‘DOJ Has Lost Its Damn Mind’: Elie Honig Slams Former Employer’s Latest Investigations

CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig had some uncharacteristically harsh words for the Department of Justice after it was reported that the DOJ is investigating Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D).

CBS News reported on Friday that the department is probing whether the two Democrats ran afoul of a federal statute that criminalizes attempts to obstruct federal officials through force, intimidation, or threats. Walz and Frey have spoken out forcefully against the presence of federal immigration agents in the state, especially after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last week.

At a press conference after the killing, Frey told ICE to “Get the f*ck out of Minneapolis.” Meanwhile, Walz asked citizens to record immigration agents.

On Friday’s episode of The Source, Kaitlan Collins played a clip of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche claiming that Walz and Frey were “impeding” federal law enforcement.

Collins then asked Honig, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, if the DOJ has a case. Honig said that in addition to having no case, his former employer “has lost its damn mind”:

Absolutely not. This is core-protected First Amendment political speech. And you can even tell, watching that clip of Todd Blanche, that he doesn’t believe it, because he hedged himself. Very lawyerly, he said, “Well, it’s close to obstruction.” 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 9-1-1, 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 mind. I don’t have a better way to put it than this. I mean, 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.

Earlier in the evening, Harry Litman, another former federal prosecutor, called the DOJ’s investigation into Walz and Frey “total garbage” and “a complete and utter nonstarter.”

Watch above via CNN.