CNN Legal Analyst Slaps Down The View’s Sunny Hostin Claim That Trump Case Is ‘Easy to Prove’

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig pushed back on the claim by fellow former prosecutor Sunny Hostin that the case against Donald Trump in regards to alleged hush money payments is “easy to prove” because it’s a “paper trail case.”

On Monday, Hostin weighed in on reports that New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg is readying an indictment for Trump over alleged payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to hide an alleged affair. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to making an illegal campaign donation and served jail time as a result. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the case.

Hostin excitedly predicted this would be the case that would land Trump behind bars, calling it the “easiest to prove” at one point out of all the current probes he’s facing.

“I think he will be imprisoned this time. I’ve been saying it for two years but I really believe, four cases in four different jurisdictions, and a lot are paper trail cases. Do you know how easy paper trail cases are to prove?” she said.

CNN This Morning co-host Don Lemon noted “paper-trail cases are easy to prove” and asked if this makes the Stormy Daniels case easier to prove. Neither Lemon nor Honig named Hostin, but Honig immediately connected Lemon’s theory back to a “mutual friend” – both are professionally friendly with Hostin – and said he disagreed.

According to the senior legal analyst, there may be a long paper trail in this case, but he doubted there is one piece of paper directly tying Trump to the things he’s accused of and the fact that the alleged crime occurred over six years ago doesn’t help matters.

“And paperwork or paper trail crimes are very easy to prove. So you are saying it’s going to be difficult but wouldn’t the bar be really low to prove that?” Lemon asked.

Honig said:

I disagree with that. I’ve heard that statement from, I think a mutual friend of ours. It’s easy to prove the paper crime if the person’s name is on the paper. Here the paper trail can show us exactly how this payment was made, exactly how Michael Cohen was reimbursed, and exactly how they booked it. What I’d be shocked if the paperwork showed is a direct link to Donald Trump.

If there is an email, text, a memo where Donald Trump says ‘Yes guys, do it this way’ or ‘I’d like you to do it this way,’ that’s a smoking gun. But short of that, the paperwork is an important part of the story, but just saying it’s a paper case, there’s a paper trail, doesn’t necessarily get you to the core issue of the defendant or the potential defendants’ criminal liability.

Watch above via CNN.