Bloomberg Law: Henning and Coffee on Bharara(Audio)

shuffle with the change in administrations. But President elect Donald Trump asked Barrara to remain as U S Attorney and he accepted, making it clear to the press in a typical Barrara way, that it was on his own terms. President Elect asked, uh, presumably because it's in New Yorker and is aware of the great work that our office

is done over the past seven years. Asked me with me to discuss whether or not I'd be prepared to stay on as the United Attorney Um to do the work as we have done it independently without fear of favor for the last for seven years, Barrara's office has convicted the leaders of both legislative houses in New York, and there are ongoing investigations focusing on the administrations of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor

Bill de Blasio. Our guests are Peter Henning, a professor at Wayne State University Law School, and John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School. Peter, the Manhattan U S Attorney is considered the most powerful of the U S attorneys in the country, and there's been a lot of speculation about who Trump would appoint to this high profile position.

Did this announcement come as a surprise to you, Not really, I know it had been leaked out a little bit before, and typically the president looks to local Republican leaders UH to guide this decision, but of course there aren't that many senior elected Republicans in New York, and picking Berrara

gives him some political cover. Yeah, there's concerned been expressed about the people he's putting into his cabinet, that these are members of the Wall Street ELDE and certainly Barrar's reputation as someone who is willing to take on Wall Streets, so there's some real benefits here to keeping him on. Jack, How about you would you have expected Donald Trump to pick his own guy for this position. Well, now, for these two people, Bahara and Trump, this was a marriage

made in heaven for both of them. Mr Trump, loved him or hate him, has shown a unique ability to understand and even exploit the new populous sensibility of the American public, and he's written that to the White House. Now. Part of this new popular sensibility is the public sense that senior financial executives escaped just punishment for the two thousand and eight crisis, and also a sense that public

corruption is rampant. Most of those people who disliked Hillary Clinton believed that she somehow crossed the line and committed a legal act or was at least captured by Wall Street. Mr Bahara is the single clearest figure of someone who has been vividly willing to prosecute financial crime and public corruption. So I agree that Mr Trump gains greatly from this association, particularly when his cabinet will have some former executives from

Goldman Sex. For Mr Barrara, it's a little speculative. Many people think he's got a future political plans, and this would be a wonderful way to maintain that ability to move to higher public office. Remember that Rudy Giuliani moved from U S Attorney Bahara's current job to mayor. Earlier, Tom Dewey, a repeated presidential county for Republicans, moved from being a special prosecutor of the mob to governor, and both Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo moved in the attorney

general's position to being governor in New York State. So if he stays in the limelight, I think Mr Bhara is going to be an obvious candidate for some higher political office. I don't know which, but he is. Uh. As long as he's in the limelight, he's going to be an obvious candidate for higher office, and he may

want that. Peter, there are ongoing investigations focusing on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration, and Assemblyman Steve McLaughlan, who is a Republican, tweeted that Barrara has unfinished business and quote, how's your day going, Governor? How much did those investigations play into this decision? I think they were significant. I mean, over and above the Wall Street aspect here that pre Berrara

is the Sheriff of Wall Street. Um, cover of Time magazine. This is the man busting Wall Street. Where he's really made an impression in New York and politically, I have been the corruption prosecutions, and I guess in a sense you could almost say that Trump's view is the enemy

of my enemy is my friend. Um, that the scariest person in Albany is pre Barrara, and so keeping him on, and especially someone wi ties to Senator Schumer and the Democrats, avoids a lot of the claim that any future prosecutions are politically motivated, and so again Berrara gives good cover to the Republicans. Generally, he can continue an aggressive campaign

on public corruption which has embarrassed Democrats and Republicans alike. Jack, what would you expect to see from pre Bara over the next few years when it comes to Wall Street and corruption there. Well, I think he has a number of investigations underway, and the nature of these kind of investigations is that people who are mid level often flip and give you higher level officials. So there have been people in the broader Cuomo administration who have recently been indicted.

I'm not suggesting that anyone has a conceivable theory against the governor. But enough prosecutions around an individual and the administration gets tainted. And I can see why Mr Trump would want that, and I can see why'm Mr Bahara thinks he's just continuing his job of prosecuting these cases as far as the evidence leads. Peter about a minute here, tell us about Barrara's independence. Well, I mean, he's shown

that he's willing to take on Republicans and Democrats. He's willing to, uh claimed at least to go after Wall Street, although insider trading is not actually getting at all that many important Wall Street practices. But he is perceived, and independence is a lot about perception. He is perceived as someone who will be independent and will be aggressive. His office has a history of being aggressive, so he simply fits in with that and is continuing the tradition and

in fact probably heightening that repute. The Sheriff of Wall Street is not riding off into the sunset, so corrupt politicians and financial criminals had better be on guard. Preet Berrara, whose aggressive prosecutions put him on the cover of Time magazine, will remain as the Manhattan u s attorney and the Trump administration. He undoubtedly will be holding more of those no holds barred press conferences with the showmanship he's known for. Good afternoon. My name is Preet Berrara, and I'm the

u S Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Today, yet another privileged hedge fund professional stands accused of insider trading. The charges unsealed today described cheating, coming and going. That was Barrara's announcement of charges against the hedge fund s a C Capital Advisors. In We've been talking with John Coffee, professor at Columbia Law School and Peter Henning, professor at Wayne State University Law School. Jack. Preet Barrara is known

for having a flair. He has these press conferences that are actually enjoyable to watch. He always has the right SoundBite. Is there any criticism of him because of that? Well, I don't think there has been much criticism from the public academics, editorialists. But there has been a little bit of friction with the second circuit you mentioned earlier, the Newman decision, which came down in two thousand and fourteen and which did greatly curb the ability of federal prosecutors

to prostate insider trading. In that decision, there was an unusual rebuke of the U. S attorney. They suggested they were bringing cases with little evidence and not in compliance with the traditional law. That kind of rebuke is unusual. In truth, Rudy Giuliani also got criticized, and both Mr Giuliani and Mr Bihara knew how to maximize the public

attention they received as you as attorneys. So while I wouldn't criticize Mr Newman, Mr Mr Bihara, I do think that there was a little bit of friction there, And now that President Trump has reappointed him, I think he really has the last left because he's got the support of both a Democratic and a Republican president, and and it's somewhat impregnable. Peter, do you see any chance that

barras independence could come back to bite Trump? For example, imagine a situation where he was investigating a Trump owned business in the in the southern district, of which there are there are some How do you think that would go down? Well, certainly, I guess it could be a problem.

Of course, that that nickname the Sovereign District of New York is the sign that it doesn't really take much direction from main Justice, the Justice Department in Washington, d C. And of course Barra is standing now is probably even higher. With the new Attorney General coming in. Uh, he could well be close to untouchable. Would he pursue a case? I guess if the evidence was there, And of worse, the Manhattan is where you could establish jurisdiction and venue

for almost any case. So much money flows through New York. The banks are there, the exchanges are there. Um, that would be a possibility back. I don't know if that's very likely. Um. I guess it's something that could come up. But Barrara's independence here is pretty well established and so he can look at whatever he wants, although I don't think the priorities in that office are going to change much.

Jack about a minute here. He had a meeting with Trump's pick for the new AG, Jeff Sessions, last week apparently. Is there any potential clash in the views of Sessions and Barrara? Well? Mr Sessions was also a U S attorney, and I think most of US attorneys believe in giving a great deal of discretion to US attorneys, So I think on his track record he is not going to expect to greatly constrain a person as strong as Mr Barhara.

And by the way, I think it's very desirable that Mr Barr has this reputation for independence, because if I was legal counsel of the President, I would tell the President, you don't dare risk it. We've got to be Caesar's White and cut an absolutely clean path around conflict of interest issues because no one can control of Mr Barhara. So this could well be a very desirable uh influence that constrains the President, who sometimes seems a little bit reckless.

We will see this all play out over the next few years. Thank you both for being on Bloomberg Law. Two of our favorite guests, that's John Coffee, professor at Columbia Law School and Peter Henning, professor at Wayne State University Law School. Coming up on Bloomberg Law. The prosecutor in North Carolina decides not to press criminal charges against the police officer who shot and killed Keith Scott in September.

There were demonstrations over that and the family has expressed some misgivings and there may be a civil trial ahead. I'm June Grosso with Greg Store you're listening to Bloomberg Law. This is Bloomberg