Hello and welcome to Background Briefing available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the criminal trial of Donald Trump underway in New York and examine the

prologue to the trial going back to the case brought by the Republican Southern District

of New York U.S. attorney at the time, Jeffrey Berman, which resulted in Michael Cohen going to jail

while individual one got off,

even though the hush money payment to the Porn Star was for Trump's benefit and made at his direction.

Joining us to discuss how Attorney General Barr tried to shut down Berman's further investigation into the matter,

ending with Berman being fired, is Rebecca Roifie, a professor of law at New York

Law School who studies ethics and history. She was previously assistant district attorney in Manhattan

and her work examines the country's tradition of prosecutorial independence, particularly with

regard to the president's power to control the Department of Justice. Then we'll look into whether Speaker Mike Johnson is serious about getting aid to Ukraine,

given how much Israel is a Republican priority and how little time there is to vote on a

separate Ukraine bill before the next recess. Joining us is Anders Aslan, a senior fellow at the

Stockholm Free World Forum, a professor at the

Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University, and a former

member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. He worked as a Swedish diplomat in Moscow

and served as an economic advisor to the governments of Russia and Ukraine.

His books include Ukraine, What Went Wrong and How to Fix It,

and Russia's crony capitalism, The Path from Market Economy to Cliptocracy.

We will discuss his article at the Kiev Post,

Ukraine should not be left to the mercy of devious U.S. politicians.

...