Professor Miriam Baer Discusses Manafort Trial with CBS News

Professor Miriam Baer, an expert in criminal law, spoke with CBS News about the trial of Paul Manafort and other related news, as jury deliberations began in the trial of the former chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Appearing in an August 16 segment of “Red & Blue,” Baer, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, shared her perspective on the prosecution’s case with host Elaine Quijano.

“I was struck by the prosecutor’s opening line that this is a story about lying. It’s a very simplistic and powerful statement,” said Baer. “This is about a guy who lied to get money, and when money was running out, he lied to get more money…Having the word out there—'lie, lie, lie’— [prosecutors hope] that is a word the jurors remember and keep in mind as they’re plowing through all of this evidence and these different counts.”

The discussion also touched on former CIA Director John O. Brennan’s assertion that “collusion” between President Donald Trump and Russia took place. “‘Collusion’ doesn’t have any meaning in the legal world,” she said. “[What matters is whether there] was agreement between two or more people to violate the law and what were the laws he was trying to violate.”

Trump’s retaliatory stripping of Brennan’s security clearance, however, could come back to haunt him, Baer said. “There’s a pattern now of when Mr. Trump is unhappy with someone and believes that person has something to do with what he calls ‘this rigged investigation,’ he punishes them, and he then openly says in a tweet, ‘Yeah, I punished him, and here’s why.’ It’s important because later if there is an attempt to demonstrate an obstructive mindset, this becomes a piece of that puzzle.”

At the Law School, Baer is associate director of the Center for the Study of Business Law and Regulation and teaches in the areas of corporate law, white collar crime, criminal law, and criminal procedure. She has been a frequent commentator on legal issues related to the Mueller investigation.

Watch the CBS News segment about the Manafort trial here.