Elie Honig Says ‘It’s a Big Problem’ if Trump Is Actually Telling the Truth About Controversial Deportation Order
The White House scrambled on Friday to explain comments from President Donald Trump, who claimed he did not sign the proclamation that allowed him to conduct the expedited deportations of Venezuelan immigrants last week.
CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig found the explanation to be “ridiculous.”
Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which had only been previously used during the War of 1812 and both world wars. The move is the subject of an ongoing court battle in Washington, D.C. being presided over by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who on Saturday ordered the government to return planes carrying the immigrants to El Salvador. Lawyers for the government ignored the order, insisting that they did not realize it was valid because it had been issued verbally. More than 250 immigrants, who Trump says are Tren de Aragua gang members, are currently being held in a notorious prison camp in El Salvador.
Speaking with reporters on Friday, Trump said he did not sign the proclamation invoking the centuries-old law.
“And I don’t know when it was signed because I didn’t sign it,” he said. “Other people handled it. But [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio’s done a great job and he wanted them out. And we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.”
Trump later reiterated that he is letting Rubio “handle it” even though the proclamation features Trump’s signature.
Shortly after, the White House issued a statement that strained credulity, to say the least.
“President Trump was obviously referring to the original Alien Enemies Act that was signed back in 1798,” it read. “The recent executive order was personally signed by President Trump, invoking the Alien Enemies Act that designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in order to apprehend and deport these heinous criminals.”
Appearing on CNN’s The Source, Honig mocked the explanation:
Was he telling us that, “I’m not John Adams, the guy who signed it back in 1798?”… The obvious thing he was saying here is, “I did not sign this proclamation that was used last week to deport these aliens.” If that’s true, if Donald Trump did not actually sign that proclamation, it’s a big problem because the law specifically requires a proclamation by the president.
The law says… the president has to make a public proclamation of the event. So, if he was telling the truth, if in fact, he did not sign this thing, everything that followed – the deportation of these individuals – was all illegal, was all null and void. That’s why they’re trying to walk it back with this ridiculous attempt to walk the tightrope.
Watch above via CNN.
