CNN's Elie Honig demolishes Barr's 'incredibly weak' excuse for giving Trump a pass on obstruction

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig on Wednesday took a hammer to Attorney General Bill Barr's justification for letting President Donald Trump off the hook for obstructing justice.

After watching Barr's performance during a Senate hearing, Honig said he was stunned at how poorly the attorney general defended his own actions surrounding the decision to clear Trump of obstruction of justice based on the findings in special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

"How did you come to the conclusion that all 11 potentially obstructive acts [listed in Mueller's report] were not enough?" he asked rhetorically. "All he had was there was no underlying crime. We know, as a matter of law, it doesn't matter if there is an underlying crime! It doesn't matter! You can still charge obstruction!"

Honig then went on to list some high-profile cases -- ranging from Martha Stewart to Roger Stone -- in which a person has been charged with obstructing justice despite not being charged with an underlying crime.

"Mueller refutes [Barr's rationale] that in the report," Honig said. "He said there are plenty of good reasons why people obstruct. Maybe it is in the gray areas -- potential criminality -- maybe they want to avoid personal embarrassment. That was incredibly weak from William Barr."

Watch the video below.