CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called President Trump’s cries of “TREASON” on Friday morning “reckless and irresponsible,” adding that it’s yet another norm the President has broken.
“And treason is a crime for which death is a potential penalty,” Toobin said on CNN’s “New Day.” “It is so reckless and irresponsible to talk that way. One of the things that this president has done has violated so many norms.”
“It’s not illegal to say what he said, but the idea of a president accusing people of any crime — remember, he accused Michael Cohen’s in-laws of crimes. A president, who is the head of the Justice Department, the head of the FBI, accusing people of crimes, much less crimes punishable by the death penalty, is really a grotesque abuse of power,” he added. “It’s gone on for so long now, that we’re kind of, oh, well, you know, it’s just another tweet. But it is worth pausing to recognize how reckless that is.”
Toobin hits Trump for 'grotesque abuse of power' after 'TREASON' tweet pic.twitter.com/cKGzFL22ZL
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 17, 2019
Trump on Friday morning tweeted that his campaign was “conclusively spied on” and said it amounted to “TREASON!”
My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on. Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2019