CNN’s Elie Honig Shocked at Trump DOJ Recruiting Murderous Gangster Sammy ‘The Bull’ for Help in Comey Case

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig was shocked to see the Department of Justice involving notorious mobster Salvatore ‘Sammy the Bull’ Gravano in their case against ex-FBI Director James Comey.

Honig joined CNN’s Sara Sidner on Thursday morning to discuss the ongoing case with Comey, in which prosecutors are charging Comey over a social media post that included an “86 47” message on a beach.

Comey said he came across the message on a North Carolina beach, and he’s denied any violent intent in the post.

New court filings by Comey’s team to dismiss the case have shown the extent Trump’s DOJ has gone in the case, including speaking to Sammy the Bull, a man who confessed to 19 murders as part of a plea deal in the early ’90s with the federal government. The former Gambino family underboss eventually left witness protection only to start a drug ring, for which he received a 20-year sentence.

Investigators spoke to Gravano in the spring as part of their effort to prove Comey’s intent with the “86” message was violent. According to prosecutors, Comey meant “86” as a word placement for “kill.”

Honig revealed to Sidner he considered using the former mobster as a witness at one point during a case, but after a quick chat he realized the man had zero “credibility.”

He said:

The first thing that I think is notable about the reporting is that Donald Trump was directly involved in this, getting real time updates, getting FBI interview notes on the spot. So, so much for [Todd] Blanche’s claim that we’re completely separate from the president. The new papers that have come out now, and these are government’s papers, these are from the prosecution, show how desperately prosecutors are trying to make 86 mean murder and only murder, and they’re failing. First thing they did is they ran that term through the FBI’s sentinel database, which is essentially everything the FBI has. Came up empty. Then they pulled files from an old mob case that Jim Comey had tried 30 some years ago, came up empty again. And finally they stumble on Sammy The Bull Gravano, a guy who has been off the streets since 1990. So anything he nows is 36 years old, a guy who got a huge break for committing 19 murders and then got out early and then became a drug trafficker and got sent back to prison. A guy who I once talked to on the phone, we were thinking about calling him as a trial witness for about three minutes, and I said, absolutely not. This guy has zero credibility. That’s their star witness now! And if your basis for your case against Jim Comey is Sammy Gravano from 1990 thinks it could mean that, you’re going to lose, I promise you.

Gravano told investigators that a “gangster” would never use the term 86. He did not say whether he believed Comey had violent intentions, but told investigators the prosecutor likely had heard 86 used in violent contexts in his career.

Comey’s defense team said in filings that Gravano’s words did nothing to help the case against Comey.

“While Mr. Gravano claimed that all law enforcement agents would be familiar with the term’s alternative organized crime meaning referring to murder, he also claimed that a ‘gangster would never use that term’ because they knew that law enforcement knew what the term meant,” their filing reads. “Mr. Gravano did not indicate that he understood the seashells post to be a threat by Mr. Comey to carry out violence personally.”

Watch above via CNN.

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