mr. barr, when review nominated for your job? i appalled as i do not have the date in my head it was the spring of last year progressed you know when you're confirmed your job? >> i guess i took my post up in july of last year july 2022. >> july of 2022, so between january 20, 20 georgia one in july of 2022 who is in charge is vice chairman supervision at the federal reserve? >> there was no vice chairman for supervision during that time. >> when that happens, what is the feds a process for delegating that authority to another member of the board of governors or staffer or how does that work? >> i apologize i do not know the technical answer to that question. we'll have to get back to with written request if you get back to me. forcing torah colleges from the charm of administration we did not have a vice chairman of supervision from generate 2021 until july of 2022. that is precisely the time frame colleagues when this is banks and business strategy went awry. and it was under supervisory con

mr. barr, that the fed was aware. in fact, in 2021, your supervisors found deficiencies in the banks liquidity. fits management resulting in six supervisory findings. later in 2022, supervisors then issued three findings related to ineffective or oversight, risk management weaknesses and the banks internal audio function. what were the supervisors making? the law the regulations are crystal clear. the federal reserve can't take any supervisory or enforcement action it seems necessary to address unsafe and unsound practices. recent reports confirms what we already know. your priorities and your work with the san francisco federal reserve bank for president centered on climate change, the issue holding unrelated to the federal reserve's dual mandate and the role of supervisor. given svb social and climate agenda, one must ask, if svb's investments and climate cause regulators to be a bit more permissive of its risks for. if you cannot stay on mission and enforce the laws as they already are on t

so when mr. barrago they were warned well -- you know what, that's not a good enough answer mr. barr because your regulators in san francisco can tell management. you're not doing what we are suggesting and we are going to take further steps to make sure you do and they have the power. maria: money managers as well. >> sure. maria: you have to invest for clients, you too, , ryan. >> i do not consider esg in stock picks because as you suggest alex, you're focused on the wrong metrics. you're grading on how it treats employees and customers, you may be focused -- >> was silicon valley more involved in making the san francisco fed happy? we are not the social police and we are not the environmental police, maria. we need to focus and i tell our bankers all of the time, safety and soundness. so do the regulators and so, look, i think, you know, mrs. yellen needs to step up to the mic and take responsibility. that was irresponsible and reckless. you to treat all the banks the same. you cannot create two ba

mr. barr here. the diversity and banks come when you do your holistic our capital review of banks under $10 billion, what would that look like? >> we are not anticipating in any way raising capital requirements with respect to community banks. it's that part of my holistic review. >> good. i'm glad to hear that. second, i'll highlight, $22 billion as a say in iowa, that's a lot of money. in fact, it's 20% of the entire fdic's fund for this. in order to make that a special assessment will have to be part of this. do you see that being passed along to the top banks primarily, , or how we you calibrate that? response before, we are required law to pay for any cost of the deposit insurance fund caused by the coverage of the uninsured deposits through the special assessment and we have to do that by notice, public notice and rulemaking and we have authority under the law to consider the type of entities that benefit from any action. >> i want to highlight the difference. two things had 90% of the d

in other words, publicly warning as mr. barrgement of the bank is fine as far as it goes but, you know, i was a soccer referee and unless you pull red card now and then without enforcement action warnings are just sort of casually given and sometimes casually received. so i think they went -- as far as they went, they were right for the most part but they should have gone further. i think we will ultimately. maria: great analogy and that's what my next question is, how far would you go. coming out of that hearing, what do you think happens in terms of bills brought to the floor, potential regulatation, stiffer rules for the mid-size banks? >> there's certainly going to be an attempt to do that. there's zealous on the committee that they would like to restore days of dodd-frank and entirety. i don't see the support for that. i don't see the support even on the committee quite honestly in narrowly divided senate and narrowly divided government. there will be a lot of screamig and hollering. the regulations are not the problem, the

dani: a textbook case of mismanagement is what mr. barr said. a pretty strong words there. elsewhere in the markets, yields coming in a little bit higher by 26 basis points yesterday. banking shares were able to get a bed. are markets assuming that the banking wobbles are over it? valerie: definitely a risk on tone and the markets yesterday, a sense of optimism. even over the last two sessions, the intraday swing and materials has risen 45 basis points going from pricing in a total pause for the fed in may 2 now and even odds of a hike. we had the two-year auction last night, which hailed pretty decently showing that possibly all the shorts have been wiped out in front and and positioning has maybe been cleared out. some are rolling their eyes at the recent optimism. we heard from goldman overnight who rose as expectations and the odds of the u.s. recession and jeffrey gundlach on cnbc said he expects a contraction in u.s. growth within months and the fed to be cutting rates in the later half of this year. we all know how painful bear market rallies have been in the past ye

but mr. barr has a conflict of interest.is own agency contributed to the downfall of silicon valley bank. it wasn't a question of something that congress did or didn't do. under the regulations we passed, we put the federal reserve in charge of checking these banks for duration or interest rate risk, and the federal reserve chose not to do so. silicon valley bank is not the only one out there. and here's the problem with silicon valley bank. it took in a whole bunch of deposits from a bunch of venture capitalists and paid them, let's call it a -- an x amount of interest and then silicon valley bank took that money and invested the money in long-term government bonds and treasuries. as the federal reserve encouraged them. go read all of the federal reserve rules. they'll tell you, the safest assets if you're a bank you can own are long-term securities issued by the federal federal government. treasuries an mortgage-back -- and mortgage-backed securities. so silicon valley bank did that. but as the federal reserve is also supp

. >> that's fine i look forward to continuing this conversation with you and mr. barr and appreciate this i thinkmy view is climate change in the economy are linked and the reality is climate-related action or inaction has a direct financial impact on people and our economy and i was wondering if you would be willing to update us briefly on some of the next steps the fed is going to be looking at as you evaluate the resilience of financial institutions to -- with respect to climate risk there's a pilot project started in january, i think it was, of this year. i'm curious how you see next steps there. >> we're doing really two things one is we are doing a climate stress scenario which the banks are already doing, the large banks, the six we're working with that's to understand to begin the process of understanding the risks associated with this over the longer term. again, they're already doing it, and it's something that there's a lot of learning going on around the world actually. the other thing we're doing is providing guidance that banks want clear guidance. they w

mr. barr reluctant to criticize some of the moves of his predecessor. senator smith from minnesota is recognized. >> thank you mr. chairman thanks to folks for being here today. so i want to just start by reiterating what i know some of my colleagues have said which is as these two banks collapsed i heard you say clearly vice chair bar silicon valley bank in particular collapsed because of what looks like gross mismanagement and failure to manage the most basic of risk and liquidity in interest rate risk. the biden administration and regulators took strong and decisive action to protect people and keep our banking system safe and secure. the reality is the action you took was necessary. but it was also extraordinary actions called for. and of course you don't want to have to use extraordinary actions. you want to rely on banks to make good decisions and protect their shareholders and depositors. let me just clarify one thing before i follow up on senator kennedy's questions. the set, under the previous vice chair of supervision put into place rules that

but mr. barr, march 9 to give a speech that touch on stable coins give up specific risks assert the city was stable points in that speech use" this mismatch in valuing liquidity is for classic bank run they're not supervised by the fed and not capitol and liquidity as a backstop, the banks be regulate and contrast are well protected from bank runs through a robust array of supervisory requirements. would you revise those comments if you could? >> yes it demonstrates the need for humility in thinking about how financial risk happens in the system. that is been a theme of basically all of my academic work on systemic risk is we need humility. that is why you need really strict capitol and liquidity rules because of exactly this type of circumstance which is software. >> thank you for that i was least stable coins are backed by assets and are radiated many states including state of new york. the last thing i would say is we have a pressure to socialize more of the market. there are credit unions comp

i know mr. barrctually review these liquidity assets is correct. a lot of this is being caused by the fact that we've had a very fast rise in the rate of interest rates caused by this policy induced inflation. when you have a policy-induced inflation like we got and the fed is forced to raise interest rates, that puts challenges on people trying to manage debt. or trying to look at secure investments like treasuries. the question comes in to place, what length of time do you put your treasuries out. do you go short term or long-term, this particular institution was trying to go long-term and that probably came back to bite them and a lot of depositors. >> martha: you think there's other silicon valley banks out there? >> well, what we don't know is how many of them would be impacted by the same organizations that are out there looking at them saying to everybody else, hey, you ought to take your money out. creating another run. i think what the fed did in this place is that we're going to guarantee t

. >> from kentucky, the chair of the monetary sub committee mr. barr is recognized for five minutes. >> economic data is mixed as you know, strong consumer spending and persistent core inflation and a cpi that is four times your two percent target. on the other hand, because the fed misjudged the inflationary impact of democrats overspending, kept interest rates too long -- too long for too low. the fed has been forced to raise the fed funds rate 450 basis points and 11 months and reduce the m2 money supply at the fastest rate since the 1930's. as a result, wage gains have slowed, credit card debt is high, the housing market is in a slump in the yield curve is inverted. i agree with you that the historical record cautions against prematurely loosening policy. but what would you say to those who caution about the lack of facts of monetary policy? the precipitous decline in liquidity? will the economy have to suffer a recession in order to bring inflation down to 2%? chm powell: we are very well aware of the logs with which monetary policy, economic acti

. >> mr.. barr, you are recognized >> chairman brown and ranking member scott and other members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the federal reserve's supervisory and regulatory oversight of silicon valley bank. our banking system is sound and resilient with strong capital and liquidity. the federal reserve, working with the treasury department and fdic's took decisive actions to protect the u.s. economy and strengthen public confidence in the banking system. these actions demonstrate that we are committed to ensuring that all deposits are safe. we will continue to closely monitor conditions in the banking system and are prepared to use all of our tools for any size institution as needed to keep the system safe and sound. at the same time, the events of the last few weeks raise questions about what more can be done and what more should be done so that isolated banking problems do not undermine confidence in healthy banks and threaten the stability of the banking sy

mr. barr is recognized for five min minutes. >> thank you, chairman mchenry on the one side, strong consumer spending and persistent core inflation and a cpi that's more than your 2% target suggests more economic tightening is warr warranted. because it kept interest rates too low for far too long, and failed to end quantitative easing soon enough, the fed has been forced to raise the fed funds rate and reduced the m2 money supply at the fastest rate since the 1930s. as a result, wage gains have slowed, credit card debt is at an all-time high the housing market is in a slump, and the yield curve is inverted i agree with you that the historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy, but what would you say to those who caution about the lag effects of monetary policy? the precipitous decline in liquidity? will the economy have to suffer a recession in order to bring inflation down to 2% >> we are very well aware of the lags with which monetary policy effects economic acti

. >> mr. barr >> thank you to the witnesses for their outstanding testimony and expertise. as china expert and former defense official has written the ccp is entering the final phase of its 100 year marathon to replace the united states as the world's global superpower and underappreciated dimension of the strategic competition between the united states and at the ccp. one of the reasons the ccp has arguably ahead of schedule and that marathon is the ccp's economic aggression against the west. but i believe very strongly that the united states should not mimic the chinese industrial policy, should not copy the chinese command and control system. we should not embrace overly broad measures that would raise questions about our commitments to the market economy which is a key source of strength in the united states in contrast to be communist central planning policies. in other words, as this committee does its work and as we consider policy responses to the threat from the ccp i would submit to my co

chair recognizes mr. barr. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you for your vigilance in pursuing the truth in this committee, and thank you to our witnesses. thank you for being here odd. thank you for your service -- here today. thank youg for your service to our country. and thank you for doing what many in our government did not do, which is to work to help those who helped the united states in our fight t against radical islamic terrorism when we were there the in afghanistan. and some call this a chaotic withdrawal,so others call it an unconditional retreat. however you want to characterize it, it was a disgraceful episode and a failure of leadership to see 13 u.s. service membersme needlessly killed because we didn't choose to use bagram as a better alternative for extraction and put our young men and women, many marines, in a terrible situation and and our afghan s allies in a terrible situation leading to not only leaving behind $7 billion worth of u.s. equipment in the hands of the taliban, but leaving behind more than 800 american tens

necessarily by name, but david, the fed, at least, according to their vice chair of supervisor, mr. barranagement at the bank for risk and interest rates. >> wave talked about the duration -- we've talked about the duration risk they chose to take on at the bank. something else you want to discuss, perhaps, is the nature of the bank run itself because that's where i at least am hearing a lot of focus from banking executives. we're reading prepared remarks about the banking system being -- >> sound and resilient. i think i'm going to do a word count for safe and sound. >> one question when you take about safe and sound, the rapid movement of funds of silicon valley bank. to put it in perspective, washington mutual lost i believe it was $8 billion in deposits over a four-day period and was put into receivership by the fdic. obviously, jpmorgan buying it. svb lost $42 billion in four hours. >> right. >> $42 billion in four hours. >> can you regulate that? >> i don't know what you do, but it has to be a question for every bank ceo at this point because it changes the nature of your relations

mr. barr: i have an amendment at the desk. the clerk: amendment number 15 printed in part b of house report 118-30 offered by mr. barrr of kentucky. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 260, the gentleman from kentucky, mr. barrr and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky. mr. barr: i rise in support of my amendment to bring home an essential supply chain and protecting our national security all while protecting the environment. critical chemicals are essential in the daily lives of americans, from home computers, televisions and vehicles to major weapons systems, lasers, jet engines and alloys for armored vehicles. and china supports america's economy and defense industrial base. the demand for these materials will increase as the global economy adopts new technologies placing the united states and allies at a growing disadvantage. unless steps are taken to shift production away from communist party controlled entities. this is amp

. >> the chair recognizes mr. barr. >> mr. the secretary thank you for your service. in the readout from your february 18th meeting with the top chinese diplomat it is noted that you raised the spy balloon is a violation of international law but it's clear from our own state department that the ccp never gave an explanation and they said it paved the way for the dialogue between the two sides and the two countries can now talk beyond the balloon. let's go back to the negotiating table and other issues. that doesn't sound like you offered any deterrence whatsoever from future incursions into the airspace. why is that a concern? because this flew over the air force base, our nuclear triad, warren air force base, nebraska, headquartered to strut come, fort leavenworth kansas, the air force base where the b-2 czar, fort leavenworth missouri, fort campbell and my state of kentucky arnold air force base, tennessee, georgia, shaw air force base south carolina, joint base south carolina. mr. sec., this spy balloon should have been shot down osuna said entered the u.s. air def

mr. barr, your testimony makes the point that, as a dominant energy producer within all of the above mindset, but america strengthened its national security, lowered prices, and helped drive down carbon emissions. but the developing world will continue to demand affordable traditional energy for the next several decades. so it doesn't make sense for the nine states to cede its energy dominance in traditional energy to china. >> thank you chairwoman for the question. i would like to make the point that china is absolutely not the benchmark for clean energy. some people like to point out about how much they manufacture, but they produce more missions than the whole oecd combined, and we lead the world the reduction of tons of emissions and china is increasing by three times per year than we are cutting. these are just numbers, these are just facts. and i wrote a paper columbia, i published last week, 57% of all of the beach use in china from all energy use is from coal and it's going up. it is g

i >> and with mr. barr, and just appreciate this. think my view of this is that climate change and the economy are inextricably linked, and the reality is climate related action or inaction as a direct financial impact on people and on our economy. and i was wondering if you would just be willing to update us briefly on some of the next steps that the fed is going to be looking at a sea evaluate the resilience of financial institutions to with, respect to climate risk, there is this pilot project that just was started in january, i think it was of this, year and i am curious to know, have you seen the next steps there? >> we are doing really, two things. one is, we are giving a climate stress scenario, which but banks are already doing. the large banks, the six that we are working with, that is really just to understand, to begin the process of understanding the risks that are associated with us over the longer term. again, they are already doing it, and it is something that there is a lot of -- going on around the world, actually. t

in this role, mr. barr told overseas finances of the world's largest live entertainment and ticketing company. prior to joining live nation, mr. buchtel was president of technicolor, creative services at technicolor and a partner with mckenzie and company, leaving their west coast media practice. jack growth singer, cofounder and ceo of cte. global focused ticketing platform. the company originally launched as an aggregator of resale ticket listings, but now operates as both primary ticket outlet and secondary marketplace for sports teams and live and venues. practical founding seat geek, mr. burt singer was an associate counsel with -- . jerry michelson is the cofounder of jim productions of chicago. chicago-based cow concert promotion agency and one of the largest independent producers of live concert entertainment in the country. this is a return trip for mr. mickelson. he testified before the antitrust subcommittee in february of 2009 at a hearing on the venn pending merger of ticketmaster live nation.

. >> the chair of the financial institution mr. barr recognized for five minutes. >> thank you chairman mchenry. economic data are mixed as you know on the one hand low unemployment, robust hiring, strong consumer spending and persistent inflation and a cpi that is more than three times the 2% target suggest smart aggressive tightening is warranted. on the other hand, because the fed misjudged the inflationary impact of democrats and overspending kept interest rates too low for far too long and failed to end the quantitative easing soon enough the fed has been forced to raise the rate 450 basis points in just 11 months and reduce the money supply at the fastest rate since the 1930s. as a result, the wage gains have slowed, credit card debt is at an all-time high, the market is in a slump and the curve is inverted. i agree the historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy but what would you say to those who caution about the effects of monetary policy? the precipitous decline in liquidity? will the economy have

mr. barr if we continue with policies that this administration is pushing, what is our country going to look like? what is our economy going to look? like we are expecting 45% increase in demand over the next 30 years, in a city, whatever going to look like? >> the key word you mention, congressman, is demand. i think, no matter how you approach this topic, as long as there is a demand for a product, and it has to be supplied from someplace, and, take aside all the other debates, if we are still going to be needing petrochemicals to make this pen, or drive some cars, because they're not all electric vehicles, someone has to provide it. i think we could agree on that from both sides. so, if it's not produced in midland, or odessa, it will be produced in caracas, or outside. tehran that's it, that's it. if we restricted because of the esg, if we respect it because of citing in this country, we will -- it'll be produced overseas, emit more, be more environmentally hurtful for the world, it will b

requesting that you conduct an investigation into the special counsel's investigation to see if mr. barr violated any department policies, regulations or law. have you reviewed the letter yet? >> i was not aware but i certainly will read it and review it. >> i would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record -- >> of the gentleman's time is expired. can you just commit to -- >> we appreciate the passion for the investigations. thank you for the next few questions. the chair recognizes stirfry for five minutes. >> first mr. chairman thank you for holding the hearing today and to the witnesses. i'm going to highlight an example of covid fraud in my very own district. just last year to members of the myrtle beach family were sentenced in federal prison in a third to probation for their role in the scheme to defraud the government out of more than $500,000 in a series of fake tax returns and stealing stimulus checks sent to other americans under the cares act while many people are struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic these critical's went on a shopping spree with money stolen

mr. vice chair barr, did the fed drop the ball because it didn't see the risk that was building?ndamentally, the bank failed because its management failed to appropriately address clear interest rate risk and clear liquidity risk. the federal reserve bank brought forward these problems to the bank, and they failed to address them in a timely way. lisa: senators asked why fed regulators didn't act sooner, with some republicans noting that the agency saw signs of risk and flagged them asarly as 2021. >> the federal reserve knew well in advance that silicon valley bank had a problem with holding too much of its money in interest rates since xx -- since the government bonds, didn't you? >> i think the investing public and the federal reserve, which cited it for interest rate risk problems knew that it had interest rate risk >> the federal reserve didn't do anything about it, did it? >> i disagree with that, senator, respectfully. the federal reserve did cite these problems to the bank and required them to take action. bank management failed to act on those. >> you didn't follow up, d

mr. trump's arrest. nbc's alice barr has more. >> reporter: no charges yet, but the political fallout is already under way. with former president trump preparing for the possibility of becoming the first former u.s. president to be indicted for a crime. a manhattan grand jury hearing from more key witnesses, as it weighs whether mr. trump should face charges in a hush money investigation involving adult film star stormy daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election >> it's not the hush money payment itself it's the way it's documented >> reporter: the former president predicting on his social media over the weekend that he would be arrested tuesday, though a spokesman clarified he has not been notified he will be charged. mr. trump and his allies attacking the manhattan deistric attorney with republican leaders now asking him to testify before congress >> stop going after people because you have political differences. >> reporter: house speaker kevin mccarthy also urging people not to protest, something former pre

. >> mr. barr is recognized. >> turmoil. ambassador tai, thank you so much for being with us today and thank you for remaining in close contact with the government of ethiopia as they pursue reinstatement to the african growth and opportunity ag trade preference programs are and for being so responsive to me and my steps gasper. as the ethiopia agreement if it's a peace agreement with the tplf i would like to assess important of a go at the economic recovery from the recent years of devastating conflict and the court pandemic. ethiopia inclusion in a go it into that help foster the growth of the burgeoning manufacturing industry which provide stable employment for tens of thousands of the cuban workers at the textile industry saw tremendous growth and help provide thousands of jobs the oath the opium limit. since ethiopia was given savon agoa these jobs are disappearing at a concern ethiopia estimate the longest intimate access will push the nation deeper into poverty further destabilizing the country and severely weakening

mr. day barr spoke about prioritizing base load energy, and i agree. hydro power is the base load power that we need. with black star capability and the potential for additional energy reserves through pumped hydro power storage, hydro power can provide additional resilience to our energy grid. i wanted to ask you, dr. unruh cohen, can you speak to the ability of clean energy resources and technologies, such as hydro power and hydro power storage, to bolster the resiliency of our grid as we transition to clean energy? >> thank you for the question, congresswoman. hydro power has been an incredibly important power source for the history of our country. it was the first power source for our industrial work, up in the new england and northeast. and it continues to be critical. i think the important thing to consider for this committee, especially looking at the investments that we made in dams, over the past few congresses, is the water cycle is very sensitive to climactic change, and so -- we are going to see challenges to hydro power. unfortunately, our

mr. burrman let him offq the hok because bill barr wanted him to. answer with respect to bill barr. because barr said çóhey, if thas trump, stop. so he actually interceded when he took over from attorney general sessions. we don't know with respect to garland. there are a number of reasons from the nefarious to the innocent as to why that may be happening andq could be lack of backbone. it could be a concern about what happened in the edwards case because just to remember in the edwards case, there was a defense which was as you alluded to, which was i wasn't doing this for campaigni] reasons. i was doing7 wouldn't knjp!out this. so in manye1 ways, the state charge of false business records doesn't require bragg to get into that whole can of worms. in some ways, bragg has ae1e1 cleaner road to not raise all the issues that were a little murky in the edwards case. but i do@ugr'k onefá thing that important about the edwardse1 ce is it shows thee1 department of justice is willing to go after republicans and democrats. now there's this whole idea they'r

mr. trump and how this might impact the race for the white house. nbc's alice barr joins us live from washington, d.c. these indictments are sealed, alice, but what do we know at this hour? >> reporter: right, jessica. that's the main thing to remember just about the way that grand juries operate. it's in secret while they're making these really important decisions, and certainly this one an historic one. so until that document is

mr. trump and how this might impact the race for the white house. nbc's alice barr joins us live from washington, d.c. these indictments are sealed, alice, but what do we know at this hour? >> reporter: right, jessica. that's the main thing to remember just about the way that grand juries operate. it's in secret while they're making these really important decisions, and certainly this one an historic one. so until that document is unsealed, we're not going to know for sure what charges he may face. but you laid it out there. the speculation is that this is going to be likely a felony indictment related to tampering of documents essentially and the way that those hush money payments may have been put on the books and potentially being used to cover up some other crime. those are the broad strokes of what we sort of expect, but we're not going to know for sure. now, we have just recently heard from attorneys for former president trump, telling nbc news that he's likely to turn himself in early next week to the manhattan district attorney's office. that's the next phas

mr. trump and how this impacts the race for the 2024 white house. that is already under way. nbc's alice barr in washington. she's tracking every late-breaking development of this story. alice. >> reporter: garvin, this is really the ultimate late-developing story. it's something that we've been waiting for to see what was going to come out of this secretive grand jury process in manhattan. and three sources starting just a few hours ago confirming to nbc news that former president trump has been indicted. now, what he has been indicted for, what the charges are, right now we do not know because the indictment is still under seal. and until it's made public, we're not going to have all the detail. we do know the charge or charges stem from manhattan district attorney alvin bragg's investigation into a hush money payment to adult film star stormy daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. daniels claims she had an affair with mr. trump a decade earlier in 2006, a claim that he has repeatedly, forcefully denied. it is not clear yet when the former president will actually turn himself in to

mr. berman. and you did mention that he has this chapter in his book where he talks about getting a call from william barr, who we do know was acting as a fixer for donald trump and as attorney general at the same time but what you said sound like you're alleging some intimidation tactics against mr. berman and maybe against mr. cohen as well. >> no question that mr. berman wrote that in the book he waited a little long to talk about what was basically criminal obstruction of justice, even if the attorney general does it when he calls a u.s. attorney and tries to interfere in a case, and something was amiss in the prosecutors not allowing michael cohen to not come in and talk, even on the friday before the monday they threatened to indict him i know as a lawyer we called after and said can we come in and present you with new evidence on mr. trump? and the criminal lawyer that i was working with said the first time in his career, the southern district prosecutors said no, we don't want your information, and they dropped everything, and the only person prosecuted who went to jail in the whole trump organiza

barr. >> it's the archetypal abuse of the prosecutorial function to engage in a political hit job, and a disace. >> reporter: some ■mof mrtrump'bigges defeerho him for the gop nomination. >> the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the united states on a campaign finance issue is outrageous. >> reporter: mrump's to potential rival, florida governor ron desantis, asd the indictment as un-american and vowed his state will not assist in the extradition, even though the former president plan surrender voluntarily to new york auities. former president trump, his lawyers say,as sho by his dictment buts ready ight. quickly condemning the d.a.'s move as political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history, and today lashing out at the new york city judge expected to preside over his arraignment claiming the judge, quote, hates me. his daughter ivanka offeng a brief statement in, i love mther, an i love my country. today i am pained for both. top democrats are applauding the d.a.'s move. >> this is an affirmatioofhe facthat one should be above the law d that we all are held to account for t