let s bring in former fbi general counsel and senior member of the mueller probe, andrew weissmann andrew, always great to talk with you this is on an historic evening i do want to go back just for a moment to the dichotomy between these federal and state charges. because i think people, we talk a lot about the campaign finance aspect of this payoff to ms. daniels, to stormy daniels but this is a state prosecutor, so a federal election isn t in his purview. what we re talking about is the same fact, the same facts that put michael cohen in prison with a federal indictment, but these are state charges. so can you just talk about that dichotomy. we don t know what these charges are, they re still sealed, but it s looking more like something like falsifying business records, lying about the purpose of the funds not a campaign finance case.
his mantra when he ran for president against hillary clinton, was he wanted to imprison her now, donald trump will walk through the routine steps of felony arrest processing in new york he ll be fingerprinted, photographed, he may be handcuffed they may give an exception to that because of his status he will then appear before a judge, likely released on his own recognizance they re nonviolent felony charges. if he choses not to surrender, it will be governor ron desantis, his role to indict him. give us the sort of your contextual framing of what we re seeing today well, first, let s put in context michael cohen. i think you all have pointed this out, but i want to say it slowly so everyone understands, not just with michael cohen indicted
to and a federal judge agreed was a crime and sentenced him on, but at the same time, you can look at this because the feds didn t go forward for a whole variety of reasons, as state crimes that s what alvin bragg has now been confirmed done in bringing these charges and seeing what are the state crimes that are alleged. it s important to note that he may have found that a sort of enhancement for these state crimes comes from either state campaign laws or federal campaign laws. there is a way that they may form a part of the charges here, and it would be permissible potentially to do that, but we don t know yet that s something that a lot of legal nerds like me are waiting to see exactly how the charges play out there s so many people that were involved, sort of different pieces of the scream michael cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, false statements to a federally insured bank causing an unlawful corporate
discrimination case about not allowing black people to rent in his building, it s not clear he s paid taxes more than a couple years in his life he s gotten away with a lot, and a lot of his friends have gone to prison for things he did for him. allen weisselberg, paul manafort, michael cohen. you know this man, there s a lot of bravado coming out of his social media now and out of his son, but how do you think he really will react to the idea that he is going to be booked. he has been indicted well, i think first of all, a lot of us are forgetting donald trump just a couple days ago said this case was over. they were not going to go forward. and he predicted that this is not going to happen. well, it s happening so to the last minute, he was delusional that he was still
trail and setting a standard moving forward as to how prosecutors are supposed to treat citizen trump. indeed. let me read michael cohen s statement on trump s indictment. michael cohen was sentenced to prison and went to jail, six years for participating in a scheme for donald trump, and this is the statement. for the first time in our country s history, a president current or former of the united states, has been indicted. i take no pride in issuing this statement and wish to also remind everyone of the presumption of innocence as provided by the due process clause however, do take solace in validating the adage that no one is above the law not even a former president. and claire, one of the central park five, the exonerated five, they call themselves now, sent out a statement as well. it was a one-word statement, and it was karma i think there are some who might be feeling that way politically because this is the president, claire, who ran on lock her up,