‘Doomed to Fail!’ CNN’s Elie Honig Says Trump DOJ’s Lemon Case Is Going Down in Flames

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig torpedoed the case against independent journalist Don Lemon by President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice after Lemon entered his plea, saying it’s “doomed to fail!”

The political media world was shocked when news of Don Lemon’s arrest broke two weeks ago. Federal agents took Lemon into custody in Los Angeles over his coverage of a protest at a St. Paul church.

Lemon was defiant then, and he was defiant Friday after he appeared in court to enter a plea of “not guilty.”

On Friday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, guest anchor Erica Hill asked Honig for his analysis, and the legal eagle did not pull punches:

ERICA HILL: Elie walk us through what you see here based on what we know and what we have seen Does the prosecution actually have a case?

ELIE HONIG: I don’t think so at all, Erica! I think this case is doomed to fail on one or both of two bases.

First of all, as Whitney said, we learned in court today that Don and his team are going to challenge this on First Amendment grounds, meaning he was functioning as a journalist to the events, not a participant in the events.

And it is not a crime to cover a crime. I have read this indictment line by line. One can take issue perhaps with Don’s journalistic approach here, but I don’t see a point where he crosses that line from being a journalist.

He’s covering it here. You see he’s interviewing somebody. He’s broadcasting over into being a participant. So that’s… Issue number one.

And then I think he’s going to argue eventually that this is a vindictive prosecution.

It’s no secret how the president feels about, Donald Trump, in fact, about Don Lemon. In fact, when Don Lemon was arrested, the White House posted a victorious social media post where they made a pun on Don’s name and put up an image of chains.

I think that’s going to come back to haunt them because he’s gonna say, how much more clear evidence could you have of a vindicative prosecution than that?

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.

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