Welcome to Talking Feds, a roundtable that brings together prominent former federal officials

for a dynamic discussion of the most important legal topics of the day.

We come to the end of a week of marathon litigating in the Senate that has been, depending

on whom you talk to, brilliant, a tour de force, devastating for the president, or boring,

uneventful, and repetitious.

Adam Schiff and the House managers have stood in the well some 24 hours and offered a tightly

organized recapitulation of the evidence that resulted in the president's impeachment

on two articles, complete with exhibits and snippets of previous testimony that seemed

to leave no doubt of the charges in most observers' minds, except those of the decision-makers

who hold Trump's fate in his hands and appear poised overall to vote to acquit, perhaps

as soon as next week.

I'm Harry Littman, former US Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General and current

Washington Post columnist, and I'm here taping live in New York City with several Feds

and others calling in to analyze the week's events and foretell what comes next.

We've got a great outstanding group of Feds and prominent commentators, and let's get

right to them, beginning with Paul Fishman, a charter fed from our very first show.

He's a partner and Arnold importer and the immediate past United States attorney for

the District of New Jersey.

After a highly successful career as a line prosecutor, Paul held many positions at the

Department, including the principal associate deputy attorney general, meaning basically

the eyes and ears of the deputy and a G, a critically important position.

Thanks for returning, Paul.

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