to blackmail the late show host last year by threatening to expose his affairs if he didn t pay me a lot of money. the producer for cbs news was sentenced to six months in jail and given five years probation. he had this to say after his plea. again, i apologize to mr. letterman, his family, to stephanie burkett, her family. i will not be doing any interviews, and i thank you all for your patience. jeffrey toobin joins us now. what do you think about this punishment? letterman said the police and the district attorney s office handled it professionally and stillfully and appropriately. was justice served? i agree. i think this is a rational solution to a weird case. six months in prison is not nothing. but it s not going to ruin joe halderman s life. he s going to be able to go on. i think joe has ruined joe s life. he s not going to go back to
and someone is going to jail. former cbs news producer robert halderman was accused of trying to blackmail the talk show host over sexual affairs letterman had with female employees. halderman pleaded guilty to second degree grand larceny and will serve six months in jail and perform community service. again, i apologize to mr. letterman, his family, to stephanie burkett, her family and certainly my friends and family. i will not be doing any interviews and i thank you all for your patience. talk to you about a segment of my life here that began six months ago. i found myself in some legal trouble and pretty quickly it was turned over to the district attorney s office here in manhattan. now, i had never been involved in anything like this in my life and i was concerned and full of anxiety and nervous and worried. the people in the district attorney s office said this will be handled professionally, this will be handled skillfully and
letterman, his family, to stephanie burkett, her family. i will not be doing any interviews and i thank you all for your patience. jeffrey toobin joins us now. what do you think about this punishment? letterman said the police and the district attorney s office handled it skillfully and appropriately. six months in prison is not nothing. but it s not going to ruin joe halderman s life. he s going to be able to go on. i think joe has ruined joe s life. he s got that long community service, 1,000 hours, that s a long time. and the letterman family gets to move on in privacy and deal with the problems that he caused. so i think it s a rational solution. it s interesting, though, to me. i was thinking back to when all
the man who attempted to blackmail david letterman. former cbs news producer robert halderman admitted he tried to extort millions from the late show host. letterman told viewers about the plot last october while confessing to affairs with female staffers. as for mr. haldeman, his storytelling ended today. our correspondent is rehema ellis. reporter: robert haldeman, a longtime journalist at cbs told the court he was remorseful for attempting to blackmail the talk show host about his relationship with stephanie burkett, letterman s employee and haldeman s former live-in girlfriend. this was a thinly veiled threat to ruin mr. letterman if he did not pay me a lot of money. he was sentenced to six months in jail, five years probation and 1,000 hours of community service. i apologize to mr. letterman, his family, to stephanie burkett, to her family and certainly my friends and family.