CNN’s Elie Honig Gets Heated Over Panelist’s Defense of Jack Smith: ‘Hold on — My Turn Now!’

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig is calling Special Counsel Jack Smith’s new filing against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump an “October cheap shot” and made his case against it during a testy segment with Temidayo Aganga-Williams that saw the typically even-keeled commentator raise his voice.

Echoing his scathing New York Magazine column, Honig said that “procedurally,” Smith’s filing was “all backwards.”

“You get your indictment as a prosecutor. Then the defense says, ‘here’s the motions I’m going to make to try to dismiss.’ Jack Smith here said, ‘I want to go first and I want to speed it up.’ And Judge [Tanya] Chutkan agreed with him. And that’s why we’ve now seen this document 30 some days before the election. They really flipped ordinary procedure on its head here to get it done,” he argued. “Jack Smith took the established normal procedures of any case and he said, ‘I want to go first.’ Judge Chutkan said, ‘This is an unusual request,’ and then let him do it. There’s no reason to speed it up. There’s no reason to flip it unless you as Jack Smith believe, ‘Well, the American public needs to see this before the election.’ That’s not your job as a prosecutor. And I argue in the piece it violates longstanding DOJ policy to do anything with an election in mind.”

After addressing a separate point, Aganga-Williams said he wanted to return to Honig’s point, which he said he “vigorously” contests.

“I don’t think what Jack Smith here has done is abnormal,” he submitted. “The DOJ rule referenced about taking actions within 60 days isn’t formal law-”

“That’s not the right rule. That’s not the right rule. You’re talking about a rule that I’m not talking about,” interjected Honig.

“But if I could, I think what I find problematic in that article, it suggests that Jack Smith is purposely trying to impact the election. It suggested Jack Smith going first is so abnormal because it’s putting some kind of mens rea, which is state of mind, in Jack Smith. The Supreme Court told Jack Smith to go forward and do exactly what he’s doing.,” said Aganga Williams. “And I do take issue with the framing that this case has been delayed or is going forward at this time because of Jack Smith. It was delayed because the Supreme Court took so long to take this action. It was delayed because the former president has soughted [sic] every angle to stop this from going forward.”

“So I do think that personally for me, I think what Jack Smith has done so far is prosecute this case honorably, quickly, and appropriately. And the public has a right. There is a public interest in an open process, which means seeing this evidence, which means moving quickly and, yes, moving quickly before an election. That’s what should happen,” he concluded. “The people should know what happened and get the evidence that a grand jury, as beyond probable cause, said that the former president likely committed this crime so that people should get to trial as quickly as possible and should not be stopped because an election happens to be happening. He’s a defendant first, candidate second.”

“How many times did you ever file your motion first before there was a motion to dismiss as a prosecutor?” asked Honig once he finished. “Ever? Ever?”

“How many times have I ever prosecute a former president for these crimes?” asked Aganga-Williams in response. “This is a unique circumstance. The Supreme Court-”

“You can’t just say the rules are thrown out because it’s really bad. Then there’s no principles,” shot back Honig

What I’m saying is that a conservative Supreme Court told Jack Smith, ‘Take this back to Judge Chutkan And do exactly what they did,” asserted Aganga-Williams.

“They did not say, ‘You go first. You rush it!’ The way motions work — you know this — the defense makes a motion first. They get to say, ‘Here’s the basis.’ It got flipped on its head. And let me talk about the delay issue. How long did it take DOJ to charge this case?” asked Honig.

When Aganga-Williams tried to take back the floor without answering the question, Honig went into prosecutor mode.

“Hold on, my turn now, my turn now,” he began before continuing:

Two and a half years. You’re saying Donald Trump delayed because he, as a criminal defendant, raises a constitutional defense which goes to the Supreme Court and he wins. That’s not delay. That’s a criminal defendant vindicating his constitutional rights. The delay here is on DOJ. They didn’t leave Jack Smith enough runway.

He has done nothing but frantically expedite, expedite, expedite at every step of this case. You can’t tell me it has nothing to do with trying to get it in before the election. And the rule, the real rule here, it’s Section 98.500 says, ‘As a prosecutor, you cannot take any action,’ People say, ‘Oh, it only means charging decisions.’ No, the rule says, ‘Any action with an eye to the election.’ Sally Yates said it was inappropriate to do just this a few years ago. If you had a problem with what James Comey did in 2016, you have to have a problem with this. You can’t thread that needle.

Watch above via CNN.