watching to see how all of this unfolds right now. this impeachment trial. to all of our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next the historic impeachment trial of president trump beginning in the senate as president trump pushes back against new evidence that has just emerged. intelligence officials quietly asking congress not to hold public hearings on global threats. the reason? they don't want to anger trump. evelyn yang, the wife of 2020 presidential candidate andrew yang, is revealing something tonight she kept secret for years. something that she didn't even tell her husband about for months. it is a cnn exclusive interview. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the breaking news. the fate of trump's presidency now in the hands of the senate.

>> all persons are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprisonment while the house of representatives is exhibiting to the senate of the united states articles of impeachment against donald john trump, president of the united states. >> and with that proclamation by the sergeant at arms, the historic impeachment trial of president trump is now under way. the chief justice, john roberts, and 99 senators, swearing in this afternoon. >> will all senators now stand and remain standing and raise their right hand. do you solemnly swear that in all things april pertaining to the trial of the impeachment of donald john trump, president of the united states, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws, so help you god? >> and so they swore. then each senator signed an oath book vowing to be impartial.

already, though, a new twist. the president now in that high-stakes back and forth with one of rudy giuliani's associates about his actions regarding ukraine. >> what is your response to lev parnas, who says your efforts in ukraine were all about 2020? you just wanted joe biden out? what's your response? >> well, i don't know him. i don't know parnas. >> well, there's going to be an answer to whether that's true or not. you know, trump sus he doesn't know him, parnas point blank calling trump a liar. >> he lied. he's lying. he's lying. >> someone's lying and it is the senate's job to get to the bottom of parnas' damning claims, which is why democrats continue to pound the table, demanding to hear from witnesses. manu raju begins our coverage on capitol hill. what more are you learning about what happens here? now the trial has formally begun. what happens now? >> reporter: a lot of unpredictable twists and turns are going to come in this historic trial that could take a couple of weeks, potentially

could go longer. it really depends about how votes come down on the senate floor. those votes could begin as soon as tuesday. that's when the senate will reconvene. at that point they will take up an organizing resolution that will set the terms of the trial. the organizing resolution has been drafted by mitch mcconnell. democrats have objected because it does not guarantee witnesses and documents. democrats are signaling that they could start to force votes on the senate floor as soon as tuesday to put the senate on record. but republicans are pushing back, including some who have said they'd be open to witnesses. susan collins of maine, republican, said she would not be open to having witnesses up front, she says she would consider that later in the trial, after opening arguments, after senators have opportunities to ask questions. those are going to be the questions in the days ahead, whether or not there would be four republicans on who would break ranks or more, 47

democrats, forcing witnesses, whether democrats would agree to republican witnesses, those negotiations will happen on the side. right now they're going to put together their briefs, argumentses they're going to make next week, and big votes will take place in a matter of days. >> all right, thank you very much, manu. these days are now upon us and tonight another rand another the center of the ukraine scandal is speaking out. >> reporter: the indicted associate of rudy giuliani turning on his old boss. and the man they were working so hard for in ukraine, president trump. >> i idolized him. i mean, i thought he was the savior. >> reporter: lev parnas says everyone knew what was going on in ukraine. >> president trump knew exactly what was going on. he was aware of all my movements. >> reporter: including trump. during a media blitz that helped show prosecutors he's willing to cooperate, parnas revealing how significant the pressure was in the quid pro quo with ukraine.

investigate the bidens, or else. >> if they didn't make the announcement, basically there would be no relationship. >> reporter: parnas, who was born in ukraine but raised in america, says he told officials in kiev there would be no military aid or a white house meeting for the new president unless they announced the biden investigation. >> the only thing we cared about, we were the team, was to get zelensky or bore owe shen coor atmosphere somebody to make a press release of announcement into >> no announcement. no pence. >> pence wouldn't be at the inauguration and there would no visit to the white house. there would be no communication. >> there was no biden announcement and pence cancelled his trip. >> in terms of what knew about what you were doing in ukraine, did vice president pence know? >> of course. >> pence's office responded that parnas will say anything to stay

out of prison. parnas has said that when he was just 16 years old he worked at a new york real estate company selling trump organization apartments. >> i loved him. with had the fbi came to my house, my wife felt embarrassed because they said i had a shrine to him. i had pictures all over. >> trump has denied knowing parnas despite numerous photos showing the two together. >> every time he says that, i show another picture. >> nobody on tv like that is under oath and he obviously is desperate to get attention. >> claiming his credibility is in question sense he's been charged with four counts of campaign finance violations. >> i thought they were going to shut me out, make me look like the scapegoat and try to blame me for stuff i hadn't done. >> in the end, parnas insists everything he did was under giuliani's instruction and for the president's political gain.

>> that was the most important thing was for him to stay on for another four years and keep the fight going. there was no other reason for doing it. >> now, with those major campaign finance charges hanging over parnas' head, there is good reason to question his credibility. but pretty much everything he is saying with regards to the president holding up aid to ukraine, that lines up with what multiple other witnesses have already testified to under oath in front of congress. erin. >> all right. alex, thank you very much. out front tonight democratic senator of michigan who was chair of the democratic policy and communications committee. i appreciate your time, senator. of course lev parnas is being charged with violating the law, could go to jail for that. but presumably things he says on other topics if untrue could be used against him with had it comes to things like sentencing. do you trust the new information we're hearing from lev parnas that everything was about

getting the announcement of the investigation into joe biden and he was doing this at the behest of rudy giuliani and the president of the united states? >> it's good to be with you and i think the most important thing is that this is not the first time we've heard this. the house had witnesses come forward. people have testified. a case has been made. and in fact, what he's saying in plain language and very -- i don't know him, certainly, but he's certainly someone that we should listen to in terms of verifying the other people that have come forward. i also want to mention that, you know, the president's surrounded by people that have been indicted or in prison and in fact today the general accounting office also said he broke the law when he did what he has done which is withhold the aid without congressional approval. so, the president of the united states, according to an unbiased

government accounting source, has now said that he broke the law as well. >> we're going to have much more on that in a moment. i do want to ask you though, senator, the president said again today he does not know lev parnas, does not know anything about the letter that parnas delivered to zelenski from giuliani. the letter with giuliani said he had a specific task, wanted to meet nay couple of days, only needed 30 minutes of his time, and doing that with the knowledge and consent of the president of the united states. that is what the allegation is. that's what the letter from giuliani says. here's what president trump said about parnas today. >> i don't know parnas. i don't know anything about the letter. >> do you think this trial will prove that president trump is a liar? >> well, first let me say that this whole process is a very sobering one. i take it very seriously. but what you just showed really is laughable in the sense that

we have seen over and over again proof that what the president said is not accurate. and so in my mind, it's our responsibility to listen to all the evidence, hear witnesses by the way, witnesses and documents. that is the big question right now. and if the president wants to put forward his own case, this is his opportunity to do that. so, it's going to be at this point i think important. and all of us are going to have to decide with had we're voting on witnesses versus documents, do we want to hear the truth or do we want to hide the truth? and i think that's the big question. >> and it is a huge question, and you and your colleagues took a very important oath today. and the oath was to, quote, do impartial justice sworn in by the chief justice of this nation. but to be honest, let me just show you here, senator, what some of your colleagues on both sides of the aisle, senators

have said. >> this impeachment proceeding is definitely about donald trump who pretty clearly has broken the law. >> is everyone really impartial? >> well, here's what i know, and i know that colleagues on my side of the aisle were all talking afterwards today after we raised our hand and had to sign a book regarding our pledging to be impartial and signing the oath. it's a very somber time. and i think that we take it very seriously. i know that my democratic colleagues take this very seriously. but i also know that the general accounting office said today clearly, unequivocally, the president broke the law. so, that's also clear. >> all right. well, a appreciate your time. thank you. good to talk to you. next a government watchdog group, you just heard senator

saab now reference this, said president trump broke the law when he withheld aid which would shatter his defense. >> there was no crime. >> there was no crime. >> there was no crime whatsoever. >> plus u.s. intelligence officials asking congress not to hold public conference on worldwide threats. this is an annual thing. it's always done. why don't they want to do it. plus three of the top 2020 candidates off the trail because they have to be in washington for the trial. how big a disadvantage is this with just days to go before the iowa caucuses? so when her car got hit, she didn't worry. she simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said... i got this. usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it - easy. she can even pick her payment plan so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for.

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at booking.com tonight, trump broke the law. that's the conclusion of the government accountability office. the gao is a federal investigative agency and it concluded that the trump administration broke the law when it withheld aid to ukraine. so, this is a significant conclusion, and the big question is how will it affect trump's impeachment trial. out front now, former press secretary. carrie, when you're in a situation where you're in a trial which is about whether somebody broke the law, this is a trial with a different standard which is high crime and misdemeanor, but this is -- the gao is concluding an actual law was broken and that this order to withhold the aid, obviously according to the unredacted

emails reviewed by the website just security, came from the president of the united states, came directly from president trump. how significant is this conclusion from the gao on the eve of the trial? >> i think it's a significant decision by the gao, and it's significant not only because of their conclusion which was that the withholding of the security assistance to ukraine violated a particular act. the reason it's so significant is also because of what gao is and because it's such a credible institution. so, gao is a government agency that works for congress on a non-partisan basis to give it advice. and so i think the credibility that they lend to this decision in addition to the conclusion that this withholding of assistance violated the law is very significant on the eve of the trial which will start next week. >> and joe, you know, it comes

as lev parnas, the indicted associate of rudy giuliani who was helping him in ukrainian to dig for dirt on the bidens, he's now speaking out saying he did it at the behest of rudy giuliani and the president and it was all about getting this investigation into joe biden and there was no other reason for it other than for the president to win re-election. he says trump knew exactly, exactly, everything that was going on and that trump is a liar when he says he doesn't know parnas and what was happening. trump again today said he did not know parnas. he knew nothing about him. and i played that a moment ago. i want to play this because trump does have a pattern of lying when it comes to who and what he knows. when he knows somebody or about something that he doesn't want to, that it looks bad, he just says it doesn't. unfortunately, it's often not true. here he is. >> i don't know anything about about david duke. david duke just joined, a bigot,

a racist, a problem. i know nothing about wikileaks. it's not my thing. >> wikileaks, i love wikileaks. i didn't know manafort well. paul manafort. oh good, you made it. paul manafort has done a fantastic -- >> joe, i can give you four more of those. i could give you eight more. i could give you a lot more. stormy daniel, gordon sondland. it's a clear pattern. >> yeah, listen, and it's a mistake that politicians make all the time. all we have to do is say i know the guy, i've met him a few times. he's a friend of so and so. he's rudy's friend. but by saying he doesn't know them, every time a new picture gets released, every time there's something, another tidbit, it takes on this outsized importance. so, it's bad to have a president who's a liar, but this is just dumb politically. and i think you pair that up as carrie was saying with what gao

did today which was lev parnas may not be the best witness here. he's under indictment. but gao is pristine, white glove, everybody in town knows who they are and their non-partisan nature. and they've taken away the fundamental foundation of what was left of the defense which was no crime was committed. they clearly say a law was broken. the only thing the white house has left now is to say that you don't have any first hand corroboration. and that makes the case for witnesses. so, it's a mystery to me what their defense will be. >> and yet you know when you asked about witnesses or new information to get to the bottom of this, carrie, some of them are dismissive. today there was this incredible and shocking moment that was beneath the cdignity of how a senator should react. he said should new evidence be included in the impeachment trial. and i want to play this exchange. >> senator mcsally, should the

senate consider new evidence as part of the trial. >> man, you're a liberal hack. i'm not going to talk to you. >> you're not going to comment? >> you're a liberal hack. >> it's a shocking thing to see. it was beneath the dignity of the office of a u.s. senator to speak like that. what is your reaction to that exchange? >> first of all, it was a completely fair question by our reporter. but it just shows that there are some members of congress and really to see a senator act that way on the day when they are taking such an important oath, members of congress who are allies of the president just sometimes seem to forget or they are just sort of abdicating their independent role as a separate branch of government. what they've seen is that the president beats up on the press, so they think that's what they have to do too in order to gain his support or in order to get that extra tweet or to get access to fundraising or

whatever it is that he's providing to them. but it's harmful to democracy because what they are doing is they are attacking a fundamental part of american freedom and american life. and so i just think it's really unfortunate when members of congress start acting like the president. >> and joe, it just demeaned the office. i think as carrie points out, on the day you're taking the solemn oath to speak like that. >> yeah, listen. i think you have these moments in all politicians' lives where you reveal your character, and senator mcsally revealed her true character. i think it also is a reflection of the political game going on with republicans and carrie illuded to it. republicans have to decide right now particularly on the question of witnesses whether they're going to stand with the president or stand on the side of getting more information at a fair trial. martha mcsally's shown today where she's going. we're going to have to watch the rest of them to see where they go. >> i appreciate your time.

next, u.s. intelligence officials may have found a way to prevent upsetting the president. what is it? and andrew yang's wife evelyn in an emotional interview opens up for the first time about something she had been silent about for years, being sexually assaulted, allegedly by her doctor. >> i remember trying to fix my eyes on a spot on the wall and just trying to avoid seeing his face as he was assaulting me.

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tonight scared of angering the president, u.s. intelligence officials asking congress not to hold public hearing on worldwide threats. this request is coming at a time when the u.s. faces a lot of conflicts, almost getting into a war with iran after killing its top commander. house intelligence commander adam schiff has gone ahead anyway, sent a letter inviting the acting dni to testify. kaitlan collins is out front. kaitlan, tell us the reporting that you have. why are intelligence officials

reluctant to hold the hearing? >> reporter: what sources are telling my colleagues is that a lot of it has to do with the president's anger after they testified publicly last year. you'll remember back then about a year ago today, the president was so mad as he was watching the highlights that sources told us he was literally screaming while watching people like dan coats, the former director of national intelligence talk about things like iran, north korea and the like because they were contradicting a lot of what you hear from the president publicly. now these intelligence officials have made the request saying they don't want to testify about this publicly. you can imagine why given what you were just talking about, the soleimani strike, all the issues you see the intelligence contradicting itself in recent weeks. while it's not the expectation that the request is going to be granted, we do still believe this report, this report that tells us the biggest threat essentially worldwide is still going to be public. you've seen the officials make clear it's not something they

want to talk about publicly because they are worried about angering president trump. >> thank you, kaitlan. out front now, republican congressman mike turner, a member of the house intelligence committee which will be holding one of those hearings on the worldwide threat assessment. a committee has these hearings, you get classified briefings behind closed doors. this is the one the world sees, the american public sees, it comes with a document. yet the top intelligence officials don't want to do this after president trump go back to school, what's wrong with you guys, it turned into a big fiasco. are you okay with them not giving a public assessment? >> well, there's a document that is the public assessment that is available for the public. i hate responding to things that are one sourced or unnamed sources of people saying what the president might think or feel. i can tell you through three administrations there's a number of reasons why the public portion is different than the classified portion that we

receive. and sometimes, many times, administrations are red sent to do the public version. the threats you're listening to, that's really the environment they're in. it's not really the president of the united states as the audience. the world is the audience. allies are listening. the threats are listening. and they also take from what this presentation is what they should do next and what u.s. policy is going to be. >> so, asiha, i understand the point, they've got different audiences. yet last year -- this is our reporting. i know you say what you just said there, but this is reporting from multiple sources. it's vetting. it's how news organizations operate. they're saying they don't want to do it because of what trump will say. they don't want to be belittled and demeaned and humiliated after they say what they're going to say. is that a problem? >> that is a problem. it tells you off the bat what they would say would not align with what the president has been saying or what the president is

thinking. this is exactly why it makes him angry. and i think what you see here is basically an undermining of two fundamental pillars of democracy which is transparency and accountability. transparency into what do these intelligence heads think are threats directly from their mouths and accountability in terms of is the president responding to them effectively and for this president in particular, is he telling the truth about them. >> on this point, you got a closed door briefing on iran. you were told what you were told, and you were red sent about it because it's classified. president is allowed to declassify which he does sometimes with no rhyme or reason. he appeared to declassify or make up, i don't know, all i know is he said there were four embassies being targeted by iran and his own national security adviser and secretary of defense are unable to back that up. this is what we're talking abt. let me play the president and secretaries esper and o'bryant.

>> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies. >> i didn't see one with regard to four embassies. >> it's always difficult with the exquisite intelligence we have to know exactly what the targets are. >> do you want to hear them publicly explain why he said one thing and they have been unable publicly to even say he's right? >> there's a couple of reasons and i think it's not an inconsistency. you have the president is able to say things they're not. >> once he says it, it's been unclassified. >> that is not correct. the information i have cannot then be revealed. the second thing is there's a number of sources of information. there's even foreign intelligence sources that we receive. there's classified briefings that president has that the secretary of defense doesn't have depending on what the need is, the action is. so, the information the president is receiving is much broader than the rest of us are going to be seeing. they didn't contradict him. they said we don't have that information. i didn't see that information,

which again does not say that they're contradicting him. i want to say one thing with what asha said. >> let me give asha a chance to get in on that. when he says i believe there could be four embassies, i didn't see one, you don't see that as a contradiction? >> i see it as a contradiction and i think if the secretary of dec defense is not seeing the same information that the president of the united states is, that is a problem in and of itself. i also think that from people who have been in these, you know, highly sensitive meeting that that would be almost impossible that the secretary of defense sees the presidential daily briefing. they are the ones advising him on the options that are available in this particular case with the military strike. so, i feel like it would -- i mean, i would hope that as a congressman you would be incredibly disturbed. >> well, you know, as you know, you haven't had a classified briefing in 15 years. and even the time period you did, you did not have access to

the type of information that goes into the policy decision making or even the world threats brief that we have to hear. >> are you saying you want an answer to this question, you're fine with it being behind closed doors or you're just fine with that? >> i think there is a utility to having the public hearing. what i was going to say to the prior statement is that the public hearing, the public presentation of this information is not about the president of the united states. this is not about challenging the president of the united states and what he said. this is about people who choose and want to do us harm. so, all of our questions with president are to national security and this public threats briefing, the world threats briefing, the classified portion should be how do we make america safe. >> that's true, but shouldn't it also be aren't our elected leaders needing to tell us the truth. >> the bottom line is if they're afraid to tell the truth, then we have a fundamental issue on these pillars of democracy that i mentioned before. they themselves are afraid to come forward because of what they think the president will

retaliate against them or any other blow back. that is a big problem. >> we're going to see what happens with chairman schiff and what happens. >> the world threats report is public itself, so the transparency is you have the opportunity to read it and you can make your own conclusion about what the administration is saying and what the report says. >> but no questions from elected representatives. >> we get the question. >> thank you very much. and next trump touting his accomplishments as his impeachment trial is about to again in the senate. are democrats paying close attention? and the wife of andrew yang in an exclusive revealing she was sexually assaulted allegedly by her doctor. >> what happened to me should have never happened. he was arrested in his office. and he was let back to work. can match the power of energizer. because energizer ultimate lithium is the longest lasting aa battery in the world. [confetti cannon popping] energizer.

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tonight i'd rather be in iowa. those were the words of bernie sanders today as he formally became a juror in president trump's impeachment trial which will take sanders off the trail in iowa with just really a couple of weeks, the final days

before that vote. and of course sanders is not alone. senators warren and klobuchar also will be in washington as their rivals are able to go everywhere they need to go in iowa. up front, david axelrod, our political commentator. 18 days to the iowa caucuses. and after this weekend, that's it for senator warren, senator sanders, and senator klobuchar. meanwhile, pete buttigieg held five events in iowa. multiply that by 18 days. joe biden holding events going to continue on the campaign trail as well. who's going to be hurt the most by missing this time? >> look, it's a nightmare for all those senators who have juror duty now and can't be in iowa. you plan your campaign for a year and then you get down to the final stretch when you have to be there and you can't be there. when i worked for barack obama, he was barn storming the state for weeks before the caucuses, sometimes doing as many as ten events a day. and they are sitting there mute

in the united states senate because their duty requires it. i think amy klobuchar is the one who suffers the most from that because she needs to move up in iowa. her whole campaign is leveraged on the idea that she can win in the midwest and she'll do well in iowa. but that requires her preference. so, she's going to suffer for this. but it's not good for sanders or warren. they're better known so they may not -- and they have better resources so they may not experience as much of a hit, but it's not good. >> all of them meanwhile have to deal with this. just listen to what trump said today talking about you guys are doing impeachment trial, here's what i'm thinking about. >> yesterday, as you know, china passed and that's something that is extraordinary. today we just passed the usmca. it's going to take the place of nafta which was a terrible deal. >> david, stock market record high, unemployment, 50-year low. how does this do for any

democrat, an economy that people can say whatever about where it's going, but right now it's doing well? >> yeah, look, the economy is a huge plus for him right now. no matter what people may feel in their individual -- the general sense is that the economy is doing very well. and that rebounds to his benefit. what's a mystery is why he's not doing better in the polls given how good the economy is. strategically, he should be touting these things instead of engaging in talk about impeachment. >> which of course he also did today in all caps on twitter. next a remarkable story of strength. the wife of andrew yang opening up for the first time about a sexual assault that she says happened to her while she was pregnant. she is speaking out to help others and hear next how she finally found the courage to tell her husband. >> i told him. and he cried.

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>> evelyn yang has a story so secret she never even shared it with most of her own family. but spending time with her husband, presidential candidate andrew yang, on the campaign trail and hearing so much gratitude from voters for talking about son christopher's autism made her feel newly empowered. >> meeting people and seeing the difference we've been making already has moved me to share my own story about it, about sexual assault. >> it was 2012. she was pregnant with her first baby and found an obgyn who had a good reputation, dr. robert hadden. she says her visits were routine, but after a few months, things changed. >> it started with inappropriate questions around how intimate i was with my husband,ex inappropriate, probing questions that were unrelated to my

health. the examinations became longer, more frequent, and i learned that they were unnecessary most of the time. most women don't know what you're supposed to get when you're pregnant. i didn't know that you're not supposed to get an exam every time you went to see the doctor. i feel like i put up with some inappropriate behavior that i didn't know at the time was straight up sexual abuse/sexual assault until much later. and i regret having put up with that because it ended up in a sexual assault that was indisputable, quite blatant. >> yang says the worst assault happened when she was seven months pregnant. >> i was in the exam room, and i was dressed and ready to go. and then at the last minute, he kind of made up an excuse. he said something about i think

you might need a c-section. and he proceeded to grab me over to him and undress me and examine me internally, ungloved. and at first i was a little bit like what's going on here? >> and there was no one else in the room? >> no, no. in fact when i think back to most of our exams, i don't think there was somebody in the room. >> you thought to yourself this isn't just inappropriate banter. this is much different. >> oh, he -- i mean, at that moment, i knew that was -- i knew it was wrong. i mean, i knew. i said -- i knew i was being assaulted. >> she says she thought she was the kind of person who would run away, but she couldn't.

>> i imagine myself as someone being, you know, like i would throw a chair at him and run out yelling bloody murder. it's not what happened. i was confused, and then i realized what was happening. and then i just kind of froze like a deer in headlights, just frozen. i knew it was happening. i remember trying to fix my eyes on a spot on the wall and just trying to avoid seeing his face as he was assaulting me. waiting for it to be over. >> she left that day and never went back. >> did you tell your husband andrew? >> no. i didn't tell anyone. i didn't tell anyone what happened. i didn't tell andrew or my family because i didn't want to upset them. i thought this happened to me.

i can process this. i can deal with it. i concompartmentalize it. >> and did you? >> i tried. i tried. but i just didn't want to affect others. and i certainly didn't want andrew blaming himself for not being able to go with me to these doctors visits because, honestly, if he was with me in the room, if anyone was with me in the room this, obviously, wouldn't have happened. and at the time, he was traveling a lot for his nonprofit. and most of the scheduling just didn't work out. >> reporter: many months later, after her baby was born, a letter came in the mail. robert hadden had left his practice. >> i googled him. and there it was. there was a headline that said he had assaulted another woman. and she reported it to the

police. and at that moment, everything just stood still. it was this sense of relief, of finally realizing that i wasn't alone in it. he still picked me, but that it wasn't because of -- right. it wasn't something that i did. it was, you know, this was a serial predator. and he just picked me as his prey. >> reporter: it was at that point she told husband andrew. >> i just needed to tell someone. i needed to share it in that moment because it felt so big to me. i needed that support.

and i told him. and he cried. and he wasn't bawling. there were tears. and he said it's because he remembered when i told -- when i came home one day ranting about pervy doctors i said something like, why do they let men be gynecologists? it makes no sense. and he remembered that i had made this comment and he felt so bad. he felt guilty that he didn't make the connection or ask anymore. >> she found a lawyer who discovered the manhattan district attorney had an open case against the doctor. several other women had come forward with similar stories of being assaulted by him. >> and that was just life changing. it felt so good to not be alone

in this. >> reporter: she worked with an assistant district attorney who was collecting information from 18 women, including yang, with allegations against hadden. yang testified before a grand jury which indicted hadden on multiple felony sex charges. >> every time i talked to the ada, the case was going great. and she was always telling me how strong this case was, how we were going to put him in jail. how he wasn't going to be able to do this to anyone ever again. and all of a sudden, there was this drop off. i didn't hear from her for months. >> reporter: finally, in february 2016, she was told the da agreed to a plea deal with the doctor. he would lose his medical license, register as the lowest level sex offender, but not go to jail. >> he was getting off with a slap on the wrist basically. >> reporter: not just that. although he was charged on nine counts involving six accusers, he only pleaded guilty to two

charges involving two women. evelyn yang was not one of them. >> they said that the punishment was the same regardless of how many counts he pled guilty to that the punishment would have been the same. so it didn't matter. and i thought, well, it matters to me for obvious reasons. and it wasn't until after me too and the weinstein case came out that the victims in this case realized that we were betrayed twice. >> that's how you feel? you feel you were betrayed twice? >> oh, absolutely. it's like getting, you know, slapped in the face and punched in the gut. the da's office is meant to

serve justice and there was no justice here. >> reporter: the office of manhattan district attorney sy vance is the same one leaniant with jeffrey epstein over his registering as a sex offender and also initially failed to prosecute harvey weinstein. when asked for a response, the da's office told cnn that obtaining a felony conviction was the goal in this case and while we stand by our legal analysis and resulting disposition of this difficult case, we regret that this resolution has caused survivors pain. though hadden was not a big name like weinstein or epstein, yang said he had a powerful protector. columbia university which runs the medical facility where he practiced. >> the fact that it's a name brand university behind this doctor and using their influence to protect themselves at the expense of the victims in the

case. >> reporter: some six weeks before yang says she was assaulted, police went to hadden's office and arrested him. another patient told police he sexually assaulted her and licked her vagina during an exam. the arrest was voided and he went back to seeing female patients. >> what happened to me should never have happened. he was arrested in his office, and he was let back to work. >> without anybody in the room. >> without a chaperon. i mean, at the very least, the bare minimum would be to make sure that there's an aide all the time. i -- and that's what's very painful is knowing that actually what happened to me could have been prevented. >> reporter: yang's attorney says there are at least 32 women who now accuse hadden of sexual

assault. most of them, including yang, are part of civil suits against columbia university, its affiliates and hadden. among the allegations, accusing hadden of aggressively penetrating and groping their bodies and genetalia, forcing them to strip naked, groping their breasts and licking their vaginas. the suit claims columbia knew about allegations against hadden, received numerous complaints of serious misconduct and kept the complaints secret to avoid negative publicity. the lawsuit is still ongoing. hadden denies all the allegations against him, except the ones he pleaded guilty to. cnn sent detailed questions to columbia, including why dr. hadden was allowed to return to work after his initial arrest. but the university only responded the allegations against hadden were abhorrent and they deeply apologized to those whose trust was violated. yang fought in court for more than two years to keep her identity anonymous which makes going public now even more

remarkable. why do you want to do this now? what do you want to accomplish now? >> my personal life and this growing public life, they're not separate. in this case, my experience with the sexual assault and then what happened, all that happened afterwards is such a powerful and upsetting example of the truth that women are living with every day. and i just happen to be able to have a platform to talk about it. i need to use that voice. i feel like it's something that's an obligation but also a privilege and a gift that i get to share my story now and also help other women. the process of getting to this

point is very hard. you know, like i haven't slept in days. this is very hard to come out with. but i hope it's -- and i have to believe that it's worth it. >> such a powerful story. and the fact that she feels this privilege to use her voice is so powerful. the moment when she finally told her husband, andrew yang, what had happened was especially moving. >> it was. ironically, today is their wedding anniversary. and he tweeted that out this morning. he gave us a statement about what his wife just did and said i'm extraordinarily proud of evelyn for telling her story and that his heart breaks every time he has to think about what she went through. >> what's also so incredible is that she's 1 of 32 women now from what you're reporting, who have accused this doctor and yet

you're saying only -- he's only admitted in two cases. no jail time. can he be prosecuted for any of this now? >> as part of hadden's plea deal, the da agreed not to prosecute him for any known offenses. at the time of the plea, that was 18 women. now that number as you said is 32 women who have accused hadden of sexual abuse. their attorney says they want justice. they want to see him behind bars. but whether he's going to be actually tried for additional allegations is really unclear, erin. >> that's incredible that she had the ability, the power and so movingly, the privilege to speak. thank you, dana. thanks to all of you for joining us. "anderson" starts now. , good evening at the end of a landmark day of president trump's extortion scheme, lev parnas says the president knew everything i was doing, these are his word,