of danger in terms of a subsequent prosecution. she also wrote, indeed, mr. steppian and miss kelly could face prosecution for official misconduct in either state or federal court. and judge jacobson disagreed with the committee s claim that their request was not a fishing expedition. the fundamental problem with the subpoenas is that they re overly broad, she wrote. the requests, as modified, remain a fishing expedition. so in the short-term, this means there will be less information flowing to that new jersey legislative committee, a committee that we ve reported on, but it s always been the case that the bigger game, and the bigger investigation, has been the separate parallel inquiry in the u.s. attorney s office, the federal investigation, and that, of course, is not affected in any way directly by today s ruling. joining us now is msnbc contributor, brian murphy, assistant professor at perdue college and paul butler, professor of law at georgetown university law center, a former
office, the federal investigation, and that, of course, is not affected in any way directly by today s ruling. joining us now is msnbc contributor, brian murphy, assistant professor at perdue college and paul butler, professor of law at georgetown university law center, a former federal prosecutor with the u.s. department of justice, specializing in public corruption cases. welcome, gentleman. paul, let me start with you. you heard me there give reference to what we got in this ruling. it is a very big ruling, as i mentioned. what did you think of what it means right now for the state-level inquiry? so it s basically this state judge telling the state legislatures to stay in their lane. there s an important federal investigation going on, that has the potential to send governor christie, bridgette kelly, and other folks to prison. so that s a big deal. they really ought to lay back and let the criminal proceeding go forward. now, the way the judge said that was by saying, i m not goi
of danger in terms of a subsequent prosecution. she also wrote, indeed, mr. steppian and miss kelly could face prosecution for official misconduct in either state or federal court. and judge jacobson disagreed with the committee s claim that their request was not a fishing expedition. the fundamental problem with the subpoenas is that they re overly broad, she wrote. the requests, as modified, remain a fishing expedition. so in the short-term, this means there will be less information flowing to that new jersey legislative committee, a committee that we ve reported on, but it s always been the case that the bigger game, and the bigger investigation, has been the separate parallel inquiry in the u.s. attorney s office, the federal investigation, and that, of course, is not affected in any way directly by today s ruling. joining us now is msnbc contributor, brian murphy, assistant professor at perdue college and paul butler, professor of law at georgetown