The Daily - The Case Against Harvey Weinstein, Part 1

Episode Date: January 9, 2020

Note: This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence. The story of Harvey Weinstein is a story of patterns. Scores of women — more than 80 — have given eerily similar accounts of abuse and harassment by the powerful movie mogul.This week, two years after those allegations were first reported in The New York Times, Mr. Weinstein’s trial opens in New York. In the first part of a two-part series, we investigate why the case went from 80 potential plaintiffs to two.Guest: Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter for The Times and co-author of “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.” For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading:Mr. Weinstein’s reputation preceded him as he stepped into a Manhattan courthouse this week to face charges of rape and criminal sexual activity, making it difficult to find jurors who did not already have strong opinions about the case.The reporters who broke the first investigation into Mr. Weinstein explain why the trial rests on a narrow legal case with an already fraught back story and why the result is highly unpredictable.On the first day of Mr. Weinstein’s trial, two other criminal allegations against him were released in Los Angeles.

I was at a dinner in New York City one night with a bunch of friends and I sat down at the table at an empty seat and he came up behind me and said, I think you're in my seat. And I recognized him immediately. I was a very young actor, new to Los Angeles. I had my first job or so out of college and I was 24 years old. My passion all my life was to work in the film industry. And he was completely, I mean,

he's really charming when he wants to be. We had been in touch about an audition for a Quentin Tarantino film and that's when I met with him at the Peninsula. He had his assistant

call me at the last minute and say, Harvey can't meet you in the lobby, Harvey can't meet you in the cafe, Harvey can't meet you in the cafe. Can you go up to his office, his hotel suite? That's when he said, well, come and see me at my hotel. And he told me, OK, we're going to my room now.

I opened the door and he just went straight into my bedroom. He wanted to know if I was cool and if we were friends. And he just wanted to relax with me. After some normal conversation. He said, how about you just give me a massage? He asked me if I'd give him a massage. He asked me to give him a massage, which I declined. And I thought it would end there, but that's when he blocked the exit for me. His whole affect changed and he looked like a predator. I just remember that feeling of having to fight off an invader.

If I would try to fight myself away from him, he would then move around to a place where he could block me in somewhere. And he's a big individual. He just is very dominant, persuasive. He's a very big guy. He backed me into a dark room. He led me to his bathroom. He pushed me back against the bed. Pleading that I just watch him masturbate.

He held me down and he forced oral sex on me. And I was petrified and terrified. I pulled my arm away finally and headed to the door. He started following me and telling me that I could get a three picture deal and that he would green light my script. But I had to watch him masturbate. A nightmare. Literally a nightmare. The story of Harvey Weinstein was a story of patterns.

Dozens of women, more than 80, all telling a very familiar and eerily similar story of abuse and harassment by the famed movie producer. But this week, two years after that pattern of allegations was first reported in The Times by my colleagues Jodi Kantor and Megan Toohey, It's Thursday, January 9th. Megan Toohey on how we got from 80 to 2. It's Thursday, January 9th. Megan, help us understand how,

after these dozens of allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the charges that he's facing in this trial center on just two women. Well, after we broke our first Harvey Weinstein story and then Ronan Farrow published his first story in The New Yorker, there were these dozens of women who came forward with accusations. And there were three jurisdictions. Some major developments in the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. New York police say they are now investigating rape allegations. Los Angeles. The L.A. County District Attorney's Office is determining if Weinstein should be charged.

And London. And the BBC is reporting police in England are now investigating an allegation against him as well. That responded by launching criminal investigations. allegation against him as well. They responded by launching criminal investigations. And that's because the vast majority of allegations that were coming out were centered in those three jurisdictions. But even as they launched these criminal investigations, there were questions about whether or not they would be able to bring criminal charges. And why would that be given the overwhelming number of these allegations that are now surfacing?

Well, there are several reasons that explain that. First, a lot of these allegations were of inappropriate behavior, sexual harassment, which is illegal under civil law, but it's not a sex crime. You're never going to be prosecuted for it. Other allegations of actual sex crimes fell outside the statute of limitations for prosecution. And there were women who had really serious allegations who were reluctant to participate in a criminal investigation, let alone a prosecution. But from the beginning, New York in particular was very intent on bringing a prosecution. And why is that? Well, that's because they had actually investigated Harvey Weinstein once before in 2015. That was the year that a model from Italy walked into a New York City police precinct and reported that Harvey Weinstein had groped her breast and tried to force his hand up her skirt during a work meeting at his office.

And she worked closely with the police at that time. She actually wore a wire into a follow-up meeting with Weinstein that captured what sounded like a confession to at least some of what she had alleged. What do we have to do here? Nothing. I'm going to take a shower. You sit there and have a drink. Don't drink. Can I stay in the bar? No, you must come here now.

No. Please. No, I don't want to. I'm not doing anything with you. I'm sorry. I don't want to. I'm not doing anything with you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Don't come in here. No, yesterday was kind of aggressive for me.

I need to know a person to be touched. I won't do a thing. Please. I swear I won't. Just sit with me. Don't embarrass me in the hotel. I'm here all the time. I know, but I don't want to.

Please sit there. Please. One minute. No, I can't. Go to the bathroom. Please. I don't want to do something I don't want to do. Go to the bathroom.

Come here. Listen to me. I want to go downstairs. I'm not going to do anything. You'll never see me again after this. Okay? That's it. If you embarrass me in this hotel, I'll stay. I'm not embarrassing you. Just walk. It's just that I don't feel comfortable.

I mean, don't have a fight with me. It's not my business. Please, I'm not going to do anything. I swear on my children. Please come in. I'm a famous guy. I'm feeling swear on my children. Please come in. I'm a famous guy. I'm feeling very uncomfortable right now. Please come in now and one minute. And if you want to leave when the guy comes with my jacket.

Why yesterday you touched my wrist? No, please, I'm sorry. Just come on. I'm used to that. Are you used to that? Yes, come in. No, but I'm not used to that. I won't do it again.

Come on. Sit here. Sit here for a minute. But in spite of that recording and the woman wanting them to prosecute, the district attorney's office declined to bring charges against Weinstein at that time. They said that they felt like a shifting account that she had provided about an alleged sexual assault in Italy years earlier would make her seem not credible on the witness stand. So then in 2017, as the Harvey Weinstein story is exploding,

this case comes back into public focus. D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr. was mobbed by reporters who asked whether Weinstein's wealth and fame influenced his decision not to press charges. There are so many questions about Cy Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, and why he didn't prosecute Harvey Weinstein in 2015. DA Vance, did you not have the evidence you need? Was this not a slam-dunk case?

If we had a case that we felt we could prosecute and my experts felt we could prosecute against Harvey Weinstein, we would have. A lot of people are accusing him, saying that he had succumbed to the power and influence of Weinstein. Critics say financial contributions by Weinstein's lawyers to Vance's campaign could have played a role in the DA's decision. And had allowed this alleged predator to slip through the cracks. And so that is what left New York in a position, I guess,

where by 2017, they feel all this pressure to aggressively pursue these new allegations against Weinstein? They are feeling a lot of pressure. And so even with all of those challenges to bringing a sex crimes charge, they are on the hunt for an allegation that will allow them to make an arrest. I'm going to put my headset on. Megan, I just have some notes on my phone. I'm just going to like keep open. Sure, totally. And so they quickly zoom in on this account of a sexual assault from 2004 that had been made in Ronan Farrow's

New Yorker article by a woman named Lucia Evans. Just please, please feel free to read it here. Lucia Stoller, now Lucia Evans, was approached by Weinstein at Cipriani Upstairs, a club in New York, in 2004, the summer before her senior year at Middlebury College. Evans, who is now a marketing consultant, wanted to be an actress, and although she had heard rumors about Weinstein, she let him have her number. Weinstein began calling her late at night or having his assistant call her, asking to meet. She declined, but said that she would do readings during the day for a casting executive. Before long, an assistant called to set up a daytime meeting at the Miramax office in Tribeca, first with Weinstein and then with a casting executive, who was a woman.

I was like, oh, a woman. Great. I feel safe, Evans said. When Evans arrived for the meeting, the building was full of people. She was led to an office with exercise equipment in it and takeout boxes on the floor. Weinstein was there, alone. Weinstein told her that she'd be great in Project Runway, the show, which Weinstein helped produce, but only if she lost weight. At that point, after that, is when he assaulted me, Evans said. He forced me to perform oral sex on him. What happened next, according to Lucia, is that Weinstein pulled his penis out of his pants,

that he pulled her head down onto it. She said that she said over and over she didn't want to do this, to stop, and she said that Weinstein overpowered her. I just sort of gave up. So a clear allegation of a sex crime. A clear allegation of a sex crime, and also one that falls within the statute of limitations. Exactly what New York is looking for.

And so within hours of that story being published, New York detectives are trying to find Lucia. So a lot of different things happened very quickly, and it was very overwhelming. The NYPD showed up at my parents' house. They live in upstate New York, and they said, you know, Lucia has a prosecutable charge. And they were like, what are you talking about? You know, they were just kind of overwhelmed anyway, you know, and they said, you know, we're worried about her safety, kind of overwhelmed anyway, you know? And they said, you know, we're worried about her safety, and where does she live, and we want to talk to her.

Yeah. And so they actually drove through the night to come to D.C. and showed up at my door the next morning. I was still in my pajamas, I think. So I just, like, stayed in my pajamas that whole time, you know, and just drank a whole pot of coffee, like a whole pot to myself. I just kept drinking coffee. She says that they told her immediately that they wanted her to participate in the criminal investigation.

They immediately wanted me to go on the record because they said I was the only one that could put him in jail. And how are you feeling in this moment? Are you feeling scared? Are you feeling scared? Are you feeling nervous? Are you feeling, what is it like when, you know, sort of several detectives show up at your door and come into your living room? Yeah, I mean, it was the most surreal thing. I never conceived of this happening. I mean, I was one of the few or maybe the only people in that article that wasn't an actress, you know, and it was frightening to me because I didn't do this for the press, wasn't an actress, you know? And it was frightening to me because I didn't do this for the press, obviously. I didn't do this for any kind of fame or fortune. And so I think I was scared for a few reasons. I think, I mean, I was nervous about what it could do for, you know, to my family, to,

you know, I mean, I know what criminal proceedings can be like. I mean, I've seen a bunch of movies and I've watched a lot of, you know, court TV. It's like, I know how this could go. And, you know, I think that the narrative has always been, you know, that victims are torn apart in the stand. And, you know, why would you do that to yourself? Why would you put yourself or your family through that? And all these things are kind of just running through my mind. And they were positioning it as a very empowering thing, that you can change society forever. You can change the laws. And, of course were positioning it as a very empowering thing, that you can change society forever, you can change the laws. And of course, that made me a little excited, too. I was like,

wow, you know, I would absolutely love to, you know, influence the law and to, you know, empower victims and to put them in jail. Like, that would be an incredible feeling, but also tempering that with, you know, my more rational side. Like, are you serious? Like, first of all, I can't be the only one that can put him in jail. And also, you need to give me time to process this, you know? So you finish your pot of coffee. Yes. You like, you know, you finish this conversation with them.

How does it end? How do you guys part after that? So they told us, my husband who was there and myself, to get out of town for a few weeks. They tell her that they think that she's in danger and that Harvey Weinstein and any of his kind of associates could potentially come after her. So they really want to relocate her, like officially relocate her to a safe location. They didn't think I was safe there just because, you know, I was easily traceable. Didn't think I was safe there just because, you know, I was easily traceable. And they were worried about my safety at that point since I was the only one that could put him in jail, quote unquote, that we knew of. And so she and her husband packed their bags and moved into this house for two weeks closer to New York City as they decided what they were going to do next.

And what did she do? Well, she started weighing her options. She starts meeting with a variety of lawyers. And as she tells it, many of those lawyers are actually discouraging her from participating in the criminal case, telling her that she would be much better off just seeking to strike an out-of-court, like basically a private out-of-court civil settlement with Weinstein in which she would receive money. I met with lawyers who said, forget the criminal case, you know, just like file a civil suit. You know what I mean? And that didn't feel right to me. I didn't, you know, and I didn't even know what that would entail at the time.

And why are the lawyers telling her that the civil route is better than this criminal prosecution? I mean, they basically tell her that it's going to play out the way that she's seen it depicted on all those TV shows. And that means it's going to be really ugly. Yeah, it's going to play out the way that she's seen it depicted on all those TV shows. And that means it's going to be really ugly. Yeah, it's going to be really ugly. The narratives I heard the most often were it's going to be a long, drawn-out, painful process. They're going to, you know, tear apart your background, your life. They're going to talk to everyone you've ever worked with, everyone you've ever been in a relationship with, find anything they can to discredit you.

And, you know, it's hard on you. It's hard on your family. They'll go through your trash and find every single thing you've ever done in the past and, you know, blow it up out of proportion and, you know, shame you and just, you know, ruin your life. Basically, I just had this vision of myself just like being left with nothing on the street. I mean, that's the narrative that I think still exists, you know, but also that I was hearing at the time. You know, it's really scary to hear over and over, you know, and I mean, it starts to kind of become part of you and you start to think, oh, this is what will happen if I do this. You know, how can you not feel like that? So she's put off by these lawyers. And she tells that they're not the only people who are

counseling her against participating in the criminal case. She says that she has friends and family members who are saying the same thing. Don't do it. Don't do it. The narrative that hurt a lot was you've already done enough in a good way, not a negative way at all, but you've already done so much. Like, look at the movement was starting to pick up steam at that point. Like, look at what you helped to reignite. You did your part. You know, you participated in the journalism, some of these first stories that are helping to ignite the Me Too movement. You've done enough.

But, as Lucia tells it, something keeps pulling at her. The criminal case was really kind of calling my name in a way right from the beginning. But, as Lucia tells it, something keeps pulling at her. The criminal case was really kind of calling my name in a way right from the beginning, and I wanted to understand what that would be like. And I just wanted to be able to have the option to pursue it without having a lawyer say, like, it's not right for you, don't do it. And when you say that the criminal case was calling to you from the beginning, what do you mean? I mean, I wanted this to continue to mean something to me, you know, and to mean something for other people. And I felt it always kind of felt right to me, like deep down. And even though

I struggled with it for so many months and it was so hard to decide what to do, I just felt like it was the right thing to do ultimately. like it was the right thing to do ultimately. So she decides to meet with the prosecutor's office, which is a significant step because the prosecutors are ultimately the ones who will decide whether or not to bring charges. And the lead prosecutor on the Weinstein case at the time was a woman named Maxine Rosenthal. And as Lucia tells it, she did not have a good experience with her.

I didn't feel comfortable talking to her, and I didn't have a lot of confidence in it. What do you mean by that? What was... I mean, I just remember there was one thing that she said that made me very uncomfortable. She referred to me and the other survivors as Harvey's girls. And at that point, I think I was just so blown away by that statement and just horrified that she could ever say that about... It doesn't even need an explanation about why it's so horrifying to say. So listen, I can't speak to this particular prosecutor's conduct. What I can tell you is that she's a veteran sex crimes prosecutor who's known for being very hard-nosed and that Lucia

wasn't the only person who was complaining about her. There were complaints coming from the police, from victims' rights advocates, that she was not sensitive and that she was moving too slowly. I can't speak to whether or not those complaints were valid, but Rosenthal's boss is Cy Vance, the Manhattan prosecutor, the same one who had been criticized for not prosecuting Weinstein in 2015. And he decides that he's going to take Rosenthal off the case. And he puts in her place a veteran homicide prosecutor. Her name is Jonah Luzzi, and she's also known for being tough. You know, Joan would ask me tough questions, but, you know, I still felt good about it. But Lucia says that she feels like she's on her side,

that she's being tough to toughen her up. She was definitely the bad cop. I think she had to be because she wanted to prepare me. Right. But I felt like she respected me in a way that I didn't feel like I felt from from Maxine. And I knew what she was doing. I was like she respected me in a way that I didn't feel like I felt from Maxine. And I knew what she was doing. I was like, well, I want to be prepared for this trial. So if you think you have to be tough on me, that's totally fine. So that's important for Lucia. And in another significant development, a new woman, a new accuser is added to the criminal case. Another thing that made me feel comfortable was the fact

that there would be one other person who was involved, and that made me feel a lot more comfortable. Initially, it was just me for a long time. It just gave me a little more sense of community and just like I wasn't doing it alone. And so finally, at this point, Lucia is ready to make a decision. I went back home to D.C. and a while earlier I made this list of all the reasons why I should do it and all the reasons why I shouldn't do it

and all the reasons why I shouldn't do it. I mean, there were so many reasons. Fear for my safety, fear for my family, my reputation, my career, all these things would just be ruined. And then on the other side, I had just written because it feels right. I didn't really have much else to write on that side. It did feel like I could, at the very least, hopefully put him in jail, this person that had assaulted so many people and harassed so many people. And I couldn't say no to the chance to do that ultimately.

This is the right thing to do. I'm going to do it. She's in. She's willing to be part of criminal charges. So at this point, New York is able to do what it's been trying to do ever since these allegations first came out. Yes. Harvey, Harvey! We've accused you, Mr. Weinstein. Harvey, you got anything to say?

In May of 2018, seven months after the police had first shown up on the door of Lucia's home, prosecutors bring charges here in New York against Harvey Weinstein. They charge him with a criminal sex act stemming from the encounter with Lucia. And they also charge him with rape stemming from the encounter with the second woman in the criminal case. We'll be right back. So, Megan, what happens after these charges against Weinstein are actually filed? Law enforcement officials continue to build out this case as they start to prepare to go to court. And Lucia says that she is, for the most part, feeling good about the process.

But even with this new prosecutor in place, she says that she's confused about some aspects of what's going on. They didn't ask me for a full list of people I had told until, like, months and months in. I mean, it was, I would think that you kind of start with, who have you talked to? Who knows about this? And I told them some people that either I had told or knew of me going to the meeting with him or something to that respect. She says that she's confused by the fact that law enforcement officials are not reaching out to more of the potential witnesses for her charge. She says that she'd provided them with a list of names, people in whom she had confided about the

alleged attack, and that even at this stage of the investigation, that they have not reached out to all of those people to talk to them. You know, this is also a case that involves both prosecutors and the police. And she says that she's struck by the fact that they don't seem to be in sync. So it seemed to be a very disjointed process with the DA and the NYPD. And they didn't seem to communicate very well right from the beginning and all the way through my time with them. What do you mean by that, that the police and the prosecutors weren't communicating effectively? Yeah, it just seemed like some things I had told to the police,

the prosecutors weren't aware of or didn't remember when they would talk to me. They didn't even interview my husband until, they never did, actually. They never talked to my husband. Megan, what's the significance of them not talking to her husband exactly? Well, I mean, think about it. If you are trying to build a case, if you're trying to shore it up, presumably you're going to want to talk to the people closest to that alleged victim, the people who have the most knowledge about her. So for law enforcement officials to have not talked to her husband at this point seems a little weird to her. But she says that she's not giving it that much thought. And then one day in October 2018, Lucia is on a work trip in Hong Kong when she gets a call from

her lawyer. I was about to give a huge marketing presentation to a group of executives. And then I get a, you know, a call from my lawyer saying that they were going to drop my charge. The prosecutor's office contacted her attorney and said that there was new information that had come to light and that they were preparing to drop her charge. Wow. Yeah. And she says that she can't even process it right at that point because she's got to give that work presentation. You know, I just had to shut off my emotions and just try to just pull myself together right after that and pretend that it didn't happen. You know, I told my family, and then I got on a flight back home with, you know, no Wi-Fi, thank goodness, and fell asleep. And when I woke up, I was being

destroyed in the press. We begin with one of the sex assault charges against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Tonight, drop. Lucia Evans claims Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004. But new information revealed yesterday cast doubt on Evans' story. The single charge was dropped after the Manhattan District Attorney's Office recently discovered new evidence from a witness that discounts Lucia Evans' previous accusations. And so as Lucia is learning about her charge being dropped, so too is the public. And in a lot of those news stories, it's presented as contradictory evidence that's come to light, evidence that undermines her allegation.

Not surprisingly, Weinstein and his defense team seize on this new twist. His attorney, Benjamin Brafman, says he believes Evans lied about what happened. Lucia Evans, who you will see from the documents released, has clearly, in our opinion, committed perjury on several occasions. For months, they'd been arguing that all of these women were lying. And now they're going out and making the claim that this entire criminal case is tainted, that it's completely unfair. The case is not over, but I think it is permanently

and irreparably damaged. They're gleeful. So her story seems to be falling apart. That's how it appears. How did that affect you? Did you have to have conversations with your friends and family and anybody that you work with? Was this something that you had to talk about or address? I mean, it was interesting because before this happened, I had been meeting

with lots of actresses who I became like a very popular figure for like a month in there this summer because I was kind of representing all of Hollywood that wanted to send him to jail, but they were too afraid to do it themselves. Some of them, I'm not speaking for all of them, but the actresses I spoke to all had very credible potential charges, but they had families and careers and they couldn't do it. So I was kind of doing it for them. After my cases dropped, my friend group and that group whittled down to very few people, you know, who actually cared and wanted to know the truth and reach out to me. I mean, some of them didn't know me personally, so I don't blame them for not reaching out. But some

very clearly kind of severed ties with me, which was really hard and really hurtful. And I mean, I don't care if like an actress comes into my life and then she leaves again. I mean, I never fooled myself into thinking I was close with these women, these famous actresses necessarily, but the ones, like, the women that have been with me since the beginning, that was really, that was really tough.

Megan, what happened here exactly? What happened to this case? Because you've been describing law enforcement officials who from day one have been telling Lucia she's their best chance at bringing criminal charges against Harvey Weinstein. She finally signs on. She risks all that that entails.

And then they handle it in this confusing way, and then they drop it. Well, what we now know is that prosecutors have spoken to a friend of Lucia's, actually the friend who was with her the very first time she met Weinstein. Lucia said that when she went to that work meeting at Harvey Weinstein's office after meeting him, that he sexually assaulted her, that he forced her to perform oral sex on him against her will. And this friend says that after that work meeting, Lucia told her that she had actually consented to perform oral sex on him, that she did that in exchange for the promise of acting jobs. Wow. So a very different version of the story. Right. This friend is providing an account of an encounter with Weinstein that, if true, turns it back into a variation

of one of the common stories about Weinstein, but one that cannot be subject to criminal charges. Why is this only now coming to light? Well, one possibility is that this is an example of what can happen when there's a rush to prosecute. What we also now realize, what we now know, is that the lead detective in the case had apparently talked to this witness months before Weinstein was charged and that she had shared this information with him. And prosecutors say that that detective did not share that information with them,

the prosecutors. Suggesting maybe he didn't want to bring them information that might hurt the case. Suggesting that he purposely withheld potentially complicating information from the case. Now, the detective says that he did tell the prosecutors this information. So that could also speak to what Lucia had complained about herself, that this entire investigation seemed to be plagued by the fact that the police and prosecutors were not in sync and communicating well with each other. But if the detective had told prosecutors, it seems like that would only be further evidence

of this desire to get this done, to bring these charges and overlook complicating information. Right. So that is another interpretation of this, that both the police and the prosecutors were aware of this complicating information and move forward with bringing charges anyway. Well, in that case, what would explain them dropping this case when they did? Well, with all of the finger pointing that's gone on, it's hard to know for certain the answer to that question. But what seems likely is that prosecutors have realized at this point that this information is going to come to the attention of the defense and that it's likely to undermine the entire criminal charge. But I should say that Lucia insists that she never consented to oral sex with Weinstein,

that she never told this friend otherwise, and that she explained that to the detective when he asked her about it months and months before. Megan, what should we make of Lucia's experience? For all the people who have been watching so many women come forward with allegations against Harvey Weinstein, watching what seems to be this overwhelming evidence of a pattern of predatory behavior. It shows how difficult it is to turn stories into criminal charges. You know, her account fell within the statute of limitations. It was alleging criminal conduct. And she was willing to participate.

Right, to brave the spotlight and the scrutiny. Exactly. And still, her charge was dropped. So this is October of 2018. Where does that leave the case against Harvey Weinstein? So in the lead-up to Lucia's charge being dropped, there was actually a third woman who was added to the criminal case here in New York. So after Lucia's charges dropped, there are still two women. But one of those women, one of those accusers, appears to also come with some potential complicating factors. Like what? Weinstein's legal team has produced emails between Weinstein and this woman

that went on for years after the alleged attack. These emails appear extensive. They appear friendly. They even appear romantic at times. Tomorrow, in part two, how the case against Weinstein moved forward after Lucia. Do you wish that you were still part of this case as we head into trial? Honestly, yes, I do. I do wish I was. I mean, I put so much into this.

And when it comes down to it, I do wish I was a part of it. And I also just don't want people to be discouraged from coming forward and doing it. So I would just hope people don't, people, despite all of the things I've said about how hard it is, still decide to come forward because that's literally the only hope that we have. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. Good morning. I'm pleased to inform you the American people should be extremely grateful and happy.

No Americans were harmed in last night's attack by the Iranian regime. On Wednesday, in a televised address to The Nation, President Trump backed away from further military confrontation with Iran, saying that Iran's retaliation for the U.S. killing of General Qasem Soleimani appeared to be over. Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing

for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world. That retaliation, about a dozen missiles that inflicted minimal damage to two U.S. bases in Iraq, seemed designed to satisfy Iran's desire for revenge without provoking a military response from the Trump administration. In his speech, Trump vowed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but in a gesture of conciliation, said he was prepared to make peace with the country's leaders.

Finally, to the people and leaders of Iran, we want you to have a future, and a great future, one that you deserve. One of prosperity at home and harmony with the nations of the world. The United States is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it. And a Ukrainian airliner carrying 176 people crashed inside of Iran on Wednesday morning, shortly after takeoff from Tehran, killing everyone on board. The cause of the crash was unknown, but the plane was new and its crew was experienced,

raising the possibility among aviation experts that the jetliner had been attacked at a volatile moment in Iran. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Bavaro. See you tomorrow.