CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig knocked Donald Trump for failing to outright dismiss pardoning convicted Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison after she was convicted in 2021 of recruiting and grooming multiple teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
Asked about a potential pardon for Maxwell at the White House on Friday, Trump did not rule out the possibility.
He told reporters that he “hadn’t thought about” pardoning Maxwell or commuting her sentence, adding, “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”
On Saturday, Honig argued that the question of pardoning Maxwell is the “easiest question in human history” and Trump fumbled.
“It’s the easiest question in human history….a pardon for the single worst, or number two after Jeffrey Epstein, worst child sex trafficker in modern history? Absolutely not,” Honig said in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “Instead we get the, ‘haven’t thought about it, I have the right.’ He’s right, he has the right.”
Honig noted that Trump has used similar language in the past before ultimately issuing the pardon, citing Roger Stone and Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Though Honig believes Trump will not actually follow through and pardon Maxwell, sources close to the president told him it is possible.
“It’s still hard for me to believe that Donald Trump will actually pardon or commute Ghislaine Maxwell for similar reasons that we talked about, but other people who I know who are closer to Donald Trump and who have worked with them in the past say it could well happen,” he said. “So I’m not going to bet either way on that, but boy, that’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?”
