CNN reporter Jim Acosta hilariously mocked former president Donald Trump’s endless excuses about why he had thousands of classified and top secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago golf club which was raided on Monday by the FBI when they served a search warrant amid suspicion that the ex-president has violated the Espionage Act.
Speaking with CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, Acosta referenced and then quoted a scene from the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers” in which the late Jim Belushi implores Carrie Fisher not to kill him:
“Oh, please don’t kill us! Please, please don’t kill us. You know I love you, baby. I wouldn’t leave you! It wasn’t my fault! … I ran out of gas! I got a flat tire! I didn’t have change for cab fare! I lost my tux at the cleaners! I locked my keys in the car! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!”
Acosta then added:
“We’ve heard multiple excuses. First, it was the FBI planted evidence. Then Trump claimed it was all declassified. That they didn’t need to seize anything. They could have had it anytime they wanted. I think today he is saying some of the stuff is privileged, attorney/client material.”
Honig quickly obliterated all of Trump’s bogus excuses:
“The declassification argument: It is possible President Trump declassified some of the documents before he left the White House. You would expect there would be some record, some evidence, some paper trail or witness to support it. All we’ve seen is statements, yes, we declassified. It remains to be seen. Also, important to note, of the three laws that DOJ listed on their search warrant documents that justified the search, none have anything to do with whether these documents were adequately classified or declassified.”
Trump has also claimed that the FBI and Justice Department could have simply requested the documents, but as Honig noted, they tried that:
“They did ask. The National Archives asked and only got some of the documents. DOJ asked. They tried to subpoena. That’s the easy way. They still didn’t get all the documents. That defense holds no water.”
The failed former president also claimed that the FBI broke into Mar-a-Lago, which led Honig to respond:
“This was not a break-in. We’ve seen the paperwork. DOJ did the same paperwork I’ve done many times and a judge signed off this is a lawfully authorized search warrant. It should not be called a break-in.”
Acosta interjected:
“I can’t believe that he got that one wrong, Elie. Can you break down the Espionage Act for us? What are we talking about here? Some people may not understand what the possibilities are with that.”
Honig responded:
“The Espionage Act sounds dramatic and there are portions that bring to mind cinematic cloak and dagger type of things. The limited subsection that’s alleged in the papers relates to mishandling of defense information. It essentially makes it a crime to mishandle, to take, and to transmit national security information if you know or have a reason to know that dissemination of that information could be harmful to U.S. national security interests. It’s not nearly James Bond stuff but it’s still vital, how we store and protect our national secrets.”
