Legal expert astonished as another Trump revenge case poised to implode

A legal expert appeared astonished on Tuesday by a new report that President Donald Trump's hand-picked prosecutor in Miami is struggling to indict one of the president's political foes.

CNN reported on Tuesday that U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones in the Southern District of Florida and officials in Trump's Department of Justice have been pushing to indict former CIA Director John Brennan over his involvement in the 2016 investigation into Russia's interference in the general election. However, that push has been thwarted by weak evidence against Brennan, CNN reported.

Michael Popok, a legal expert and host of the "Legal AF" podcast, reacted to the reporting on a new video podcast.

"Donald Trump likes to get his pound of flesh any way he can get it," Popok said. "... But he still wants his bootlickers, his sycophants, his enablers like Jason Reding Quiñones to try to get those indictments."

"So, the new reporting now coming out of CNN is that it seems to be virtually very difficult — I won't say impossible because I could report tomorrow that they got some grand jury being told something to indict John Brennan — but if they do, it's under tremendous pressure being exerted on the prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida to bring this indictment," Popok said.

Popok also pointed out that Reding Quiñones was struggling to get other prosecutors in his office to sign on to the indictment, a sign that there may not be enough evidence to convince a grand jury that charges are warranted.

Doing so would also appear to violate the federal prosecutors' manual, which says prosecutors should not bring charges unless they believe they can secure and sustain a conviction on appeal, Popok noted.

"We don't talk about those in the Trump era because they're not even referred to," Popok said.