Speaker 1: Manhattan U S Attorney pret Berrara is the highest profile
Speaker 1: U S Attorney of the ninety three across the country.
Speaker 1: He earned his name as the Sheriff of Wall Street
Speaker 1: with his aggressive prosecution of insider trading in the financial world.
Speaker 1: His most recent assault on public corruption New York has
Speaker 1: been equally aggressive. Barrara, a Democrat, was appointed by President
Speaker 1: Obama in two thousand nine. The U S Attorney serves
Speaker 1: at the pleasure of the President, and usually there's a
Speaker 1: shuffle with the change in administrations. But President elect Donald
Speaker 1: Trump asked Barrara to remain as U S Attorney and
Speaker 1: he accepted, making it clear to the press in a
Speaker 1: typical Barrara way, that it was on his own terms.
Speaker 1: President Elect asked, uh, presumably because it's in New Yorker
Speaker 1: and is aware of the great work that our office
Speaker 1: is done over the past seven years. Asked me with
Speaker 1: me to discuss whether or not I'd be prepared to
Speaker 1: stay on as the United Attorney Um to do the
Speaker 1: work as we have done it independently without fear of
Speaker 1: favor for the last for seven years, Barrara's office has
Speaker 1: convicted the leaders of both legislative houses in New York,
Speaker 1: and there are ongoing investigations focusing on the administrations of
Speaker 1: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor
Speaker 1: Bill de Blasio. Our guests are Peter Henning, a professor
Speaker 1: at Wayne State University Law School, and John Coffee, a
Speaker 1: professor at Columbia Law School. Peter, the Manhattan U S
Speaker 1: Attorney is considered the most powerful of the U S
Speaker 1: attorneys in the country, and there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: speculation about who Trump would appoint to this high profile position.
Speaker 1: Did this announcement come as a surprise to you, Not really,
Speaker 1: I know it had been leaked out a little bit before,
Speaker 1: and typically the president looks to local Republican leaders UH
Speaker 1: to guide this decision, but of course there aren't that
Speaker 1: many senior elected Republicans in New York, and picking Berrara
Speaker 1: gives him some political cover. Yeah, there's concerned been expressed
Speaker 1: about the people he's putting into his cabinet, that these
Speaker 1: are members of the Wall Street ELDE and certainly Barrar's
Speaker 1: reputation as someone who is willing to take on Wall Streets,
Speaker 1: so there's some real benefits here to keeping him on. Jack,
Speaker 1: How about you would you have expected Donald Trump to
Speaker 1: pick his own guy for this position. Well, now, for
Speaker 1: these two people, Bahara and Trump, this was a marriage
Speaker 1: made in heaven for both of them. Mr Trump, loved
Speaker 1: him or hate him, has shown a unique ability to
Speaker 1: understand and even exploit the new populous sensibility of the
Speaker 1: American public, and he's written that to the White House. Now.
Speaker 1: Part of this new popular sensibility is the public sense
Speaker 1: that senior financial executives escaped just punishment for the two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight crisis, and also a sense that public
Speaker 1: corruption is rampant. Most of those people who disliked Hillary
Speaker 1: Clinton believed that she somehow crossed the line and committed
Speaker 1: a legal act or was at least captured by Wall Street.
Speaker 1: Mr Bahara is the single clearest figure of someone who
Speaker 1: has been vividly willing to prosecute financial crime and public corruption.
Speaker 1: So I agree that Mr Trump gains greatly from this association,
Speaker 1: particularly when his cabinet will have some former executives from
Speaker 1: Goldman Sex. For Mr Barrara, it's a little speculative. Many
Speaker 1: people think he's got a future political plans, and this
Speaker 1: would be a wonderful way to maintain that ability to
Speaker 1: move to higher public office. Remember that Rudy Giuliani moved
Speaker 1: from U S Attorney Bahara's current job to mayor. Earlier,
Speaker 1: Tom Dewey, a repeated presidential county for Republicans, moved from
Speaker 1: being a special prosecutor of the mob to governor, and
Speaker 1: both Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo moved in the attorney
Speaker 1: general's position to being governor in New York State. So
Speaker 1: if he stays in the limelight, I think Mr Bhara
Speaker 1: is going to be an obvious candidate for some higher
Speaker 1: political office. I don't know which, but he is. Uh.
Speaker 1: As long as he's in the limelight, he's going to
Speaker 1: be an obvious candidate for higher office, and he may
Speaker 1: want that. Peter, there are ongoing investigations focusing on New
Speaker 1: York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill
Speaker 1: de Blasio's administration, and Assemblyman Steve McLaughlan, who is a Republican,
Speaker 1: tweeted that Barrara has unfinished business and quote, how's your
Speaker 1: day going, Governor? How much did those investigations play into
Speaker 1: this decision? I think they were significant. I mean, over
Speaker 1: and above the Wall Street aspect here that pre Berrara
Speaker 1: is the Sheriff of Wall Street. Um, cover of Time magazine.
Speaker 1: This is the man busting Wall Street. Where he's really
Speaker 1: made an impression in New York and politically, I have
Speaker 1: been the corruption prosecutions, and I guess in a sense
Speaker 1: you could almost say that Trump's view is the enemy
Speaker 1: of my enemy is my friend. Um, that the scariest
Speaker 1: person in Albany is pre Barrara, and so keeping him on,
Speaker 1: and especially someone wi ties to Senator Schumer and the Democrats,
Speaker 1: avoids a lot of the claim that any future prosecutions
Speaker 1: are politically motivated, and so again Berrara gives good cover
Speaker 1: to the Republicans. Generally, he can continue an aggressive campaign
Speaker 1: on public corruption which has embarrassed Democrats and Republicans alike. Jack,
Speaker 1: what would you expect to see from pre Bara over
Speaker 1: the next few years when it comes to Wall Street
Speaker 1: and corruption there. Well, I think he has a number
Speaker 1: of investigations underway, and the nature of these kind of
Speaker 1: investigations is that people who are mid level often flip
Speaker 1: and give you higher level officials. So there have been
Speaker 1: people in the broader Cuomo administration who have recently been indicted.
Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting that anyone has a conceivable theory against
Speaker 1: the governor. But enough prosecutions around an individual and the
Speaker 1: administration gets tainted. And I can see why Mr Trump
Speaker 1: would want that, and I can see why'm Mr Bahara
Speaker 1: thinks he's just continuing his job of prosecuting these cases
Speaker 1: as far as the evidence leads. Peter about a minute here,
Speaker 1: tell us about Barrara's independence. Well, I mean, he's shown
Speaker 1: that he's willing to take on Republicans and Democrats. He's
Speaker 1: willing to, uh claimed at least to go after Wall Street,
Speaker 1: although insider trading is not actually getting at all that
Speaker 1: many important Wall Street practices. But he is perceived, and
Speaker 1: independence is a lot about perception. He is perceived as
Speaker 1: someone who will be independent and will be aggressive. His
Speaker 1: office has a history of being aggressive, so he simply
Speaker 1: fits in with that and is continuing the tradition and
Speaker 1: in fact probably heightening that repute. The Sheriff of Wall
Speaker 1: Street is not riding off into the sunset, so corrupt
Speaker 1: politicians and financial criminals had better be on guard. Preet Berrara,
Speaker 1: whose aggressive prosecutions put him on the cover of Time magazine,
Speaker 1: will remain as the Manhattan u s attorney and the
Speaker 1: Trump administration. He undoubtedly will be holding more of those
Speaker 1: no holds barred press conferences with the showmanship he's known for.
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. My name is Preet Berrara, and I'm the
Speaker 1: u S Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Today,
Speaker 1: yet another privileged hedge fund professional stands accused of insider trading.
Speaker 1: The charges unsealed today described cheating, coming and going. That
Speaker 1: was Barrara's announcement of charges against the hedge fund s
Speaker 1: a C Capital Advisors. In We've been talking with John Coffee,
Speaker 1: professor at Columbia Law School and Peter Henning, professor at
Speaker 1: Wayne State University Law School. Jack. Preet Barrara is known
Speaker 1: for having a flair. He has these press conferences that
Speaker 1: are actually enjoyable to watch. He always has the right SoundBite.
Speaker 1: Is there any criticism of him because of that? Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think there has been much criticism from the
Speaker 1: public academics, editorialists. But there has been a little bit
Speaker 1: of friction with the second circuit you mentioned earlier, the
Speaker 1: Newman decision, which came down in two thousand and fourteen
Speaker 1: and which did greatly curb the ability of federal prosecutors
Speaker 1: to prostate insider trading. In that decision, there was an
Speaker 1: unusual rebuke of the U. S attorney. They suggested they
Speaker 1: were bringing cases with little evidence and not in compliance
Speaker 1: with the traditional law. That kind of rebuke is unusual.
Speaker 1: In truth, Rudy Giuliani also got criticized, and both Mr
Speaker 1: Giuliani and Mr Bihara knew how to maximize the public
Speaker 1: attention they received as you as attorneys. So while I
Speaker 1: wouldn't criticize Mr Newman, Mr Mr Bihara, I do think
Speaker 1: that there was a little bit of friction there, And
Speaker 1: now that President Trump has reappointed him, I think he
Speaker 1: really has the last left because he's got the support
Speaker 1: of both a Democratic and a Republican president, and and
Speaker 1: it's somewhat impregnable. Peter, do you see any chance that
Speaker 1: barras independence could come back to bite Trump? For example,
Speaker 1: imagine a situation where he was investigating a Trump owned
Speaker 1: business in the in the southern district, of which there
Speaker 1: are there are some How do you think that would
Speaker 1: go down? Well, certainly, I guess it could be a problem.
Speaker 1: Of course, that that nickname the Sovereign District of New
Speaker 1: York is the sign that it doesn't really take much
Speaker 1: direction from main Justice, the Justice Department in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: And of course Barra is standing now is probably even higher.
Speaker 1: With the new Attorney General coming in. Uh, he could
Speaker 1: well be close to untouchable. Would he pursue a case?
Speaker 1: I guess if the evidence was there, And of worse,
Speaker 1: the Manhattan is where you could establish jurisdiction and venue
Speaker 1: for almost any case. So much money flows through New York.
Speaker 1: The banks are there, the exchanges are there. Um, that
Speaker 1: would be a possibility back. I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: very likely. Um. I guess it's something that could come up.
Speaker 1: But Barrara's independence here is pretty well established and so
Speaker 1: he can look at whatever he wants, although I don't
Speaker 1: think the priorities in that office are going to change much.
Speaker 1: Jack about a minute here. He had a meeting with
Speaker 1: Trump's pick for the new AG, Jeff Sessions, last week apparently.
Speaker 1: Is there any potential clash in the views of Sessions
Speaker 1: and Barrara? Well? Mr Sessions was also a U S attorney,
Speaker 1: and I think most of US attorneys believe in giving
Speaker 1: a great deal of discretion to US attorneys, So I
Speaker 1: think on his track record he is not going to
Speaker 1: expect to greatly constrain a person as strong as Mr Barhara.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I think it's very desirable that
Speaker 1: Mr Barr has this reputation for independence, because if I
Speaker 1: was legal counsel of the President, I would tell the President,
Speaker 1: you don't dare risk it. We've got to be Caesar's
Speaker 1: White and cut an absolutely clean path around conflict of
Speaker 1: interest issues because no one can control of Mr Barhara.
Speaker 1: So this could well be a very desirable uh influence
Speaker 1: that constrains the President, who sometimes seems a little bit reckless.
Speaker 1: We will see this all play out over the next
Speaker 1: few years. Thank you both for being on Bloomberg Law.
Speaker 1: Two of our favorite guests, that's John Coffee, professor at
Speaker 1: Columbia Law School and Peter Henning, professor at Wayne State
Speaker 1: University Law School. Coming up on Bloomberg Law. The prosecutor
Speaker 1: in North Carolina decides not to press criminal charges against
Speaker 1: the police officer who shot and killed Keith Scott in September.
Speaker 1: There were demonstrations over that and the family has expressed
Speaker 1: some misgivings and there may be a civil trial ahead.
Speaker 1: I'm June Grosso with Greg Store you're listening to Bloomberg Law.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg