President Donald Trump's angry attack on cooperating witnesses who "flip" on their former bosses stunned former federal prosecutor Elie Honig, who told CNN that the president's remarks were the kinds of things he regularly heard criminals say.
During a Fox News interview that aired on Thursday morning, Trump fumed about the possibility that former "fixer" Michael Cohen could get a reduced sentence for pleading guilty to multiple felonies if he provided information that could incriminate the president.
"It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal," the president said.
Reacting to this quote, Honig slammed the president for attacking the basis of how the criminal justice system works.
"This is lunacy," he said. "Do you know who hates cooperating witnesses most? The leaders of criminal organizations. Drug traffickers hate cooperating witnesses. Mob bosses, corrupt CEOs and politicians -- because that's how they get brought down."
Honig went on to rip Trump for saying he supports "law and order" even as he complains about the prosecutions of his criminal associates.
"To claim to be the 'law and order' president, and yet to be discouraging and even intimidating people from giving testimony is outrageous," he said.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin concurred with Honig's analysis and said Trump was undermining the entire process for prosecuting criminal organizations.
"The whole structure of how federal prosecutions work is based on the idea of working from the bottom up," he said. "That's why federal law enforcement is so successful."
Watch the video below.
