'His batting average is zero': Ex-prosecutor says Trump is using claim that has blown up in his face
July 20, 2023
As the federal grand jury that could hand down an indictment against former President Donald Trump for January 6 hears evidence, one person called in to speak to them was William Russell, a White House special assistant who was with the former president on the day that rioters stormed the Capitol to try to stop the electoral count on Trump's demand.
Trump's legal team is making a last-ditch ploy, alleging to the federal courts that this is a breach of executive privilege. But, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig told CNN, Trump has a long record of trying and failing to use executive privilege to immunize himself from investigation — and this time will likely be no different.
"This person was there with the former president on January 6th at the Ellipse, at that rally," said anchor Anderson Cooper. "So theoretically, he could testify to the mind frame of the former president. He could even verify things that [White House aide Cassidy] Hutchinson had said."
"He could testify to things like that," said fellow anchor Kaitlan Collins. "Remember, she was the one who when she testified before the congressional committee, talked about how Trump had said to remove the magnetometers, just let everybody in, who cares. They're not trying to hurt me, if they did have weapons, which obviously is what the magnetometers were for. Will Russell was there. There is video of this tent that was backstage before Trump got on stage and gave his famous speech. And Will Russell is seen in it. He certainly was around. We don't know the extent to what he heard. But the idea that his attorney was complaining before this other judge that he believed they were essentially breaching executive privilege issues shows that they were obviously trying to ask about questions or conversations he had with Trump."
"That tells me exactly that," agreed Honig. "They're trying to get those conversations. And I should note, Donald Trump has challenged a lot of testimony on executive privilege. I think his batting average is .000. He has lost every single executive privilege argument that he has brought. I'm sure he'll lose this one."
"And also, to Kaitlan's point, sometimes the boldface names aren't the most important witnesses," added Honig. "We're very focused understandably on Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, what are these folks doing. But Cassidy Hutchinson was unknown until she stood up a year ago in Congress, and it turned out she had really important testimony. We shouldn't discount someone perhaps because they are a low-ranking aide or a bystander. Sometimes they have the best testimony."
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