captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the first charges in the investigation into russia and the 2016 election. former trump campaign chairman paul manafort and his business partner are indicted, while another former trump advisor pleads guilty to lying to the f.b.i. then, a fractured spain-- after catalonia declares itself an independent republic, spain takes back control and threatens separatist leaders with criminal charges. also ahead, journalist lara setrakian speaks out about sexual harassment at work and why the culture of newsrooms need to improve. >> i hated what it said about our industry that we could be

preyed upon that we could be judged. i internalized a lot of that. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new

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>> woodruff: the first charges in the russia investigation speak to the size and scope of special counsel robert mueller's probe into moscow's meddling in the 2016 u.s. presidential election. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: today indictments for former trump campaign chairman paul manafort and his deputy rick gates, for charges unrelated to the campaign, and a guilty plea from former trump advisor george papadolopoulous, which is related to campaign work. first, manafort and gates. both pleaded not guilty today in court. >> there is no evidence that mr manafort or the trump campaign colluded with the russian government. >> desjardins: the charges include, laundering millions of dollars, tax fraud, failing to register as foreign agents and conspiracy against the united states. all of that stemming from their work consulting for foreign politicians for the last decade.

manafort of course is best known for his three months as the campaign chairman for donald trump. >> we presented the exact messaging we were trying to do. >> desjardins: those were pivotal months, manafort navigated trump's primary wins, the selection of mike pence as vice president and he oversaw last summer's convention. manafort was forced out shortly after that convention, following the release of a ukrainian ledger alleging millions of dollars in payments to manafort. manafort called the document a fake and insisted no wrongdoing. months later, the then white house press secretary sean spicer tried to downplay manafort's role. >> obviously there's been this discussion of paul manfort who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time. >> desjardins: politifact found that statement to be false. president trump defended manafort in august. >> i've always found paul manafort to be a very decent man. >> desjardins: manafort is a longtime political operative advising ronald reagan in 1980 and three other g.o.p. nominees.

he also made millions consulting overseas, including ukraine, and for ukrainian leader viktor yanukovych, manafort is credited with his political makeover. as ukrainian president in 2014, yanukovych's pro-russian moves led to unrest and he is now in exile in russia. in 2015, manafort bought an apartment in trump tower. a year later, he was working for the trump campaign. republican leaders like house speaker paul ryan today acknowledged but downplayed the charges. >> it's big news but this is >> desjardins: rick gates is manafort's longtime number two. i need to mention here that i have personally known gates since we were students in college together. the indictments today allege that both manafort and gates hid millions coming in from overseas

to avoid taxes and secretly acted as agents of foreign governments. also today, democratic lobbyist tony podesta resigned from his namesake firm, following news that his ties to manafort, and work on ukraine issues, is also under investigation. a potentially more revealing case involves george papadoupolos who now appears to be a cooperating witness in the investigation. he was a trump campaign foreign policy advisor. in papers unsealed today, papadoupolous pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with three people who were russian or connected to russia. the plea agreement lists pages of contacts while he was part of the campaign, including about possible russian "dirt" on hillary clinton and efforts to hold direct meetings between russian officials, and trump. in the plea, papadopoulous said he brought up that idea to then candidate trump and others at a march 2016 meeting, shown in a photo tweeted out by trump

himself. white house house press secretary sara sanders responded today. >> i don't think the president recalls many details of that meeting. it was a meeting that only happened once. >> desjardins: as for papadopoulous' role. >> it was extremely limited, it was a volunteer position, and again, no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign. >> desjardins: sanders insisted none of this is related to the president at all. the president responded himself on twitter, writing that the events involving manafort were years ago and that there is no collusion. we know this: prosecutor mueller's team has entered its next, high-stakes phase, of the investigation, with the end game still unclear. for the pbs newshour, im lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: let's breakdown what is clear from today's

indictments with carrie johnson, justice correspondent for npr. carrie, thank you for talking with us. you have been watching what robert mueller has been doing at least as closely as a journalist can. what if we learned about his work from these indictments? >> that he's working slowly, methodically and, in fact, five months+o three people with wrong doing. one of them george papadopoulos has agreed to cooperate and has already been meeting with department of investigators to tell them&what he knows. for the last several months, robert mueller has been able to keep that a secret from members of the press and the campaign and the white house. also today,c'ñ the charges agait paul manafort and his right-hand man rick gates uped the ante against manafort. we know mueller has been putting fresh on manafort at least since

july when the f.b.i. raided his home in f.b.i. manafort faces many, many years in prison on conspiracy charges and charges he failed to register as a foreign agent if he doesn't cooperate. manafort's lawyer said he didn't engage in any wrongdoing. >> woodruff: among the reporters who follow or try to follow what robert mueller is up to, was this expected or was it a surprise? >> it was a bit of legal shock and awe, judy, because while paul manafort had been under the sights of the special counsel for some weeks now, and rick gates as mueller's right-hand man was as well, this guilty plea involving george papadopoulos had flown completely under the radar. in fact, papadopoulos had met with the f.b.i. on a couple of occasions this year. he was actually arrested at dulles airport in july, and no

wordcztt that leaked until toda. he'sp what he knows, and i don't think we know exactly from these charging documents absolutely everything he has toll the special counsel. i think there are a lot of investigative avenues opening up today that we didn't know: before. >> woodruff: is there a sense, carrie, from looking at this of where mueller depends to go from here or are more surprises in store? >> well, i think more surprise may be in store, but there are clues from the charging documents. one is both paul manafort and rick gates were charged with failing to file as foreign agents operating inside the u.s. that charge has been little used. in fact, manafort's lawyer said used only six times since 1966 and that is the charge that could be deployed against other members of the trump campaign. michael flynn belatedly filed foreign agent papers earlier

this year. secondly the papadopoulos charging documents reference conversation he is had with supervisors in the campaign, high-ranking people involved in the trump campaign last year, and investigators looking at what those people knew and whether they can come under some kind of scrutiny from the f.b.i. and the special counsel team moving forward. >> woodruff: we heard the white house spokeswoman say today that it's their information that the mueller investigation is going to be wrapping up pretty soon any idea where that's coming from and is it accurate? >> i have heard the white house press secretary say that and ty cobb who is special counsel with the president dealing with and managing cooperation with the special counsel. as something who's been doing this a long time, i see no evidence this investigation will end this year and may go well into nexv$÷ year.fá

at this point, paul manafort and rick gates are contesting the1' charges and are prairpg for trial which wouldn't happen till mid 2018 at the earliest. this is a cloud that could hang over the trump campaign for many months to come. >> woodruff: carrie johnson, justice correspondent forw >> thank you.fá >> woodruff: now, a deeper look at the legal details here with two former federal prosecutors experienced in handling high- stakes investigations and prosecutions. john carlin ran the justice department's national security division, from 2013 to 2016. before that, he served as chief of staff and senior counsel to then f.b.i. director robert mueller. and peter zeidenberg, whose 17 years as a federal prosecutor included time as deputy special counsel, in the investigation into the leak of c.i.a. officer valerie plame's identity. gentlemen, welcome back to the "newshour". to both of you, john carlin, what's most significant about

today's indictments? >> well, two things that happened today, we have the indictments and then the release of a plea agreement and the statement of offense. taking each in turn, so the indictment, what we see today, at least according to the allegations, is that the campaign manager of a major candidate who is now president was secretly taking millions and millions of dollars from the ukrainian government that was one of putin's russia's closest allies. just to explain who yanukovych is, this is someone who was not only so close to russia that when he was deposed he fled there in 2014, but it was him being overthrown that caused putin's russia to invade and seize part of the ukraine that led to the still in effect sanctions. so that's a significance there.

with papadopoulos and the plea agreement today, we now know there is an individual who has been cooperating for months and that there is someone who is on the campaign and, while on the campaign, was talking with someone he knew were in touch with russian officials to get damaging information about the opposing campaign include of hearing all the way back on april 26 according to the statement of offense of 2016 that they had thousands of e-mails from clinton's campaign. >> woodruff: peter zeidenberg, you've had a chance to look at the plea agreements and also the -- i'm sorry -- the plea agreement and the indictments. what do they say to you? >> it says to me they've got a big problem at the white house. the papadopoulos plea agreement suggests that there are at least three individuals that were involved with the campaign that were fully aware of

mr. papadopoulos' connection with russia, and he was advising -- he sent an email saying "russia updates," and this was after the campaign and the administration has been saying for many, many months, no connection with russia, no collusion, no cooperation, no connection of any kind. and now we kn that at least three people besides papadopoulos were aware that he was trying to reach out and, in fact, had reached out to russian government officials. >> woodruff: and the whiteçoi house, and more to talk about here, but i was struck that the white house today was emphatic, john carlin, in saying, well, but this happened in terms of what mr. manafort and mr. gates did, well beforeb. the trump campaign. didn't have anything to do with what the trump campaign was doing. >> just saying, according to the document that we've seen today that, while he was the campaign

manager for the trump campaign, the whole point of the statute that these allegations say that manafort violated and his aid, the foreign agent registration act is to be transparent when you're receiving money from a foreign government. so if you're acting on their behalf, the american people know, and the problem is that he wasn't, he wasn't transparent and, in that sense, it's a big deal. >> woodruff: and we heard paul manafort's lawyer, peter zeidenberg say, well, this has only been used a handful of times in the last many decades and only once successfully. >> that is true, as rarely used statute. if you're going to use it, this is the case to use it for. here you have an enormous amount of money from a country that is trying to influence our election. i mean, this is like a paradigm of why the statute is written, so that if you were going to bring a case, this is the case

to bring. >> woodruff: so let's come back to george papadopoulos and the plea agreement, john carlin. the white house's reaction, they said, well, this is somebody with an extremely limited role, he wanted doto do things for the campaign, kept being turned away. so they'reç putting as much distance as they can between the campaign and anything he,úm did. >> well, not commenting ton us who, but looking at the statement of the ascents, it wasn't just that papadopoulos, while working as a member of th1 statement of offense takes pains to point out that he attended a meeting with the president of the united states while working on the campaign in march, but it was reported what he was doing backn up to campaign officials, as peter points out, at least three officials, they were not named, but it says they were

campaign officials and he's e-mailing them while talking to the representatives of the russian government, so there is definitely more to find out there. >> woodruff: what does that tell us, peter zeidenberg? are we closer to knowing whether there was collusion and remind everybody what it would mean the to prove collusion coordination between a campaign? >> well, there's no legal term of art for collusion. the crime, if there was one, would be conspiracy, and this is all the hallmarks of a conspiracy. it's not charged as a conspiracy but it certainly wouldn't be a stretch to say there is coordination and a goal of getting this information to the campaign. he was encouraged by one of these officials to take the meeting in moscow, and he'd explained -- >> reporter: by -- >> woodruff: by the campaign officials. >> by the campaign officials. the dots are lined up. all you have to do is take the

pencil and draw the line. >> woodruff: what does this sayto you, john carlin, about how -- i mean, we're not able to talk to robert mueller. i mean, he's been operating very much behind closed doors, but what does it say to you about his approach to what he has and may have going forward? >> well, i think the one thing that's clear as we knew is he was going to take the facts where they led and, if anyone could act quickly and assemble a team and bring charges quickly, it's him. these are serious charges that are actually a relatively short period of time to bring as substantive an indictment as you see and, when you have someone who's pled guilty and continuing to cooperate, you can tell there is more work to do in the cooperation. we talked about where it might go, but to just take a step as to where we are before we start changing our expectations as to what's normal and not, this is more information of historic

importance that we just haven't seen before about a russian campaign, and here another government as well, that ends up influencing our presidential election, our core of what it is to be a democratic country. that's not part of it. that's a problem that needs to be addressed across party lines. >> woodruff: and peter zeidenberg, what do you say to those listening and watching out there who are saying, well, it's just an indictment, a charge, none of this has been proven? >> actually, papadopoulos is not just a charge. he's pled guilty and will be cooperating, and it sounds like these are -- you know, there's an email trail that goes on, and i guarantee you that the three campaign advisors have been interviewed, and they may be cooperating as well. they may have corroborated this as well, and if they contradicted it, they either will be charged or may already have been charged. so there are a lot more shoes to drop here for sure.

>> woodruff: peter zeidenberg, john carlin, just the beginning. thank you both very much. >> thank you. jf >> woodruff: in the day's other news, nearly 1.5 million homes and businesses across the northeast are without power, after a severe storm barreled through the region. in some areas, wind gusts topped 100 miles per hour, downing trees and power lines. torrential rains left some cars stranded in flash floods. and in milford, connecticut this tree was split in two, jolting residents awake. >> i just heard this big crack, boom and then an explosion, a big burst of light, a big fireball. i wondered what was going on, got out of bed, ran downstairs, power's out. >> woodruff: there were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

a federal court in washington today barred the trump administration from enforcing a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military. the u.s. district judge blocked parts of a presidential memorandum issued in august that banned transgender recruits. but she did not block a portion that halted the use of government funding for gender reassignment surgeries. the justice department is reviewing the decision. defense secretary jim mattis and secretary of state rex tillerson today downplayed the need for a new war authorization. the deadly ambush on u.s. troops in niger earlier this month ignited bipartisan talks on the need for a new resolution in congress. lawmakers argue the dynamics on the battlefield have changed since the 2001 authorization was put in place. but mattis told a senate panel he supports the current authorization for the use of military force, or a.u.m.f.

>> article ii of our constitution and the 2001 and 2002 a.u.m.f.'s provide sufficient legal authority for us to engage and defeat the current threat which we are doing by working by, with and through our allies and partners. >> woodruff: the current authorization for use of force was put in place after the 9/11 terror attacks to hunt down al qaeda. but it's now being used to justify attacks on other militant groups like the islamic state. u.s. special operations forces captured a militant believed to be instrumental in the 2012 attack on a u.s. diplomatic compound in benghazi, libya. the strike killed u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. in a statement, president trump said mustafa al-imam was taken into custody on his orders, and

"will face justice" in the u.s. kenya's election commission declared president uhuru kenyatta the winner of last week's repeat election. the main opposition leader, raila odinga, insisted the re- run was rigged, and refused to take part. his supporters also boycotted. election officials said kenyatta won 98% of the votes cast. he was also declared victor of an august election, that was nullified for irregularities. oscar-winning actor kevin spacey has apologized for alleged sexual misconduct with a minor. actor anthony rapp accused spacey of making a sexual advance in 1986, when rapp was 14. spacey didn't remember the encounter, but tweeted if he did, he owed rapp "the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior." spacey also publicly acknowledged he's gay, a move

that drew backlash from activists for conflating the incident with coming out. netflix announced spacey's series "house of cards" will end after its upcoming season. carbon dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere have surged to a record high. the united nations' world meteorological organization warned it's the highest level recorded in 800,000 years. in geneva, the organization's secretary-general said the impact of that steep rise is already being felt. >> we have seen not only warming, but we have seen changes in the rainfall patterns, drought, flooding, and we have also seen a change in the amount of the most intense tropical storms like the recent hurricane season in the caribbean was demonstrating. >> woodruff: researchers attribute the record rate in emissions to a combination of human activities and a strong el nino.

on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lost 85 points to close at 23,348. the nasdaq fell two points, and the s&p 500 slipped eight. and native american civil rights leader dennis banks has died. his family said he passed away sunday night in minnesota after developing pneumonia. banks was a co-founder of the advocacy group the american indian movement, and led protests over the treatment of native americans in the u.s. dennis banks was 80 years old. still to come on the newshour: the swift political response to charges in the russia probe. spain's crackdown on catalonia after the region's vote for independence. a journalist's first-hand account of sexual harassment, and much more. >> woodruff: as the russia

investigation continues, president trump and conservative media outlets are drawing attention to two stories that allege hillary clinton in fact colluded with russians and should be investigated instead. but what's the truth behind those allegations? our william brangham is here to put them in context. >> and you look at what's happened with russia and you look at the uranium deal and you look at the fake dossier. >> the clinton campaign and the d.n.c. paid $12 million for a dossier to connect donald trump to russia. >> brangham: the president and much of the conservative media is arguing that these two stories, about the infamous" russian dossier" and the so- called "uranium one" deal, are evidence that not only is the russia story a hoax, but that hillary clinton should be investigated, not president trump. so let's look at these two stories: first, the dossier: the so-called "russian dossier" was compiled by this man-- former british intelligence

officer christopher steele. he got his information from various russian contacts, some of whom he paid for their info. steele was working for a company called fusion gps. in january, buzzfeed news released a copy of the dossier. it contained as yet unproven allegations that the russians had wanted mr. trump to win the election, that russians had shared valuable information about hillary clinton with the trump campaign, and that russia had compromising, sexually- explicit video of mr. trump-- thatldou be used as blackmail. the conservative news site the free beacon initially paid fusion gps to gather material against mr. trump. it was gathered for marco rubio's presidential campaign because the beacon's largest funder was a big rubio supporter. that funding stopped when mr. trump clinched the republican presidential nomination in july 2016. after that point, marc elias, a top lawyer for the democratic national committee and clinton campaign, continued paying

fusion gps, and that's when the steele dossier was compiled. it's these payments that the white house says proves the clinton campaign was behind the whole russia story. they seem to be arguing that because christopher steele got his information from russian sources, that means the clinton campaign was colluding with the russians and creating a false narrative. here's how white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders put it today: >> there is clear evidence of the clinton campaign colluding with russian intelligence to spread disinformation and smear the president to influence the election. >> brangham: the white house's theory ignores the broad consensus shared by u.s. intelligence agencies that the russians did try and influence our elections, in part by hacking emails from the d.n.c. and clinton campaign chair john podesta. the second story is about the so-called uranium one deal, which president trump has called this era's watergate. it dates back to 2010, and the sale of a controlling interest in uranium one, a canadian mining company that partly

operates in the united states, to a state-owned russian corporation, rosatom. the sale involved control of about 20% of the united states' uranium reserves, and the sale required a review by the u.s. government. the claim is that hillary clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, approved the sale in exchange for $145 million in contributions to the clinton global initiative, her family's foundation. >> hillary clinton gave them 20% of our uranium, gave russia for a big payment. >> brangham: let's break this down. first, secretary clinton did not have the authority to approv the deal-- several different u.s. agencies had to sign off on the deal, all of which did. there is no evidence that clinton was informed or involved in the sale. second, the uranium never left the country-- it's not legal to export uranium produced in u.s. mines. the clinton foundation did receive $145 million in contributions from individuals connected to uranium one, beginning at least a year before

the sale. and in 2010, the year of the sale, former president bill clinton received $500,000 from a russian bank for a speech he gave in moscow. for now, those all have been deemed legal transactions. but still today, mr. trump once again stoked these stories on twitter, suggesting now that even the obama campaign might've been in on creating the dossier. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: and for more on the political fallout of today's developments, we are joined by our politics monday team: tamara keith of npr and amy walter of the "cook political report." "politics monday." good to see both of you. i want to ask you about william brangham's reporting, but tam let's start with the news today, that is the two indictments and the plea agreement. is there a sense from the white house, from the hill, from

capitol hill that this is a big moment politically or just another day in the life of this ongoing investigation? >> the white house is treating this sort of like they've treated other big rev regulations saying, oh, this pop dop russ guy, he was just a volunteer for the campaign and, hey, look, the charges they announced, he just pled out to misleading the f.b.i., that doesn't have anything to do with the campaign. as the legal experts you had open made clear, that's means he's cooperating and they're in these -- in these documents, there were all kinds of connections, e-mails, various documentation of him clueing in top leadership at the trump campaign. as for the hill, republicans have been relatively quiet. paul ryan earlier in the day said something like he's not going to let this thing get in the way of doing the work for the american people, taxes, and

there were a couple of republicans late in the day who said that mueller should be allowed to continue to have this process carry out. >> woodruff: so saying he should go ahead. amy, we were just talking about this, it was senator grassley and senator hatch, senior republicans, saying the judicial process should move forward. >> right, and i think laying down a marker early on to say, if there is any indication that the president is going to try to dismiss mueller or to try to dismiss these allegations, we're letting everybody know that's not okay. they didn't come right out and say that, but it seems it's clear they're laying the parameters here to tell the president this has to keep going, do not try to short-circuit this. >> the white house did say president trump is not considering getting rid of mueller. >> that's right, and there was a lot of speculation about that. but, amy, does it feel like we've turned a political corner here? we have been talking about the

mueller investigation, the mueller investigation. now we see real tangible evidence of what he may have. does it change things? >> that's a really good question and i guess we have to start with in what context. the first is does it change things, as we talked about on capitol hill, does it derail the republicans' and president's agenda. they are moving full steam ahead on taxes. as we discussed last week, they have other challenges in getting a tax bill going forward, but is this going to derail them more going forward? they will have to answer more questions about this, the president will be distracted if he's tweeting about russia and instead of focusing on taxes is number bun 1:00 and the second is does it move voters. like so much else in this country people are polerrized on this questions about russia and interference, there is one group who are convinced, not matter what, there was collusion between trump and russias, another group believes this is

all fake and nothing there, and a big group in the middle that says i'm not paying much attention, i don't know what to believe. we'll watch in the next two weeks whether the two groups who believe there is nothing there or who don't care because they're not paying attention to it, is there anything they've seen that moves them. it's too soon to tell. the one thing that's important is this week, before we started with the indictments, the president was already in a deep hole politically. the "wall street journal" nbc poll came out this weekend, the president at 38% approval rating, this is the lowest of his presidency, in fact in all nbc "wall street journal" polling this is the lowest of a presidency in his first term. so he's already starting at a very low point. having your campaign officials indieptd isn't going to make it that much better. >> woodruff: and yet, tam, when you talk to republicans, they point out that, well, he's still doing well among republican voters an that's what

republican members of congress who want to be reelected are focused on. >> well, and the other thing they're focused on is getting this tax system overhaul done. >> woodruff: right. because they feel that's existential at this point, it's life and death. if they can't do that, many of them feel their chances of getting reelected are even worse, their chances of holding onto the house and the senate, and president trump may have people that are associated with his campaign and people with close ties to him who have some legal problems and all of those things, president trump is still a man with a pen who can sign a tax overhaul if one gets to his desk. >> woodruff: well, and we don't know when and if other indictments are going to come down. we're pointing to this day as is this a turning point, but you don't know any day whether something els else, when another

shoe will drop. it makes it difficult as a strategist or a person on capitol hill to map out anything, week by week or months out. >> woodruff: the press secretary and president himself with his tweets pushes forward the idea that no, this investigation should be focusing on hillary clinton, the uranium deal and other conspiracies. >> and the press secretary sarah huckabee sanders saying look at the real collusion, it's hillary clinton and the dossier, which is an interesting argument and one that gained a lot of steam last week right before the news broke that there were going to bin -- be indictments. >> what we've learned about the republican base is they may not all be completely unified around the president or the president's agenda but the one thing that unifies them more than anything

else, hillary clinton. bring up hillary clinton's name, you will get the base coming around to support that contension. i worked in the 2016 campaign, it's clear it's going to work here and for the people in the middle who aren't paying as much attention, maybe don't know what to think, is that really going to cloud it enough for them that they're not going to -- >> woodruff: that's the question because there's no one singular name on the ballot that will be in all these elections. in the virginia governor's race in which we'll talk about next week or in the races next year, tam. >> that's it. if anything, what it does is impacts enthusiasm from the republican base. if they feel disillusioned, dispirited, they may not feel the president has done anything wrong but may not feel as energized to come out and vote and supportups. and energized amy walter and energized tamera keith. "politics monday." thank you both. >> you're welcome.

>> woodruff: spain's central government moved to take full control of the government of catalonia today. the province declared independence this past friday, after a referendum to leave spain earlier this month. but the leader of that secessionist move was missing in action today amid tough charges leveled by spain's top law enforcement official. special correspondent malcolm brabant reports from barcelona >> reporter: the police guard at catalan government headquarters was in a relaxed mood as barcelona waited to see whether independence leader carles puigdemont would turn up for work on the day madrid laid down the law on his province's divorce attempt. in the main square, independence supporters like student joan correa, were trying to be defiant. >> i'm here with hope, with hope that we can become an independent state. i think we are. >> reporter: but at the high court in madrid, spain's

attorney general jose manuel maza triggered the start of a prosecution that could lead to long jail sentences for the leaders of catalonia's independence movement. >> ( translated ): as state attorney general i inform you that the state's attorney's office, adhering to its and the public interest, has filed charges for rebellion, sedition, and misuse of public funds and other related charges against the main members of the catalan government that with their decisions and their actions over the last two years have caused an institutional crisis that ended with the >> reporter: forewarned of the prosecution, carles puigdemont, seen outside his headquarters earlier this month, flew to belgium where it's reported that he may seek political asylum or try to set up a government in exile. unaware that the now deposed catalan president had left the country, francesc munoz, a die hard activist, struck up the movement's anthem that decries

spain's fascist past under general francisco franco, who ruled spain from 1939 to 1975. >> ( translated ): as long as there is a catalan alive the dream of independence will be alive. it's a desire for justice that we are able now to achieve. >> reporter: two belgians with secession dreams of their own came to offer solidarity. kevin delaed says what happened here is bad news for other independence movements across the continent. >> i think we've basically seen the limits of democracy in europe here and the european union. we've seen a crackdown on an elected parliament, on an elected government, we've seen people put in jail for expressing their opinions here, for organising peaceful manifestations. >> reporter: only a handful of people in favor of union with spain ventured into the square outside the government headquarters.

but yesterday, hundreds of thousands catalans opposed to independence occupied the streets, calling for the imprisonment of the province's leader. long live spain, they chanted. and long live catalonia. >> it's something that's destroying our lives. and barcelona has always been a city open to the world. we don't want to be forced to live in a new country, bankrupt and destroyed and only thinking about the people who want to become independent. we want to be part of the world. >> i'm spanish, and i don't want anyone to tell me that i'm not. because i was born in catalonia, i shouldn't be spanish any more? and, intellectually, it doesn't make sense. we're living in a world where we're destroying frontiers, we're becoming one. and now someone wants to build up barriers, it makes no sense.

>> we are much better together. we are stronger. spain is a country with more than 500 years of history. so what is the issue, why should they get independence after so many years together. >> reporter: these protestors yelled their support of the constitution which permits spain's central government to take control of catolonia. the mayor of barcelona has criticized the unilateral declaration of independence. she says it has been conducted with what she calls kamikaze haste. and the reason she says that is she believes the numbers just don't stack up. if you look at the referendum conducted on october 1, 90% may have voted in favor of independence, but only 43% of the population participated. and some political analysts who believe that the number of people in favor of independence in catalonia is as low as 30%. >> i wake up today and say, we are part of an independent country?

i didn't vote for that. we didn't vote for that. this is unbelievable. >> reporter: today's legal moves have done nothing to bridge the gap between the two sides in spain's worst political crisis in four decades. but political scientist gabriel colome believes that there is room for compromise. the only way, he says, is to reform spain's constitution to allow for greater catalonian self rule. >> ( translated ): we have a constitution that is 40 years old, it is a constitution that was written when spain was still under franco's influence. if pro independence catalans could participate in these reforms, they would feel good, and consider that this constitution and country is theirs, which is not the case at the moment. >> reporter: but with the european union and the united states refusing to recognize catalonia's independence, madrid sees no reason to compromise, but it has to tread carefully to avoid violence from erupting. for the pbs newshour, i'm

malcolm brabant in barcelona. >> woodruff: now, we continue our series of conversations about sexual harassment, and what can be done to change the workplace environment. last week, the spotlight turned to political journalist and author mark halperin, who had become a well-known name for his work at abc, nbc and bloomberg. five women came forward to cnn alleging he harassed them while he was at abc. that number has now grown to at least a dozen and several have said he assaulted them as well. halperin has denied any assault, but he released a statement last week saying in part: "for a long time at abc news, i was part of the problem. i acknowledge that and deeply regret it. my behavior was wrong.

it caused fear and anxiety for women who were only seeking to do their jobs. in subsequent jobs, i did not engage in improper behavior with colleagues or subordinates. i conducted myself in a very different manner." one of those women, lara setrakian, wrote about her experiences at abc for the "washington post." she's now the executive editor of the digital site, news deeply, and she joins me now. lara setrakian, welcome to the program. it was 2006, you were working at abc news in new york. what was your job and what was your working relationship with mark halperin? >> i was one year into my job at abc news as an off-air reporter, entry-level, get-started position. we were assigned toy/6 cover the midterm elections based in new york and mark was overseeing that election, sort of a boss for a season of election coverage. >> woodruff: and what happenedt< e were working very hard on

that mid-term election and i started getting e-mails from mark complimenting that work which meant a lot to me. i was really earnest and cared  lot about journalism. he suggested coming up to his office to talk politics over a diet coke and, while i was there, he sortaá$ of lunged at , kissed me, touched me inappropriately, still very uncomfortable to describe,éf< sort of felt his body on me, and it was very uncomfortable, to say the least. i sort of froze, left, went and told a few colleagues that i trusted and tried to put it out of my mind for the next eleven years. >> woodruff: you were in your early 20s. >> i was 24. >> woodruff: and you find out then whether this was happening to orthoyoung women, and did you go to anyone at abc news? >> my colleagues told me that there were multiple cases of this happening and that it was sort of understood that it's best not to be alone with mark. i was so embarrassed.

i thought it was my fault. i thought i did something wrong. i was so young. he was a giant in our field, already, and i just didn't feel comfortable making noise, honestly. >> woodruff: so, when you talked to someone at abc news, did you get the sense management was paying attention? >> i liked to think so. i sensed that it was going to go wide enough to make an impact to be one of the cases among the many that i felt had already occurred. that's part of what gave me the courage to share it even with those few people, but i don't know where it went from there. >> woodruff: but you were hearing it was going on with other women, and there was, what, kind of an agreement among women not to be alone with him? >> it was just talked about that way, like, oh, he's kind of creepy, you know, don't spend too much time -- but i only heard that after it happened, so it was not -- it almost relied on this telepathic understanding among women, which is hardly a

way to know what to do and not do. >> woodruff: over the years -- so this was 2006 -- this was over 2e7b years ago. how often have you had a chance to think about it, talk about it with other women, with others? >> i tried to forget. it was embarrassing, but also i hated what it said about our industry, that we could be preyed upon, that we could be judged. i internalized a lot of that, this idea that you're only going to get the opportunities that come to you when certain people in our industry find you sexually attractive, and once you're no longer sexually attractive to them, you face a certain decline. that was really hard to swallow. a few times over the years, when his name would come up, i would shudder. i confided in a few more friends, political reporters who would mention his name, i said don't say his name around me, and they would ask why. so in the wake of this all, they all reached me to express their support and say, remember that time?

remember that time? i knew something was wrong and you weren't talking about it, i'm so proud of you for coming forward. i never thought i would be telling this story much less in the page toffs "the washington post," but when cnn called and asked if it was true, i wasn't going to lie or stifle my response. >> woodruff: why do you think other women have not been able to go public as you have? >> i think there's a generational shift, a mind-set shift. there's a lot of fear coming out with these cases. personally, i don't feel that much fear. i'm 35 years ol'. i wasn't around at the time of the anita hill hearings set a new standard for transparency, honestly. i know there are a lot of women who have experienced this with mark. they worry about repercussions, counterattacks being smeared, but i haven't found any of those things to be true. my grandpa was big on common sense so i tried to look it

through papa setrakian's lens. if anyone would want to not work with me or not hire me because i came clean, they're not people i would want to work for, so the choice to me was clear. >> woodruff: you were saying earlier there's a problem in the tv news business. we know there's a problem in whole, there's been so much attention to harvey weinstein. what is your sends of that? you still work in the news field. >> yep. how do you see that? there are more male allies than we could imagine. there are incredible male men force who stood up for us all along, supported us all along and i think they are also having their day in the sun and stepping out as greater force. but you are right, more women in more industries are having more of these stories buried than exposed and most will never have the chance to come on your show and share what happened. >> woodruff: do you think we have reached some kind of a turning point? >> absolutely. i think the culture is shifting, the norms are shifting.

this understanding that this isn't okay. at the very least, we deserve to expect ahme meritocracy. what bothers me about the sexual assault and the sexual objectification of women in journalism is it pushes weapon out of the feevmentd there are incredible women journalists -- pushes women out of the field. there are incredible women journalists who left the field completely. other women, i've said in the piece, feel terrorized by this pressure to be perfect looking otherwise they have no place in the newsroom. that means women who have so much to give to the national conversation just aren't there to give it. >> and what mark halperin and, theoretically, others have been doing, you're saying, is an outgrowth of this expectation that women be perfect. >> absolutely. these are linked. what we experience at abc and many newsrooms goes beyond a

physical attack. it's the comments some people and men feel they can make. thithere was a producer at abc o controlled a lot of careers and who turned in front of everyone and called one of the up and coming journalists a sexy kitten and we just shivered, did he just call her a sexy kitten? first that felt wrong. second for all us jung women journalist in the news< what does that mean? that he has to think that about us for us to get in the field, to get an opportunity, to get a chance? we're there to explain what's happening in the world, and to feel like we had to meet someone else's standard of physical beauty forevermore or we would be banished from tvland was really hard for us to get around. >> woodruff: what is your advice? i asked this question of sheila nevins when i interviewed her last friday, head of hbo documentaries, what is your advice to young women who experience something like this?

how do you give them the courage to speak up when they'rer sure they're going to be supported by management or whatever field they work in? >> one reason i was able to speak up is i was surrounded by great mentors and colleagues around me. not all the women felt they had that. so i won't pretend everyone has someone they can turn to. but my advice would be to find someone you can trust in or out of the workplace, who can help you figure out the right next step. it's very hard. i know women in every field are facing this. women who don't feel they have the socioeconomic power to say something, who don't feel they can risk their jobsçóñr by sayig something. i won't pretend it's going to be easy for them, but find someone you can them. >>w3 woodruff: lara setrakian, thank you very much for coming to talk to us. >> a pleasure and an obligationd

>> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ >> collette. celebrating 100 years of tra >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new

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