It was March 9, 2017, when pre-Berara, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New

York, got a voicemail message that President Trump wanted to speak to him.

It was, Berara would later say, a disturbing message.

Why was the president calling him?

Was this an effort to influence Berara about an ongoing criminal case or to co-opt him

and ensure his loyalty?

Berara consulted with his deputy, and, as is now well known, chose not to return the

phone call, and then was summarily fired the next day.

But before that happened, Berara considered a different route.

He would return the phone call and secretly tape the president.

It was the same idea that separately had occurred to deputy attorney General Rod Rosenstein

just weeks earlier, in the aftermath of the firing of FBI director James Comey.

The evidence of a view widely shared in the law enforcement community that the president

was violating well-established norms of behavior and breaking down barriers that are supposed

to keep justice department investigations immune from political influence.

We'll talk to Berara about his decision-making process that day, about his new book called

Doing Justice, a prosecutor's thoughts on crime, punishment, and the rule of law, and

about his possible future.

It's a top candidate to serve as attorney general in a future Democratic administration

on this episode of Skull Duggery.

Because people have got to know whether or not they're presidents of crime, well, I'm

not a crime.

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