Trump Fans on CNN Revolt Over Trump Demand to Go After Jack Smith for ‘Large Scale Perjury!’

Trump supporters on CNN revolted over President Donald Trump’s demand to prosecute former special counsel Jack Smith for “large scale perjury” while still defending the president.

As the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Thursday entitled, “Oversight of the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith,” Trump attacked Smith on Truth Social.

The president demanded he be prosecuted, writing that “At a minimum, he committed large scale perjury!”

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip hosted a panel consisting of Van Lathan, Jim Schultz, Ashley Allison, Brianna Lyman, and Judge Shira Scheindlin.

Lyman and Schultz — reliable Trump supporters — each agreed that charging Smith with perjury would be wrong, but defended Trump more broadly nonetheless:

PHILLIP: This is question about whether — let me just simplify it. What’s the charge? What does Donald Trump want to prosecute Jack Smith for?

LYMAN: I said I think he said in his tweet, or his Truth Social post, they want Pam Bondi to look into it and whether or not Jack Smith was weaponized. We know that his appointment was unconstitutional.

PHILLIP: So, why —

(CROSSTALK)

LYMAN: We know that there was something going on.

PHILLIP: So, why would that involve prosecuting Jack Smith?

LYMAN: He said to look into it. He didn’t necessarily say to go prosecute.

SCHEINDLIN: No, he said for perjury. He said — his whole testimony —

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: He did say prosecute.

SCHEINDLIN: No, he said his testimony was perjurious. He should be prosecuted for perjury.

LYMAN: OK, and if Pam Bondi is as good as an attorney general as Trump thinks she is, then she will decide that that is not a reasonable choice.

SCHEINDLIN: Well, that could be nice. That could be nice.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: Listen, he also said he should be prosecuted. That’s a fact. Yes.

JIM SCHULTZ, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ATTORNEY: But to the point, I didn’t agree with it when Joe Biden did it. I don’t agree with it when President Trump does it. When I say when Joe Biden did it, we could parse this. You can’t parse this one. He publicly stated and then apologized for it that he thought that Trump aides who wouldn’t testify for the Jan. 6 Committee were — committed contempt and should be prosecuted.

UNKNOWN: Oh yes?

SCHULTZ: He said that publicly and then took it back later on. He also said publicly that the — and criticized Donald Trump’s handling of the documents during the documents case, you know, alluding to the fact that Donald Trump should be prosecuted for that. He did it on numerous occasions. I didn’t agree with him. I don’t agree with the President this time.

LATHAN: Is there a possibility though that I n the situations that we’re talking about with Donald Trump as it relates to the election or the classified documents case. In those cases, Donald Trump had actually broken the law, right? And what we’re talking about now, if it’s this —

(CROSSTALK)

SCHULTZ: I thought we were talking about the separation of the Justice Department and the presidency. I thought that’s what we’re talking about.

LATHAN: What I’m talking about –what we’re talking about now is, if it’s [Jerome] Powell, if it’s Letitia James, if it’s any of these things.

We’re talking about retribution because someone has their feelings hurt, right?

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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