Appearing on CNN on Thursday morning, the former GOP head of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence scoffed at President Donald Trump's suggestion that witnesses to a crime a should be banned from "flipping" as part of a plea deal.
Speaking with Fox News on Thursday morning, Trump told Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt that he was opposed to witnesses negotiating with prosecutors.
“It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal,” Trump explained.“You get 10 years in jail. But if you say bad things about somebody, if you make up stories.”
“They make up things and now they go from 10 years to they are a national hero,” he added.
Asked about Trump's comments, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who also served in the FBI, dismissed Trump's comments as nonsensical.
"Cooperating witnesses are the cornerstone of justice and, listen, this happens all the time," Rogers explained.
He then turned to Trump insiders Paul Manafort -- who may now seek to lessen jail time by talking after being convicted -- and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen who reached a plea deal this week after pointing the finger at the president over hush money payoffs to an adult film star and a Playboy playmate.
"I always believed once these folks were facing the full weight of the responsibility of their criminal actions, all of them, Manafort, others, that they're going to start thinking, 'Hey, I'm not going to go to jail for 60 or 70 years or whatever the charges are. I'm going to try to cut a better deal here.'" Rogers remarked.
"Cohen had that written all over him right up-front," he continued. "And again, it's the cornerstone of our justice system, to say that that it should be illegal."
"That's fundamentally not understanding how justice is brought about here in the United States," he concluded.
You can watch the video below via CNN:
