On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig said that sanctuary policies are bad ideas, but it’s not illegal, and the DOJ investigation into “elected leaders engaging in core protected First Amendment speech” is an “off the rails” move by the DOJ.
Host Kaitlan Collins said, “I think a big question tonight, given this is so clearly focused on the comments that Mayor Frey and Gov. Walz have made, is whether or not anything they have said meets the definition of obstructing law enforcement.”
Honig responded, “Absolutely not. This is core protected First Amendment political speech. … If you have public officials — as we do here — making political speech, even if it’s explosive, inflammatory, aggressive, and then that causes people to protest or to call 911, that is simply not obstruction of justice. If they bring an indictment for obstruction, I promise you, they will lose. And bigger picture, Kaitlan, over the last week or so, DOJ has lost its damn mind. I don’t have a better way to put it than this. Renee Good gets shot nine days ago, right? Fatally shot. It’s immediately clear that we need an investigation, that the minutiae, the moments, the seconds, the movements are going to matter. Three days ago, Todd Blanche announces no crime and there will be no investigation, we don’t even need all the facts. And, instead, the reporting is they’re investigating Renee Good and her widow for their associations, for who they’re dealing with, for, again, First Amendment-protected activity. And now we learn that they’re looking criminally at elected leaders engaging in core protected First Amendment speech. They’re just off the rails at this point.”
Later, Collins asked, “One thing that they’ve also said and been very critical of is, they say cops in Minneapolis, officials in Minneapolis and Minnesota overall will not let federal officials into their jails when it comes to that. Is that something they could be under investigation for?”
Honig answered, “I’m glad you asked that. I personally am an opponent of sanctuary cities, and I acted out — when I was at the state in New Jersey and a federal — I think that sanctuary city policies are counterproductive. When state authorities say we’re not going to share information, we’re not going to let you into our prisons to make arrests, I think they’re a bad idea, bad policy. But it is not criminal. The state does not have to cooperate with the feds. You can’t obstruct, but there’s no affirmative obligation to cooperate. So, if you say we’re not going to share information, we’re not going to let you into our state facilities, that’s fine. That’s not criminal. There’s a big difference there.”
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