'Speed matters': Elie Honig fears Merrick Garland letting Trump wriggle away from slow probes

Attorney General Merrick Garland has faced widespread criticism for taking too long to prosecute Donald Trump, and one legal expert argued that could undermine his ability to prove charges if the former president ever gets indicted.

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig is out with a new book, Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away With It, that examines the various legal problems the former president faces or has already escaped, and he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the attorney general needs to keep pace with other prosecutions.

"For all the evidence of all the crimes Donald Trump committed, and I have a chapter saying this is what an indictment could have and should have looked like, every prosecutor who looked at this backed down for one reason or another," Honig said. "That could change. We have Fulton County, in particular, seems like they're moving toward an indictment. We don't know what DOJ is going to do. The problem, I note in the book, is too much time passed. Two-plus years out from Jan. 6 and more from the prior incidents. Time and speed really matter. I mean, we work at a frenetic pace at the Southern District of New York because we know, you have to get your indictment in quickly. The farther you are away from the actions and the closer you are to be next the next election in this case, the harder it'll be to take indictment to conviction."

It may already be too late for some cases, he said.

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"I think that it's just been simply too long for Merrick Garland now," Honig said. "Yes, you want to make sure that you have everything in place, but we're two-plus years out now. I have seen DOJ, we've all seen DOJ move with remarkable speed. My criticism of Merrick Garland is that he just never focused at the top when he could have. Merrick Garland always says, well, we start at the bottom and build up and up and up. You don't have to do it that way. There's no reason Merrick Garland couldn't have gotten to, say, Cassidy Hutchinson or Marc Short in late 2021. He was beaten to the punch by the Jan. 6 committee. Yes, he's moving slow, but I think it is fair to say speed matters. At this point, he is moving too slowly. I think that's going to compromise his ability to make this case someday."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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