'Never expected this': Michael Cohen's 'fascinating social experiment' floors expert

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former attorney, seems to have cooked up what one legal expert described as a "fascinating social experiment."

Cohen appeared on CNN's Thursday broadcast of "The Lead" with Jake Tapper, where the two discussed an upcoming interview that Cohen conducted with Trump. The interview stunned some political analysts because of Cohen's involvement in getting Trump convicted on 34 felony counts in New York for falsifying business records related to a hush money payment Trump sent to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.

During the interview, Cohen told Tapper about how he applied for a pardon under the Biden administration, but was never contacted by the Department of Justice. So, he took that same application, slapped a new cover letter on it, and sent it to Trump's DOJ.

Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, told Tapper that he was stunned by Cohen's move.

"It's a fascinating socialexperiment," Honig said. "He took the exact same pardon application, supported by a bunch of liberal, prominent voices, which was not acted on by Biden, and now he'sresubmitted it to Trump."

"Idon't know whether the samepeople made the recommendations. I don't know if the samepeople stand by him now that hehas come out and said I feltpressured and coerced, but ... therenever does seem to be a fullfinal end to a relationshipbetween Donald Trump and anyoneelse. But man, I never wouldhave expected this," Honig added.