CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig was blown away after hearing President Donald Trump’s answer to a question about whether he would pardon convicted sex trafficker and close Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
“It’s the easiest question in human history,” Honig told host Michael Smerconish on Saturday, quoting colleague Kevin Liptak as appropriately asking, “Are you kidding me?”
On Friday, following the news that the Justice Department’s No. 2 official had met with Maxwell in federal prison, a reporter asked Trump if he would consider a pardon or commutation for her.
“It’s something I haven’t thought about,” Trump replied. “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”
Honig expressed bewilderment at the answer.
20 Years OfFreeJournalism
Your Support Fuels Our Mission
Your Support Fuels Our Mission
“A pardon for the single worst, or No. 2 after Jeffrey Epstein, worst child sex trafficker in modern history?” he said. “Absolutely not. N-O.”
Ultimately, Honig said it was “hard to imagine” that Trump would pardon Maxwell, though he noted “other people who I know who are closer to Donald Trump and who have worked with him in the past say it could well happen.”
Trump is facing escalating demands to release the files related to the case against the late Epstein, as the press continues to dig into his past friendship with the disgraced financier. The president left the country on Friday for a golf-heavy trip to Scotland, and was bombarded with questions about Epstein from reporters before takeoff and after touchdown.