CNN’s Elie Honig Says ‘Of Course’ Jack Smith Thought About the Election While Prosecuting Trump

Elie Honig, CNN’s senior legal analyst, pulled no punches on Thursday during former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s testimony before the House — arguing that Smith’s timeline for prosecuting Donald Trump was clearly motivated by the 2024 presidential election.

“We only have a moment here, but the timing—Jack Smith’s timing—and you’ve talked a lot about this, Ellie, and this was something he was being pressed on: how quickly he wanted to try the president,” said anchor Brianna Keilar, kicking off the exchange.

“First of all, that moment where the member of Congress addressed and blamed the police officers was an outrage, ridiculous, and an embarrassment, and I think undermined the points they were trying to make. To your question, Brianna, the last congressman we saw brought up the fact that Jack Smith demanded a trial date four months out, five months out, in a case involving 13 million pages of documents,” began Honig, adding:

There is no defense lawyer in the country who can constitutionally prepare for trial and defend his client in that short a time frame. The implication was you were rushing to get this in before the 2024 election. Jack Smith did not defend himself, by the way. He didn’t say a word about that, which I found—I found strange. Yeah, it’s true, right? It’s true. Exactly. And he didn’t defend himself.

“They were trying to get this case before the election,” agreed CNN’s Evan Perez.

“Exactly. And Jack Smith has always maintained this veneer that he never thought about the election. Of course he did,” Honig continued, concluding:

Why would you demand such a quick trial date? But there’s a contrast that some of the Democrats made, which is: here you have Donald Trump explicitly calling for prosecutions of people. So some of Jack Smith’s actions give rise, I think, to a fair conclusion that he was trying to rush it before the election. And Donald Trump is explicitly saying, “Go after this person, DOJ. Go after that person who I don’t like politically.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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