Elie Honig, once a colleague of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, called Bragg’s “contorted” case against former President Donald Trump an “ill-conceived, unjustified mess” in a Friday op-ed for New York Magazine.
Honig served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2004 to 2012 and worked alongside Bragg. Honig, who now works as a legal analyst for CNN, criticized the legitimacy of the case. He noted its “unprecedented” and “obscure” nature and called the charges “inventive” and “inflated.” (RELATED: ‘Rigged’: Death Of The American Voter | WATCH NOW)
“Here, prosecutors got their man, for now at least — but they also contorted the law in an unprecedented manner in their quest to snare their prey,” Honig wrote.
He laid out a list of “undeniable facts” that cast doubts on the legitimacy of the conviction.
He cited the case’s Judge, Juan Manuel Merchan, and his donation to an anti-Trump operation.
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“The judge donated money — a tiny amount, $35, but in plain violation of a rule prohibiting New York judges from making political donations of any kind — to a pro-Biden, anti-Trump political operation, including funds that the judge earmarked for ‘resisting the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy.’ Would folks have been just fine with the judge staying on the case if he had donated a couple bucks to ‘Re-elect Donald Trump, MAGA forever!’? Absolutely not.”
He explained that no state prosecutor had ever charged federal election laws as state crimes.
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“The charges against Trump are obscure, and nearly entirely unprecedented. In fact, no state prosecutor — in New York, or Wyoming, or anywhere — has ever charged federal election laws as a direct or predicate state crime, against anyone, for anything. None. Ever. Even putting aside the specifics of election law, the Manhattan DA itself almost never brings any case in which falsification of business records is the only charge,” Honig wrote.
Bragg opened the case against Trump after Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) elected not to bring federal charges.
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
He then pointed out that Bragg, whom he called a friend, ran his DA campaign on a platform of prosecuting Trump, noting Bragg falsely claimed he had sued Trump over 100 times. (RELATED: ‘You Just Killed Our Country’: Trump Supporters React To Guilty Verdict Outside Courthouse)
“The charges against Trump aren’t just unusual. They’re bespoke, seemingly crafted individually for the former president and nobody else,” Honig wrote.
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“Most importantly, the DA’s charges against Trump push the outer boundaries of the law and due process. That’s not on the jury. That’s on the prosecutors who chose to bring the case and the judge who let it play out as it did.”
He called the case a “Frankenstein” because the prosecution cobbled together the charges to build a monstrosity that “might ultimately turn on its creator.”
Without the creation of that Frankenstein, Honig argues, it would’ve been “laughable” to bring stand-alone misdemeanor falsification charges, since the crime falls under the same category as stealing “a Snapple and a bag of Cheetos from a bodega.”
Biden Breaks Silence On Trump’s Guilty Verdict
A 12-person jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records Thursday. Prosecutors accused Trump of lying about payments he made to his former attorney Michael Cohen by labeling them “legal services.” Prosecutors argued the money was actually to secure a non-disclosure agreement from porn star Stormy Daniels.
Each of the 34 counts holds up to four years maximum penalty, though the sentences would likely run concurrently, according to Politico.
Following the verdict, Trump’s campaign donation website crashed. The Trump campaign announced a record $34.8 million in small donations, almost double the previous biggest day on their donation platform, campaign strategists said in a statement.
