If you are going to charge him with the other three why not this one?
Bill Maher did a great piece on Merrick Garland. What a pussy. Why did it take so long? It's like they put Barnie Fife in charge of the justice department. To look fair, he appointed Republicans to look into shit. Would Republicans ever do that? Fuck no.
DETROW: So to put it mildly, there's been a lot of criticism at the moment of your successor, Alvin Bragg - a lot of commentary, especially...a tweet from Jeb Bush, who I don't think anyone would mistake for a MAGA Republican because I think that sums up a lot of the pushback that's happening right now.
Bush tweeted, Bragg's predecessor - which is you - didn't take up the case. The Justice Department didn't take up the case. Bragg first said he would not take up the case. This is very political, not a matter of justice. In this case, let the jury be the voters.
What do you make of that general line of criticism?
VANCE: Well, I think the indictment of the president's - former president himself is an extraordinary event. There's no getting around that. And it's an important event, legally and culturally. So that's - my first reaction...The only person who really knows why he made the decision is Alvin Bragg, and the facts that will support or not support his decision will be laid out when the indictment is dismissed. Until then, I think we all can have our political viewpoints, but we need to let the process play out.
DETROW: You said the only person who knows exactly why this is moving forward at this time is Alvin Bragg. You might be closest to him, though, because you held this job and you were DA when the initial probe into the former president began. Why did you make that decision? Because, look, prosecutors - we know prosecutors make choices - what to investigate, what to charge. Why did you begin that broader investigation? What were you looking for?
VANCE: Well, I'm not going to be able, Scott, to get into the internal conversations of the office, which are confidential and some covered by grand jury privilege. But I will say this, that I think it's public record that we commenced the investigation at around the same time as the Southern District of New York did
. I was asked - we were asked by the Southern District of New York to stand down. We did stand down for probably over a year. And then it got to the point where Michael Cohen was indicted and pleaded guilty, and then it stopped. So that was one reason why we didn't move forward at the beginning..