CNN’s Elie Honig Throws Cold Water On Trump Threat To Sue Over Bombshell Epstein Story: ‘Surprise’ If He Wins

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig threw cold water on President Donald Trump’s threat to sue The Wall Street Journal over their bombshell Trump-Jeffrey Epstein story.

Trump flipped out and threatened to sue after the WSJ dropped a hotly anticipated profile of the Trump-Epstein relationship that included a highly suggestive note — which Trump vehemently denied writing.

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip led off with a recap of the story and Trump’s threat, then asked Honig how “credible” the threat was.

Honig said that knowing WSJ’s reputation and the “high legal bar,” a Trump win doesn’t seem likely:

PHILLIP: The story Donald Trump wants silenced just got louder, because tonight The Wall Street Journal is out with new revelations about the president and his past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The Journal is reporting that a collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003 included a note bearing Trump’s name and that it contained several lines of typewritten text in an outline of a naked woman.

According to the paper, the drawing depicts a woman’s breasts and a squiggly Donald signature in place of pubic hair. The paper also adds that the note ends with the line, “Happy birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump is denying the entire thing. He told the Journal, quote, this is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words. He also threatened to sue the Journal, saying, quote, just like I sued everyone else, he’s going to sue them and its owner, Rupert Murdoch.

Joining us in our fifth seat at the table, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. This is an extraordinary escalation. I’m not going to lie, I’m not sure I saw this quite what this was coming.

But, first of all, just on the legal front, Elie, the threat to sue over the existence of this letter, whether he himself wrote it or not, how credible?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I’m sure he will sue. I mean, he has shown that he is ready, willing, and able to sue media organizations at the drop of a hat. If he does sue, it’s going to be really tough because the legal burden here is very high, because Donald Trump is of course, a public figure. So it’s harder to win a defamation suit. He really has to show two things, first of all, that The Wall Street Journal defamed him that the statements here were damaging to him. That seems clear.

The harder part though, is going to be to show that they acted with what we call actual malice, meaning that they knew that what they reported was false or that they were reckless as to its falsity. That’s the really hard part to show.

Wall Street Journal, I believe they tend to know what they’re doing. They tend to have their stuff buttoned up. So, it wouldn’t surprise me if he sues and it would surprise me if he wins. Not knowing the facts, but just knowing how high the legal bar is.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.