CNN Legal Expert Calls on Todd Blanche to Recuse From $230 Million Trump Case: ‘Easiest Recusal Decision in DOJ History’
CNN’s Elie Honig argued on Wednesday morning that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is facing the “easiest recusal decision in Department of Justice history.”
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that President Donald Trump was seeking a hefty, $230 million payout as compensation for the investigations into him during the Biden administration. On Wednesday, Honig argued that Blanche ought to recuse from the case, which is laden with “massive, enormous conflicts of interest.”
Anchor Sara Sidner kicked off the conversation by asking: “Does the president have any legitimate grounds for this claim, saying, you know, this is about damages for someone who went through these investigations and had to pay their lawyers, obviously?”
“Well, Sara, ordinarily, any person who gets charged by the Justice Department can make one of these claims, can eventually file a lawsuit. However, the legal bar is very high here. It’s not enough to show that you were, for example, investigated but not charged, as Trump was with respect to 2016 election interference. It’s not even enough to that you were charged but not convicted, as with the two indictments against Donald Trump. You have to show something more. You have show a higher level of intent or malice by the U.S. Government,” replied Honig. “That’s a really high bar to meet, not at all clear Trump could meet that. But more to the point, Sarah, there are massive, enormous conflicts of interest here. As Donald Trump said, it’s strange to be in a position where you’re deciding whether to pay yourself. The key decision makers at the Justice Department are Trump’s own defense lawyers, Todd Blanche, or this guy Stanley Woodward, who represented one of Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago criminal case. So we’ve got a massive, I believe, intractable conflict of interest problem here.”
Later in the segment, Sidner asked Honig if he expects Blanche to recuse himself.
“Well, he 100% should. It would be the easiest recusal decision in the Justice Department history. I mean, he’s the person who represented Donald Trump in Donald Trump’s private capacity in these criminal cases,” answered Honig. “But important to keep in mind, Sara, even if he does recuse, even if Stanley Woodward, the other guy who represented Walt Nauta recuses, this decision will fall to somebody in the Justice Department. And you can bet that person will be well aware that the person making the claim is the President of the United States. And that his bosses at the Justice Department, including Todd Blanche and Pam Bondi, have all done work privately for Donald Trump before, and are all loyalists to Donald Trump. So that conflict of interest is almost impossible to cure in my view.”
Watch above via CNN.
