New details about President Donald Trump's efforts to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey stunned a CNN panel on Wednesday.
Katelyn Polantz, CNN's senior legal correspondent, reported during "The Arena" on Wednesday that Trump prosecutors sought testimony from mobster Sammy "The Bull" Gravano about whether the now-infamous "86 47" picture that Comey posted on his Instagram could be a threat against the president's life. Gravano told prosecutors that the term 86 "could" refer to killing, but demurred on whether it actually did mean it in the context of the Comey case, Polantz reported.
Comey's lawyers had a field day with the discovery in a new court filing, Polantz added.
"If it weren't made in the context of seeking to deprive a man of his liberty, it would be laughable," John Gleason, a former judge, wrote in a new court filing, according to Polantz. "I have never come into contact with a single recorded conversation where a mafia member uses 86 in any way, shape or form, let alone to refer to killing or murder. There is literally no support for the central allegation on which the case rests."
The news caught multiple panelists off guard. Joe Crowley, the former DNC chairman, called the revelation "ridiculous."
"To me, it's selective. It's vindictive in terms of this prosecution," Crowley said. "No one believes that Comey in any way, shape, or form ever had any intention of causing violence to the president. And it just, to me, is ridiculous."
It also stunned former Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona.
"They're just looking for something to go after James Comey for, and this happened to be it," Flake said.
