CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin has been slammed for writing an opinion column arguing that former president Donald Trump should not face criminal prosecution.
The article, which purported to address Attorney General Merrick Garland, listed five crimes that Mr Trump could potentially be charged with – insurrection, election fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating the Hatch Act. Mr Toobin made a case against prosecuting Mr Trump for each one.
The news channel’s chief legal analyst acknowledged that: “Trump’s final days in office demonstrate that his behavior was, at a minimum, outrageous.”
He recounted some of Mr Trump’s most egregious actions, including that he allegedly told former acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, to “just say the election was corrupt, [and] leave the rest to me.” and that his statements at a rally on January 6 may have led his supporters to storm the Capitol.
Mr Toobin wrote: “For some distinguished lawyers, this evidence provides a roadmap for Merrick Garland, the attorney general, to direct a criminal investigation of the former president.”
But, he went on to argue, ”One mark of modern despotism is the legal pursuit of former leaders by current office-holders, and the United States has wisely avoided this cycle throughout its history.”
He continued: “Investigations of presidential wrongdoing, by Congress and others, are wise and even necessary. But actual prosecutions are not, and Donald Trump should be the beneficiary of this tradition.”
The column met with a furious backlash on Twitter, with users accusing Mr Toobin, who was fired from the New Yorker last year for masturbating on a Zoom call, of courting controversy for the sake of ratings.
“Incredibly disappointing, simplistic work by @JeffreyToobin. Draws sweeping conclusions using only bite size pieces of the known evidence & comes across so confident even though not all evidence has surfaced. Why write this now unless only for the attention-grabbing headline?” posted @SusanSolomon.
@PalmerReport tweeted: “It’s not just that Jeffrey Toobin’s past behavior is objectionable. It’s that he’s now so desperate to keep his job at CNN, he’s willing to throw away his journalistic integrity and play the role of dishonest contrarian in order to help the network artificially boost ratings.”
