to children and family spreading holiday cheer. he thanked the staff for working for the holidays and even singing an impromptu carol we wish you a merry christmas ask a happy new year [ cheers and applause [ cheers and applause ] harvey weinstein facing a judge this morning. what the judge told his lawyers who wanted the sexual assault case thrown out, and president trump has slammed the special counsel s probe calling it a witch hunt more than 140 times on twitter. i ll talk to a pulitzer prize winning roreporter who has interviewed robert mueller himself and says he d be the last guy to lock trump up unfairly. at fidelity, we help you prepare for the unexpected
how critical was this hearing and the judge s ruling to move the case forward? reporter: well, it was really critical, and there was a possibility today that this judge could have ruled to drop all of these charges and then this case would be over. you can imagine for the as many as 100 women who have come forward and accused har vvey weinstein of sexual misconduct that this being the only criminal case against him, that for a lot of women this is symbolically their chance at justice. the hearing took very little time, and afterwards ben brafman, the lead attorney for harvey weinstein came out and had this to say on the courthouse steps. we remain confident despite the court s ruling today, that ultimately at a trial of this case mr. weinstein will be completely exonerated. today s ruling was a technical ruling on the law and although disappointed, it does not in any way suggest that the case against mr. weinstein is going to end badly.
judge correctly decided it s too soon to get into that argument. the grand jury just makes a decision about whether the case will go forward and that kind of exculpatory evidence or at least what weinstein is claiming is exculpatory evidence like e-mails should be something a jury should see and decide. let s take a look at the charges as weinstein heads to trial, predatory sexual assault two counts, criminal sexual act in the first degree one count, rape in the first degree one count, rape in the third degree one count, maximum time that he could face under these charges should he be found guilty? a lifetime in prison, and that s why it s appropriate for him to have a vigorous defense. what i think is so interesting, craig, is the role that this trove of e-mails may play at trial. weinstein s lawyers claim that the evidence of friendly e-mails between harvey weinstein and women who now claim that he assaulted them is exculpatory, means he must be innocent, but the d.a. is saying t
is a defense that might have worked in the past but doesn t work anymore, that people understand that in a relationship with a power dynamic like harvey weinstein and his accusers merely writing friendly e-mails afterwards may not be enough to prove to a jury that weinstein still had the power to behave criminally toward these women. so weinstein s attorneys essentially are saying these e-mails, because the accuser perhaps may have exchanged an e-mail with the accused that that should warrant him getting off? yeah, i mean, so what s the standard? reasonable doubt: and what will the defense do, anything to inject reasonable doubt into the mind of a jury. but in 2018, in 2019 when harvey will be back in court, will we see a shift in how jurors approach these cases? will jurors be more sympathetic to women who say i had no choice. he was responsible for my career. how will all of this advance the #metoo movement? well, i think today would be
considered a win for the #metoo movement. going forward, i don t see any dim yun nugs in the strength of the women s argument that they demand a day in the court. on the other hand, harvey weinstein could lose his liberty and die in prison, and he s going to continue to maintain an aggressive defense to prevent that from happening. lisa green, thank you. we re going to return now to our breaking news coverage of a possible partial government shutdown here. republicans emergency meeting with president trump now just 13 minutes away. a few moments ago house speaker paul ryan left for that meeting after a last second phone call with the president about funding the government. capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt joins me now. kasie, this was, of course, supposed to be paul ryan s last hurrah, an easy lift. instead, it has turned into an 11th hour nightmare? reporter: ho, ho, ho merry christmas. you re right, this was supposed to be his last press conference as speaker, a day with per