‘Horrendous’: CNN’s Elie Honig Reminds Trump That His ‘Payback’ Prosecutions Have ‘Failed Miserably’

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig reminded President Donald Trump on Monday that his payback prosecutions have failed “miserably.”

Honig’s comments came during a discussion with host Kasie Hunt about the criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that the Department of Justice has launched.

The New York Times reported that “The U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia has opened a criminal investigation into Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, over the central bank’s renovation of its Washington headquarters and whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project, according to officials briefed on the situation,” on Sunday. Powell said in video statement that the investigation was a “consequence” of the Fed’s refusal to lower interest rates in concert with the president’s demands.

Late Monday afternoon, Hunt asked Honig: “What do you think this is? I mean, is this just an exa-, what is this an example of? I mean what is the administration doing with Jerome Powell?”

“Well, in a word I’d say payback, Kasie. I don’t really think that’s all that controversial. When you see multiple Republican members of the Senate and the House coming forward as you highlighted in the introduction, basically saying this is uncalled for. Kristen Holmes just reported that there’s people inside the White House who don’t want to see this,” answered the former federal prosecutor.

He continued:

And I think there’s a couple things really motivating the pushback. One, the principle of an independent Fed is not a partisan principle. That’s not left or right, Democratic or conservative. I think there’s people on both sides who want to preserve the Fed’s independence. And number two, the history and the recent record of these payback prosecutions is horrendous. Remember, this is the same DOJ that overtly targeted and indicted Letitia James and Jim Comey. Those cases have failed miserably. They were thrown out by a judge, attempts to re-indict and re-re-indict Letitia James were rejected by grand juries. So I think it makes perfect sense, whatever side of the aisle anyone’s on, to say: “This is a bad idea, and this stuff isn’t working anyway.”

Watch above via CNN.