Elie Honig Calls Out Trump’s ‘Tired and Tiresome Claim’ His NYC Criminal Trial is Election Interference: ‘If Proven, This Is a Crime’

Former President Donald Trump delivered a rant outside a New York City courthouse on Thursday before a hearing on his hush money case, and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig swiftly corrected several of his claims.

CNN anchor John Berman opened up the conversation with a quick factcheck of his own, saying: “Donald Trump manipulating the moment, a campaign stop on his way inside a Manhattan court where he is facing charges. Local charges. New York charges, not federal charges, despite what he said.” Berman then turned to Honig, who immediately dismissed the contents of Trump’s rant:

So first of all, we have to address the tired and tiresome claim that this is all coming out of the Biden White House. This is a state case. There’s zero evidence whatsoever that [President] Joe Biden or the administration had anything to do with this prosecution.

Second of all, Donald Trump said, “This is not a crime.” There’s a fair debate about how serious this is, but this is a crime if proven as alleged in the indictment. There’s some question about whether it would be just a misdemeanor, falsification of business records, or a higher level felony. But under any reasonable construction, if proven, this is a crime.

And the third thing Donald Trump said that I noted is he said there’s absolutely no case here. This is a debatable case. It will be tried to a jury, but this is a case that has a good faith basis. There’s a basis of fact in the indictment. It will be up to a jury.

Judge Juan Merchan set a court date of March 25, rejecting Trump’s request to dismiss the case.

Watch the video above via CNN.

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