‘You Guys Would’ve Been Calling for Impeachment’: Abby Phillip Calls Out Republican Defending Prosecution of Trump Political Foe
Friday’s edition of CNN NewsNight delved into a wild report about Attorney General Pam Bondi not knowing that one of her employees was about to indict a longtime nemesis of their boss, President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Lindsey Halligan, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges of bank fraud and making a false statement on a mortgage application. The charges come just weeks after Trump criticized Bondi in a public social media post that, according to White House officials, was intended to be a private message. Trump had called for the prosecution of James, as well as former FBI Director James Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
James had overseen the prosecution of the Trump Organization in a civil fraud case that resulted in a judgment against Trump of hundreds of millions of dollars. However, the judgment was thrown out on appeal.
On Friday, ABC News reported that Bondi “and other senior leadership of the Justice Department were caught off guard Thursday by news that the Trump-installed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia had presented.”
Republicans have by and large defended the DOJ’s actions.
On NewsNight, Phillip reviewed the facts of the matter and said if a Democratic president had directed his attorney general to prosecute a political enemy, Republicans would be livid.
“If it were President Biden and he had sent a direct message that was made public directing his attorney general to prosecute someone, you guys would have been calling for impeachment,” she said to GOP strategist Lance Trover.
“So, is the issue that we just didn’t see Biden do it online, and they went after [Trump] and tried to throw him in jail anyway,” Trover said of the federal cases against Trump, in which Trump tried to overturn an election and retained government documents after leaving office. “He just didn’t do it on social media?”
“I think the issue is that there’s no evidence that it happened at all, whereas now we actually have evidence that it happened,” Phillip retorted.
Trover responded by noting that James has pledged to prosecute Trump.
“Lance, the question was pretty simple,” Phillip replied. “If this fact pattern were applied to a different president, if President Biden had said, ‘Hey, Attorney General Bondi, why aren’t you prosecuting my political enemy?’ you all would have said, ‘Impeach the man.’ Would you not have said that?”
“No, no, I don’t think so at all,” Trover insisted.
Watch above via CNN.
