A CNN legal analyst warned President Donald Trump that two of his new legal actions in the Jeffrey Epstein saga will likely fail — and one could spectacularly backfire.
Trump's Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to make some grand jury testimony public in the Epstein case.
"When and if this judge releases this, will the public learn anything potentially useful?" CNN anchor Breanna Keilar asked legal analyst Ryan Goodman.
Goodman said in that effort, Trump faces an "uphill battle."
"Especially because this doesn't really fit any of the statutory or regulatory reasons that a court would do that. The court would have to find that it has inherent powers, very unusual," he said.
To boot, he added that the public really doesn't want that evidence unsealed.
"The public wants to know what other individuals were involved in the sexual abuse of minors. It's probably not in these grand jury materials," he emphasized.
In fact, he said, the grand jury indictments are "very limited" to co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein’s abuse of minors and do not mention other people.
"So there's every likelihood with those indictments, they weren’t even presented with that," he said. "I think the real material that the public wants is in the DOJ’s offices. It’s not what was presented to the grand jury."
Later in the segment, Goodman was asked about Trump's lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch.
"Is it a smart filing by Trump?" asked Keilar.
Goodman replied, "I'm not so sure it is, especially because when The Wall Street Journal reported the story last night, they said that they were already told by Trump’s side that they were threatening to sue the Journal. So one would expect that the Journal did all of its homework before publishing."
What's more, Goodman added, Trump's effort may blow up in his face.
"And then it could seriously backfire. It could backfire in so many different ways," he said.
The Journal could reveal the risque doodle he reportedly sent to Epstein, which features Trump’s signature. Goodman noted that it would be "pretty hard corroboration for somebody to try to avoid that."
Additionally, Trump could very well end up being deposed, Goodman added.
