After President Donald Trump pardoned retired General Mike Flynn, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said the move was a “wild abuse of power” because he and other CNN regulars failed to inform viewers of the ex-national security adviser’s case .
In contrast, Fox News viewers were much better informed when legal analysts such as Jonathan Turley and Gregg Jarrett argued that General Flynn had not done anything illegal and was pressured to plead guilty of underwriting his son from fending off a similar persistent investigation.
CNN presenter Brooke Baldwin pocketed the segment on Thursday afternoon, clearly sounding General Flynn guilty: “President Trump apologizes to Michael Flynn, a man who admitted to lying to the FBI more than once and the president is said to have only just started. “
After a commercial break, she read President Trump’s tweet pardoning Flynn and recalled the Democrats calling the move an “abuse of power” before moving on to Honey to respond. Pointing this out to him, she repeated, “And again, just remind everyone, you know, this is a guy who pleaded guilty more than once to lying to the FBI.”
With no argument in favor of the pardon, Honey was all negative, as he predicted: “It is worth pausing for a second to understand what a savage abuse of power this is. I mean, law students in 20, 30 years from now will be studying this. This will be high on the list of the most dubious pardons we have ever seen in our history. “
A little later he replayed how corrupt he found it:
This really makes it a unique abuse of power – Michael Flynn was in the process of working with prosecutors – with Robert Mueller – when the President began circulating this pardon option. And here we are a few years later – Flynn got paid in full – he didn’t cooperate. And I think that’s what sets this apart from other historical dubious pardons we’ve seen.
When asked by Baldwin who else could pardon President Trump, Honey wildly speculated that the president could pardon several others, including his daughter Ivanka and himself:
Oh boy. All right, let’s see. We have – you have to look at the other people from the Mueller case – Paul Manafort, Roger Stone. His verdict has been commuted – now he is advocating the whole apology. Why not? Trump distributes them like candy. George Papadopoulos, other political allies. Family members – possibly Don Junior, possibly Ivanka. Jared Kushner’s father was convicted of federal crimes in federal court here in New Jersey several years ago. And then of course the big question: will the president have the gall to forgive himself?
On Wednesday morning, when CNN’s New Day discussed the expectation that Flynn would be pardoned, the show also made no argument for such a move, and correspondent Jeremy Diamond described the Justice Department’s move to drop the case as “irregular.” “California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff was also allowed to come on the show and react negatively to the anticipated pardon.
In contrast, Fox News liberal legal analyst Jonathan Turley argued on Thursday at Fox & Friends that General Flynn did not commit a crime, was financially ruined to pay the legal fees, and pleaded guilty to prevent that his son is attacked in a similar way.
He also recalled that the FBI agents who originally interviewed Flynn did not believe he had deliberately lied about his conversations with Russian officials, in part because he knew there was a transcript of his conversations that they were used to Had available to compare them with his memories.
A little later, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, who has written extensively and published two books on the Russia Inquiry, also argued that Flynn had not broken the law and merely had normal interactions with Russian officials as part of his job.
The highly misleading episode of CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin was sponsored in part by Fidelity. Your contact information is linked.
Relevant transcripts follow:
CNN Newsroom
November 26, 2020
3:20 p.m. East
BROOKE BALDWIN (before commercials): President Trump apologizes to Michael Flynn, a man who admitted to lying to the FBI more than once, and the president is said to have just started.
(…)
3:25 pm
BALDWIN: In a signal that Donald Trump accepts that he could be a president for a term, he pardoned Michael Flynn. And like most of his key announcements, it was tweeted. I quote the President here: “It is a great honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has received a full pardon. Democratic leaders called it an abuse of power, but they may need to prepare to say that again . ”
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig is with me now. Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for being with him. What do you think of the Flynn pardon? And again, just to remind everyone, you know, this is the guy who pleaded guilty, pleaded guilty – pleaded guilty more than once for lying to the FBI.
ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah, sure, Brooke. I know we all saw this coming. And I know that this pardon was tweeted on the eve of Thanksgiving. But it is worth pausing for a second to understand what a savage abuse of power this is. I mean, law students in 20, 30 years from now will be studying this. This will be high on the list of the most dubious pardons we have ever seen in our history.
And I’ll give you two reasons. At first, Michael Flynn was a political ally, a close political advisor, as you said, the president’s national security advisor. We have had a few that seem to fall into that category. Number two – and that really makes it a unique abuse of power – Michael Flynn was in the process of working with prosecutors – with Robert Mueller – when the president began circulating that pardon option. And here we are a few years later – Flynn got paid in full – he didn’t cooperate. And I think that’s what sets this apart from other historical dubious pardons we’ve seen.
BALDWIN: Who else, Elie? I mean, it should be him – Flynn is likely to be the first of several. What other names do you look out for?
HONEY: Oh boy. All right, let’s see. We have – you have to look at the other people from the Mueller case – Paul Manafort, Roger Stone. His verdict has been commuted – now he is advocating the whole apology. Why not? Trump distributes them like candy. George Papadopoulos, other political allies. Family members – possibly Don Junior, possibly Ivanka. Jared Kushner’s father was convicted of federal crimes in federal court here in New Jersey several years ago. And then of course the big question: will the president have the gall to forgive himself?
(…)
Fox News Channel
Fox & friends
November 26, 2020
6:04 a.m. East
JONATHAN TURLEY, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: This pardon would not have been necessary if the judge on the case, Judge Sullivan, had simply made a final decision. This is a bizarre case because the Justice Department tried to drop the charges – ruled that he was wrongly charged over the recent findings. And the judge refused to issue that order and was eventually appealed. A panel ruled against him and ordered him to dismiss the case. That was then later reversed by the Court of Justice, which said, “We have to give Judge Sullivan the chance to do the right thing – end the case and then we will review it.” Well, it went back – and in a third hearing, Sullivan again refused to make a final decision – that he still had questions about the case. He even asked the lawyers in the case what would happen if he just waited for a Justice Department in Biden – if that would change things.
And so many of us have been extremely critical of Judge Sullivan’s handling of the case. And so this is a pretty unique situation. I am not comfortable with the president pardoning staff – I am not comfortable with a president pardoning political staff – but this is not your normal case. I mean, this case should have been dismissed a long time ago.
And he shouldn’t have been investigated. … General Flynn’s investigation into criminal behavior fell apart in December 2016 – by January 2017, the Justice Department requested that this investigation be closed. It was stopped by Peter Strzok – one of the characters who are so prominently represented in public. He prevented her from completing this investigation. And then James Comey went villain as described by Sally Yates. And sent these investigators to see if they could get him to trip a wire, which he did.
But this has been a really outrageous and, in my opinion, abusive case from the start. It is important to note that the investigators he was accused of lying said they didn’t think he deliberately lied to him. When the interview started he said, “Well, you all have the record of my conversation with the diplomats.” And they did. And they said they didn’t think he lied on purpose. But he fought the charges. And what Mueller’s people did is, first of all, there was no charge. And Müller came in and they revived the charge. And they beat up this guy – rid him of his money and then threatened his son with prosecution. And he finally pleaded guilty to ending it. So it was an outrageous case from the start.
(…)
In this case, there is no one to claim that General Flynn withheld evidence against President Trump. He was convicted of making these statements, which were believed to be false during his talks with diplomats. There was nothing criminal in those talks with Russian diplomats, and there are later released notes suggesting that Comey said President Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden said the calls appeared, quoting, quoting “legitimate”. And they were – there wasn’t anything unusual or unusual in a national security advisor, weeks before a government came in to reach the diplomats from countries like Russia. There was nothing unusual in these communications – nothing illegal.
(…)
7:06 am
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: You have hidden and concealed this exculpatory evidence of his innocence, and you have falsely accused and wrongly prosecuted an innocent man. So I know Michael Flynn didn’t want a pardon – he wanted to be exonerated in court, but at this point, if a change in administration seems likely, he’ll take it.
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