CNN legal analyst Michael Zeldin called the network out on Thursday for leaving significant context out of a clip they ran from the attorney general’s testimony before Congress.
Zeldin appeared to discuss Nancy Pelosi accusing William Barr of lying to Congress under oath. Zeldin noted that there’s a very high bar for any attempt to accuse Barr of perjury, and his overall view was that Barr’s testimony was “an intent to mislead or an attempt not to answer the question, but not rising to the level that is a prosecutable crime.”
“I think Pelosi’s response was more visceral — that this guy is just not being forthcoming with us, rather than this guy committed an actionable, criminal offense that the United States attorney’s office in the District of Columbia should consider prosecution for. But I may be wrong. She may really think that those questions and answer by [Congressman Charlie] Crist and [Senator Chris] Van Hollen were specific enough and the answer was specific enough to support a lie. I don’t think so though.”
CNN’s Kate Bolduan then played footage of Barr’s testimony to Crist, which has come under scrutiny since the AG didn’t mention that Robert Mueller sent him a letter complaining about how he characterized the special counsel’s findings. When Zeldin reentered the panel’s conversation, he said the clip CNN ran left out a crucial
“He goes on to say, ‘but I suspect that they probably wanted more information to be released.’ So he continues his answer. And it’s the continuation of that answer that I think undermines the possibility that this is a prosecutable offense.”
Watch above, via CNN.