Former prosecutor makes the case for putting Trump on an ankle monitor
September 05, 2023
A legal expert on Tuesday said that as a presidential candidate, Donald Trump’s public comments in connection with his sprawling legal woes present unique challenges for prosecutors and could lead to a request to have his movements monitored.
Former federal prosecutor Eli Honig during an appearance on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” said should Trump violate terms of his bail agreement, it would be unthinkable for prosecutors to ask that the former president be jailed.
Honig’s comments follow special counsel Jack Smith filing a sealed motion earlier Tuesday, the contents of which are not publicly known. In response to a request to vacate the motion, Smith argued that “defendants' daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool in this case, as described in the Government’s motion.”
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Among the bail conditions is the demand: "The Defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice."
It includes, "The Defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against any codefendant." Another specifically cites no threats against witnesses.
“This is a dilemma for prosecutors,” Honig said.
“I'm trying to picture what I would do in their scenario. On the one hand…there's no realistic way prosecutors are going to say to the judge, ‘Lock up this presidential candidate because of a bail violation.'"
“On the other hand, in a normal case, if you had somebody committing everyday violations, as the prosecutors have had said here, you would immediately go to the judge and say ‘we need to lock this person up.’ So it sounds to me there's a lot we don't know, it sounds to me like they're looking for some workable middle ground to get some handle on his public statements.”
“A lot of this is under seal any idea what it could be about?” Cooper asked.
“I imagine, I'm speculating here based on my own experience, that they're asking the judge to either bring Donald Trump in and give him a talking to, what good that will do, who knows, or to perhaps propose some other bail restrictions short of locking him up, perhaps.”
Honig described a problem only an ankle monitor would solve: “I mean, in some cases, you could put restrictions on a person's movements, they would have to report into a pretrial services officer."
Said Cooper: “He's running for president, this is such unchartered territory.”
“Exactly,” Honig said. “I mean, that's why this is a difficult spot for prosecutors. You can't let it go and do nothing, but you also can't lock him up realistically, so they're looking for some middle ground.”
Watch the video below or at the link here.
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