"I was asked by the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District to stand down on our investigation, and as someone who respects that office a great deal and believing that they might perhaps have the best laws to investigate, I did so."--Cyrus Vance Jr.,  former Manhattan District Attorney, to Chuck Todd, NBC's Meet the Press.

For a year and a half, at the request of the Southern District of New York, the Manhattan D.A.'s office "hit the pause button" on the hush-money case, Vance elaborated on MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki. "I was surprised, after Michael Cohen pleaded guilty, that the investigation from the Southern District on that issue did not go forward. By that time we had moved on to other matters," including the "two-year saga" to obtain Trump's tax returns, which led to an indictment of the Trump Organization four months later and guilty verdicts a year after that.