CNN’s Elie Honig Lays Out Why Trump’s Legal Cases Will Not Return After He Leave Office In 4 Years

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Tuesday that the dismissed legal cases against President-elect Donald Trump will not return once he leaves office in January 2029.

Judge Tanya Chutkan granted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request Monday to dismiss the election subversion case he brought against President-elect Donald Trump to align with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) precedent of not prosecuting a sitting president. Honig said while the case was dismissed without prejudice, there are many strategies the Trump administration can adopt in order to ensure the case is never revived.

“Yes, technically the cases were dismissed without prejudice, which means technically someone could come back in 4 years and reinstitute these charges. But that’s correct in the same sense that the New York Jets could technically make it to the Super Bowl this year,” Honig said. “It’s not mathematically eliminated. That’s not gonna happen for a lot of reasons. First of all, four years from now is an eternity. Whoever the next president is in 2029, the next attorney general is gonna have no appetite in bringing this case back and you’re right, Jim , there are moves Donald Trump’s DOJ could make. They can go back to the court and say ‘we want to switch this from without prejudice to with prejudice’ meaning it cannot be brought back. Who knows, Donald Trump may try to issue himself a pardon, something we’ve never seen before.”

“So, I wouldn’t hold out any expectation that this case ever gets charged in 2029,” Honig continued.

WATCH:

📺 Embedded media — coming soon

Smith charged Trump in August 2023 with four counts relating to allegations that he engaged in conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election results on January 6, 2021. The now-president-elect’s legal team