CNN‘s legal analyst Elie Honig has dealt a huge blow to Donald Trump as he questioned the wisdom of the US Department of Justice to appeal a ruling against two of his political adversaries, describing the news as “painful”. US Judge Cameron Currie dismissed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that Lindsey Halligan, who was handpicked by Trump to bring the charges against the pair, was never eligible to assume the post and was unlawfully appointed. The White House have indicated it will issue an appeal, but Honig has described the process as painful.
Speaking on the news channel, he said: “They do have the right to appeal up to the Fourth Circuit, but I don’t like their odds, because if you look at the way this broke, it’s painful… I was 10 minutes into teaching a class of college students about the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the need for it to be independent of politics (at the time).
“I put it up on the screen and started…reading the highlights, and at some point, I just turned to them and said, ‘guys, if you become prosecutors, don’t ever do any of this’.
“Because what this decision does is it calls out the two fundamental flaws with both of these prosecutions, the Comey and the Letitia James prosecutions.
“One – malice. The only reason Lindsay Halligan was there as the prosecutor in the first place is because the real prosecutors refused to charge it and got pushed out.
“And then second, on top of that, just incompetence, the inability to return a grand jury indictment and to follow the basic rules.
“So it’s a dark day for the Justice Department. Sure they can appeal, but I don’t love their chances,” he said.
“Thankfully I never had a case dismissed, not that I believe, I was far from perfect as a prosecutor…
“But to lose… two of your two biggest cases again on such a basic defect that you couldn’t follow the basic law of just installing who was technically qualified.
“When I say qualified, I don’t mean resume. I don’t mean how good a lawyer. I just mean met the Basic requirements of it. That’s humiliating,” he opined.