CNN Legal Analyst Gobsmacked By ‘Devastating’ Evidence Against Trump: ‘Textbook Witness Tampering’ and ‘Textbook Obstruction of Justice’
CNN chief legal analyst Elie Honig said new reporting indicates former President Donald Trump committed multiple federal offenses by trying to conceal the fact that he retained government documents after leaving office.
Trump is under federal indictment in Florida over what the government alleges was his willful retention of classified documents after exiting the White House. Prosecutors further alleged Trump obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them. New reporting from ABC News this week says Trump instructed longtime assistant Molly Michael not to say anything about the fact he kept government material at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
“You don’t know anything about the boxes,” Trump reportedly told her in a remark that was confirmed by the New York Times on Tuesday.
Honig offered his assessment on CNN’s AC360 later that day.
“This is potentially devastating evidence for prosecutors and against Donald Trump,” he said. “Let’s consider the source of this evidence. This is Molly Michael. This is a person who’s been as loyal as it gets to Donald Trump – both when he was in the White House on to now. And so, prosecutors are gonna offer up this testimony and say, ‘What possible incentive does this person have to go out of her way to lie to harm Donald Trump?’ And she’s going to be a difficult person for Donald Trump’s defense team to cross-examine.”
He went on to say Trump committed multiple “textbook” offenses.
“Then let’s think about the substance of what the reporting is saying Molly Michael will testify, which is that Donald Trump told her straight up, ‘You are to lie to investigators. You are to tell them you know nothing about boxes or documents,’ which was untrue,” Honig said. “That is right down the middle. That is textbook obstruction of justice. That is textbook witness tampering. Potentially, really devastating evidence here.”
Watch above via CNN.
