Transcript: Preet Bharara, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, on “Face the Nation,” June 2, 2024

The following is a transcript of an interview with Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, on “Face the Nation,” which aired June 2, 2024.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we turn now to the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, who supported Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney in his election. He also worked with and hired Trump’s lawyer on the case, Todd Blanche. Good morning to you Preet.

PREET BHARARA: Good morning. I just want a quick fix. I didn’t hire Todd Blanche, but I promoted him twice. And I consider Alvin Bragg and Todd Blanche friends of mine.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And to be… he was Mr. Trump’s lawyer in this trial. So what does having this criminal record now do for Donald Trump with these other three criminal cases?

BHARARA: Well, that’s an interesting question. You know, there’s a lot of speculation about whether or not this criminal conviction will result in a period of incarceration for Donald Trump. This is up in the air, there are arguments for it, there are arguments against it. But whatever happens, the fact of this criminal conviction will stay on your record if it stays. By the time future criminal trials occur, and if he gets a conviction on the federal books in the future, the fact of this conviction here, if it is still on the books, would result in a potentially higher prison sentence in those future cases. Therefore, this has a consequence, because now, unlike a week ago, he will have a criminal record and criminal records are taken into account when applying the sentence.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Important point. You said you promoted the president’s lawyer when you worked together. Would you promote him based on his performance in court defending Trump?

BHARARA: You know, it’s a very easy thing that I and other people do on the panel and we criticize people’s performance. Sometimes it happens that someone could do a better job at judging. The trials are difficult and there is a lot of scrutiny here. But sometimes the facts and the law are what the facts of the law are. And sometimes excellent defense lawyers, who have performed very, very well, lose, and sometimes not-great defense lawyers win because the government didn’t prove their case. So I’m not going to shoot Adam. I thought… I think he could have been stronger in some of the interrogations. And I’ll leave it at that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, sentencing is July 4th, excuse me, July 11th, four days before the convention, as we mentioned. What grounds of recourse do you think Mr. Trump has here?

BHARARA: So I think they’ll address several key points. You know, Donald Trump doesn’t want to leave anything on the cutting room floor. I think some of his arguments are not frivolous. I agree with what Jan said, that it’s usually very, very difficult to overturn a criminal conviction, but it does happen. It’s happened to me, it’s happened to any good prosecutor that brings aggressive cases. No one has a 100% record on appeal. That said, it is a very low percentage. I think a number of things, including the fact that the judge didn’t change the location, the fact that the judge didn’t recuse himself. I don’t think they are strong, but I think they will be done. The fact that Stormy Daniels testified somewhat at length about some of the salacious details of their sexual encounter, they will argue, was prejudicial and should not have been allowed in, although it undoubtedly opened the door to it. And there is also this kind of technical stuff that, I’m sure, makes the eyes of laymen glaze over. And that’s the degree to which the second crime, the thing that transformed and turned the misdemeanor into a felony, the basis of that didn’t have to be decided unanimously by the jury. So the- the additional crime, the crime, was appropriate, based on the jury’s decision, if there was- the falsification of the business documents was done to promote or conceal or commit some other crime, namely, an election crime in New York, and this could have been done in three different ways.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But…

BHARARA: –Jury instructions, and they don’t have to be unanimous in those three different ways. And that’s probably a matter for appeal.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me focus on this, because this has been something that Mr. Trump and his allies have talked about. In this case, it was about attempted manipulation of an election and related fraud. His allies say this was just a paperwork issue, someone mislabeled it as a legal expense. How would you tell the layman to understand this?

BHARARA: Look, the underlying misdemeanor, and this is why it’s a misdemeanor, is falsifying business records. But the reason it becomes a crime, not the most serious crime on the New York books, but a crime that any crime is serious, is if that crime, that misdemeanor crime was committed to conceal or commit some other crime and that Another crime that prosecutors alleged and obtained convictions for was the illegality of promoting someone’s election through illegal means.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

BHARARA: Whether for falsifying other documents or committing some other tax crime or another crime of electoral fraud. And so the prosecution, I think, did it as well as anyone could do by laymen, because the jury was obviously a series of laymen. But this was a serious thing that harmed and interfered in the 2016 elections. And this is serious and should not be taken lightly.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you know, we’re seeing some rhetoric from Republican lawmakers, including Senator Marco Rubio, who said that Mr. Trump was held hostage, the victim of a political show trial, like the ones the communists used in Cuba and the Soviet Union, protesting against the ruling class. In terms of our judicial system in this country, how should anyone understand a characterization like that?

BHARARA: Well, I think you know, it’s nonsense. It’s completely silly. The trial and all aspects of the trial were held openly and in public. The jury selection process, it must be remembered, also included the participation of Trump’s legal team. They had every peremptory challenge granted to them by law. The judge, although there are some, you know, accusations made about his impartiality, or lack thereof, his decisions are there to be seen, as other people have pointed out. He ruled sometimes in favor of the Trump team, sometimes he ruled against the Trump team. He was very fair and impartial. A jury of 12 people –

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Yes–

BHARARA: –Which were selected and approved by both sides brought the verdict.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

BHARARA: So I don’t know what… what a farce about that. The rules of evidence were followed and complied with. So I really don’t know what’s going on here.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.

BHARARA: Beyond pure party politics.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, yesterday, President Biden was spending time with his son, Hunter. And tomorrow, in another unusual situation our country finds itself in, Biden’s Justice Department will begin a trial in Delaware against the president’s son, where Hunter faces three felony weapons charges, carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. . How much hot water does he have here?

BHARARA: He’s in a very difficult situation because he’s been federally charged, just like Donald Trump is in a difficult situation being charged in state court. But I think there’s an important thing to consider here, by the way, following your question about the- the accusations of this vast conspiracy by state prosecutors and the- and the federal Department of Justice that is acting in a sort of witches, in a partisan way to bring down the Republican Party. Here you have the son of the sitting president of the United States of America being tried at the hands of his own Department of Justice. In a million years, anyone listening to this broadcast could understand and hope that if Donald Trump were elected again, and a Biden holdover U.S. Attorney indicted Donald Trump Jr., that Donald Trump wouldn’t do something about it in the way Joe Did Biden stay out of this? I do not think. So that’s an important thing to remember. And also, another thing that’s happening this week is the continuation of the trial against Democratic Senator and prominent Senator Bob Menendez.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Yes–

BHARARA: –By the same Department of Justice that these politicians accuse of being partisan.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Preet Bharara, thank you for your insight and analysis. We’ll have to leave it there. And Face the Nation will be back in a minute.