption is rampant. Most of those people who disliked Hillary

50
00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,400
Speaker 1: Clinton believed that she somehow crossed the line and committed

51
00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,239
Speaker 1: a legal act or was at least captured by Wall Street.

52
00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:05,639
Speaker 1: Mr Bahara is the single clearest figure of someone who

53
00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:10,239
Speaker 1: has been vividly willing to prosecute financial crime and public corruption.

54
00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:14,280
Speaker 1: So I agree that Mr Trump gains greatly from this association,

55
00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:17,760
Speaker 1: particularly when his cabinet will have some former executives from

56
00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,960
Speaker 1: Goldman Sex. For Mr Barrara, it's a little speculative. Many

57
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:26,080
Speaker 1: people think he's got a future political plans, and this

58
00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,400
Speaker 1: would be a wonderful way to maintain that ability to

59
00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:34,120
Speaker 1: move to higher public office. Remember that Rudy Giuliani moved

60
00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,920
Speaker 1: from U S Attorney Bahara's current job to mayor. Earlier,

61
00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:42,160
Speaker 1: Tom Dewey, a repeated presidential county for Republicans, moved from

62
00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,400
Speaker 1: being a special prosecutor of the mob to governor, and

63
00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,440
Speaker 1: both Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo moved in the attorney

64
00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,680
Speaker 1: general's position to being governor in New York State. So

65
00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:54,240
Speaker 1: if he stays in the limelight, I think Mr Bhara

66
00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:57,000
Speaker 1: is going to be an obvious candidate for some higher

67
00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,360
Speaker 1: political office. I don't know which, but he is. Uh.

68
00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:02,760
Speaker 1: As long as he's in the limelight, he's going to

69
00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:05,360
Speaker 1: be an obvious candidate for higher office, and he may

70
00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:10,120
Speaker 1: want that. Peter, there are ongoing investigations focusing on New

71
00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,120
Speaker 1: York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill

72
00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:19,160
Speaker 1: de Blasio's administration, and Assemblyman Steve McLaughlan, who is a Republican,

73
00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:23,800
Speaker 1: tweeted that Barrara has unfinished business and quote, how's your

74
00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:29,520
Speaker 1: day going, Governor? How much did those investigations play into

75
00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:33,719
Speaker 1: this decision? I think they were significant. I mean, over

76
00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:37,919
Speaker 1: and above the Wall Street aspect here that pre Berrara

77
00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:42,760
Speaker 1: is the Sheriff of Wall Street. Um, cover of Time magazine.

78
00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:45,480
Speaker 1: This is the man busting Wall Street. Where he's really

79
00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:50,599
Speaker 1: made an impression in New York and politically, I have

80
00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:54,640
Speaker 1: been the corruption prosecutions, and I guess in a sense

81
00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:58,880
Speaker 1: you could almost say that Trump's view is the enemy

82
00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,359
Speaker 1: of my enemy is my friend. Um, that the scariest

83
00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:06,840
Speaker 1: person in Albany is pre Barrara, and so keeping him on,

84
00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:11,839
Speaker 1: and especially someone wi ties to Senator Schumer and the Democrats,

85
00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,360
Speaker 1: avoids a lot of the claim that any future prosecutions

86
00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:21,279
Speaker 1: are politically motivated, and so again Berrara gives good cover

87
00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,839
Speaker 1: to the Republicans. Generally, he can continue an aggressive campaign

88
00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:32,200
Speaker 1: on public corruption which has embarrassed Democrats and Republicans alike. Jack,

89
00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:34,320
Speaker 1: what would you expect to see from pre Bara over

90
00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:36,520
Speaker 1: the next few years when it comes to Wall Street

91
00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:40,000
Speaker 1: and corruption there. Well, I think he has a number

92
00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:44,120
Speaker 1: of investigations underway, and the nature of these kind of

93
00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:47,920
Speaker 1: investigations is that people who are mid level often flip

94
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,360
Speaker 1: and give you higher level officials. So there have been

95
00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:55,719
Speaker 1: people in the broader Cuomo administration who have recently been indicted.

96
00:05:56,200 --> 00:06:00,800
Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting that anyone has a conceivable theory against

97
00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:05,080
Speaker 1: the governor. But enough prosecutions around an individual and the

98
00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,640
Speaker 1: administration gets tainted. And I can see why Mr Trump

99
00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:10,880
Speaker 1: would want that, and I can see why'm Mr Bahara

100
00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:15,240
Speaker 1: thinks he's just continuing his job of prosecuting these cases

101
00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:19,839
Speaker 1: as far as the evidence leads. Peter about a minute here,

102
00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:25,720
Speaker 1: tell us about Barrara's independence. Well, I mean, he's shown

103
00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:29,440
Speaker 1: that he's willing to take on Republicans and Democrats. He's

104
00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:33,679
Speaker 1: willing to, uh claimed at least to go after Wall Street,

105
00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,320
Speaker 1: although insider trading is not actually getting at all that

106
00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:41,719
Speaker 1: many important Wall Street practices. But he is perceived, and

107
00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:45,719
Speaker 1: independence is a lot about perception. He is perceived as

108
00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:49,880
Speaker 1: someone who will be independent and will be aggressive. His

109
00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:54,200
Speaker 1: office has a history of being aggressive, so he simply

110
00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,480
Speaker 1: fits in with that and is continuing the tradition and

111
00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:01,640
Speaker 1: in fact probably heightening that repute. The Sheriff of Wall

112
00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:04,960
Speaker 1: Street is not riding off into the sunset, so corrupt

113
00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:09,320
Speaker 1: politicians and financial criminals had better be on guard. Preet Berrara,

114
00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,880
Speaker 1: whose aggressive prosecutions put him on the cover of Time magazine,

115
00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:15,360
Speaker 1: will remain as the Manhattan u s attorney and the

116
00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:19,280
Speaker 1: Trump administration. He undoubtedly will be holding more of those

117
00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:23,240
Speaker 1: no holds barred press conferences with the showmanship he's known for.

118
00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:26,800
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. My name is Preet Berrara, and I'm the

119
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,520
Speaker 1: u S Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Today,

120
00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:36,080
Speaker 1: yet another privileged hedge fund professional stands accused of insider trading.

121
00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:42,400
Speaker 1: The charges unsealed today described cheating, coming and going. That

122
00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:45,440
Speaker 1: was Barrara's announcement of charges against the hedge fund s

123
00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:50,920
Speaker 1: a C Capital Advisors. In We've been talking with John Coffee,

124
00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,720
Speaker 1: professor at Columbia Law School and Peter Henning, professor at

125
00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:59,360
Speaker 1: Wayne State University Law School. Jack. Preet Barrara is known

126
00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:03,000
Speaker 1: for having a flair. He has these press conferences that

127
00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:07,880
Speaker 1: are actually enjoyable to watch. He always has the right SoundBite.

128
00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:13,360
Speaker 1: Is there any criticism of him because of that? Well,

129
00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:16,600
Speaker 1: I don't think there has been much criticism from the

130
00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:20,000
Speaker 1: public academics, editorialists. But there has been a little bit

131
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:23,760
Speaker 1: of friction with the second circuit you mentioned earlier, the

132
00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:26,840
Speaker 1: Newman decision, which came down in two thousand and fourteen

133
00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:31,240
Speaker 1: and which did greatly curb the ability of federal prosecutors

134
00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:34,920
Speaker 1: to prostate insider trading. In that decision, there was an

135
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:38,280
Speaker 1: unusual rebuke of the U. S attorney. They suggested they

136
00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:41,559
Speaker 1: were bringing cases with little evidence and not in compliance

137
00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:45,079
Speaker 1: with the traditional law. That kind of rebuke is unusual.

138
00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:49,240
Speaker 1: In truth, Rudy Giuliani also got criticized, and both Mr

139
00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:53,680
Speaker 1: Giuliani and Mr Bihara knew how to maximize the public

140
00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:56,880
Speaker 1: attention they received as you as attorneys. So while I

141
00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:00,800
Speaker 1: wouldn't criticize Mr Newman, Mr Mr Bihara, I do think

142
00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:03,000
Speaker 1: that there was a little bit of friction there, And

143
00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:05,680
Speaker 1: now that President Trump has reappointed him, I think he

144
00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,800
Speaker 1: really has the last left because he's got the support

145
00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:12,400
Speaker 1: of both a Democratic and a Republican president, and and

146
00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:16,120
Speaker 1: it's somewhat impregnable. Peter, do you see any chance that

147
00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:20,480
Speaker 1: barras independence could come back to bite Trump? For example,

148
00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:25,240
Speaker 1: imagine a situation where he was investigating a Trump owned

149
00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,480
Speaker 1: business in the in the southern district, of which there

150
00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:31,080
Speaker 1: are there are some How do you think that would

151
00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,600
Speaker 1: go down? Well, certainly, I guess it could be a problem.

152
00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:37,600
Speaker 1: Of course, that that nickname the Sovereign District of New

153
00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,920
Speaker 1: York is the sign that it doesn't really take much

154
00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:46,480
Speaker 1: direction from main Justice, the Justice Department in Washington, d C.

155
00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:50,480
Speaker 1: And of course Barra is standing now is probably even higher.

156
00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:53,600
Speaker 1: With the new Attorney General coming in. Uh, he could

157
00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:57,400
Speaker 1: well be close to untouchable. Would he pursue a case?

158
00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:00,240
Speaker 1: I guess if the evidence was there, And of worse,

159
00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:05,360
Speaker 1: the Manhattan is where you could establish jurisdiction and venue

160
00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:09,439
Speaker 1: for almost any case. So much money flows through New York.

161
00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:13,160
Speaker 1: The banks are there, the exchanges are there. Um, that

162
00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:17,360
Speaker 1: would be a possibility back. I don't know if that's

163
00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:21,320
Speaker 1: very likely. Um. I guess it's something that could come up.

164
00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:25,720
Speaker 1: But Barrara's independence here is pretty well established and so

165
00:10:26,679 --> 00:10:29,280
Speaker 1: he can look at whatever he wants, although I don't

166
00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:31,880
Speaker 1: think the priorities in that office are going to change much.

167
00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,440
Speaker 1: Jack about a minute here. He had a meeting with

168
00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:43,439
Speaker 1: Trump's pick for the new AG, Jeff Sessions, last week apparently.

169
00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:49,240
Speaker 1: Is there any potential clash in the views of Sessions

170
00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:53,359
Speaker 1: and Barrara? Well? Mr Sessions was also a U S attorney,

171
00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:55,920
Speaker 1: and I think most of US attorneys believe in giving

172
00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:58,720
Speaker 1: a great deal of discretion to US attorneys, So I

173
00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:01,880
Speaker 1: think on his track record he is not going to

174
00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:06,240
Speaker 1: expect to greatly constrain a person as strong as Mr Barhara.

175
00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:08,960
Speaker 1: And by the way, I think it's very desirable that

176
00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:12,360
Speaker 1: Mr Barr has this reputation for independence, because if I

177
00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:15,480
Speaker 1: was legal counsel of the President, I would tell the President,

178
00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:17,760
Speaker 1: you don't dare risk it. We've got to be Caesar's

179
00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:21,520
Speaker 1: White and cut an absolutely clean path around conflict of

180
00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,800
Speaker 1: interest issues because no one can control of Mr Barhara.

181
00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,160
Speaker 1: So this could well be a very desirable uh influence

182
00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:32,679
Speaker 1: that constrains the President, who sometimes seems a little bit reckless.

183
00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:36,439
Speaker 1: We will see this all play out over the next

184
00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:39,360
Speaker 1: few years. Thank you both for being on Bloomberg Law.

185
00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:42,200
Speaker 1: Two of our favorite guests, that's John Coffee, professor at

186
00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,880
Speaker 1: Columbia Law School and Peter Henning, professor at Wayne State

187
00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:50,559
Speaker 1: University Law School. Coming up on Bloomberg Law. The prosecutor

188
00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:54,880
Speaker 1: in North Carolina decides not to press criminal charges against

189
00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:58,920
Speaker 1: the police officer who shot and killed Keith Scott in September.

190
00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:03,600
Speaker 1: There were demonstrations over that and the family has expressed

191
00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:07,079
Speaker 1: some misgivings and there may be a civil trial ahead.

192
00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:11,200
Speaker 1: I'm June Grosso with Greg Store you're listening to Bloomberg Law.

193
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:12,599
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg