attorney. you should be still advocating for these girls. these were, you know, young 13, 14, 15-year-old girls here. you know, that's who you should be protecting, not a child molester. >> and just to be clear, these girls, these teenaged girls, they and their parents wanted to go forward, right? >> yes. >> they wanted -- oftentimes in these cases you have extremely reluctant witnesses, for good reasons, ambivalent about it. in these cases the individuals wanted the charges to be pursued. >> there were several women that were very strong about it, and in fact they were calling the prosecutor's office repeatedly, and they weren't getting any callbacks. and so what they did was they hired an attorney, fred edwards to help them communicate with the prosecutors office because they weren't getting any calls back. and the police chief too was getting calls from the girls and their parents saying what's happening? nobody is calling us back. >> wow. alan dershowitz and ken starr appear to have done a pretty good job for their client in this case. julie brown, thanks for being with me tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> i want to turn to a former federal prosecutor who has extensive experience prosecuting sex crimes. also senator claire mccaskill, former democratic senator from missouri, now an msnbc political analyst. and senator, let me start with you. you were in the senate when acosta was brought before the senate. you were one of eight democrats to vote yes along with 52 republicans. there was some concern at the time about this case, but it wasn't front and center. what's your feeling now watching all this develop? >> well, it's one i'd like to take back. i'm embarrassed about that vote. there is subcontext. the guy who had been nominated before him was from st. louis. >> and accused of spousal abuse. >> and a crusader against roe v. wade. >> yes.