'Not helping': Ex-Trump White House lawyer warns president is hindering his retribution

A former advisor to Donald Trump warned the president Wednesday that he's not helping himself when it comes to his campaign of retribution against his perceived political enemies.

Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Jim Schultz, a former White House lawyer, was asked what he would advise Trump to do when it comes to allegations around his targeting of FBI Director James Comey.

"So, I've said time and time again, the president's comments relative to this case are not helpful to any prosecutor [who is] prosecuting the case. [It] makes the case very, very — incredibly more difficult, right?" said Schultz.

Trump made a demand of Attorney General Pam Bondi on his Truth Social account that she indict Comey. In the days that followed, a U.S. attorney who refused to indict Comey was fired, and charges were filed by the Trump loyalist, who took his place.

That said, he noted that Comey's attempt to dismiss based on "selective prosecution" or "vindictive prosecution" will be a challenging endeavor.

"You know, on behalf of a defendant, you have to have a discriminatory purpose, a discriminatory effect, meaning that the effect is that other folks who ... have lied, who have been alleged to have lied before Congress, haven't been prosecuted for this," said Schultz. "We've seen it in the Nixon administration during Watergate. It happened again during the Iran-Contra affair, and a number Iran-Contra scandals and a number of other scandals that have, that we've seen throughout many other presidencies."

He, like many legal analysts, has said it's a high burden to meet.

"But I also think that it does make it more difficult for the prosecution because out of the gates, they're dealing with a motion to dismiss that," Schutlz continued. "They probably wouldn't otherwise be dealing with, although there are pretty good facts here for the defense on this relative to selective prosecution, [it's] really hard to meet that burden."