CNN’s Elie Honig penned a damning article about the Trump hush money trial, though trying to walk the tightest of tightropes here. He claims the jury did its job but elaborated further on this trainwreck of a case. Former President Donald Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts, though what he was precisely guilty of remains a whole other matter, which Honig noted in New York Magazine and on the air.
NEW: Alvin Bragg's former colleague and current CNN legal analyst is calling out the rigged Trump case, even accusing Judge Juan Merchan of violating the law.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 1, 2024
Elie Honig says the trial "blew his mind" as he called it an "unjustified mess."
"The judge donated money - a… pic.twitter.com/nCUhMRutxe
Honig is a former assistant US Attorney, a friend of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and Trump’s defense lawyer Todd Blanche. Still, the one area he took Bragg to task for is the “other crime” aspect concerning the basis of this trial. Hush money isn’t either a state or federal crime. Bragg’s team argued that the payments and repayments had to be made by falsifying business records. That’s a misdemeanor charge, which Bragg infamously elevated to felony status based on these falsified records created to commit some other crime.
CNN panelists are unimpressed with the case DA Alvin Bragg has presented.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 4, 2023
Former US Attorney Elie Honig says he can't see how Trump allegedly committed a felony and he doesn't understand how state campaign laws apply to a federal election. He also scoffs at the tax fraud claim. pic.twitter.com/MtVL2htu0j
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As a former prosecutor, he elaborated that attorneys on his side of the aisle during these proceedings are pushing the limits of due process. The jury instruction phase “blew” Honig’s mind, which was the reluctance to elaborate on the “other crime” that served as the basis for Bragg’s case against Trump. Only during closing arguments was this revealed, which is where the due process concern rests. As he put it, Trump is guilty of a charge that “falls within the same technical criminal classification as shoplifting a Snapple and a bag of Cheetos from a bodega.”
This article by Elie Honig, the CNN legal commentator who followed every twist and turn of the Trump Trial, and formerly worked with Alvin Bragg in the Manhattan DA's office, is totally devastating as to the due process violations of this prosecution -- particularly this stunner: pic.twitter.com/PPsuLQMIlD
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 31, 2024
I've been so impressed with @eliehonig's coverage of the Trump trial @CNN. His intelligent, impartial analysis was brave and patriotic, exposing CNN viewers to his skepticism about the trial. His piece on the unprecedented and unconstitutional nature of the trial is a must read: pic.twitter.com/jvu17YyTqt
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) May 31, 2024
This was the craziest part of the trial for me and the clearest violation of Trump's constitutional rights: the defense did not know what the actual crime was until closing arguments. pic.twitter.com/nnYyjcAVXK
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) May 31, 2024
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