Elliot Williams - CNN Legal Analyst
Elliot Williams
CNN Legal Analyst
Elliot Williams is a CNN legal analyst. A principal at The Raben Group, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm, he was formerly a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department and an assistant director at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the Obama administration.
Latest
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Legal expert breaks down Trump’s punitive damages to E. Jean Carroll
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Jan 26, 2024
CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams breaks down what punitive damages are and the significance of the amount of money that former President Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll for his defamatory statements in 2019.
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‘It’s just sad’: Ex-federal prosecutor reacts to Trump’s remarks
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Jan 11, 2024
CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams breaks down former President Donald Trump’s remarks during a brief media appearance as the New York attorney general’s office presented closing arguments in the civil fraud trial against him.
Opinion: This penalty could hurt Trump more than prison time
Nov 9, 2023
The question of what penalty the Trump Organization will pay is surprisingly crucial to Trump’s future and the case could carry seismic consequences a casual observer might overlook, writes Elliot Williams.
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Trump speaks out on decision to try and overturn the election
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Sep 17, 2023
Former President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet The Press” that he listened to a number of people in the wake of the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden, but ultimately he made the decision to pursue overturning the election.
Opinion: The justice system Trump and other white-collar defendants see is different than what most accused criminals get
Apr 10, 2023
Despite Trump’s claims of selective prosecution, he will be treated like any other accused criminal. That won’t work out too badly for Trump, writes Elliot Williams, given that the “any other” here refers only to white-collar criminals.
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Security officials testified: Trump wanted to seize voting machines
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Apr 5, 2023
Chad Wolf, the former acting Homeland Security secretary, and his former deputy Ken Cuccinelli testified to a federal grand jury earlier this year that they repeatedly told former President Donald Trump and his allies that the government didn’t have the authority to seize voting machines after the 2020 election. CNN national security reporter Zachary Cohen joins an Inside Politics panel to discuss.
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Analyst breaks down how much weight Jan. 6 criminal referrals hold
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Dec 6, 2022
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has decided to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), told reporters. CNN legal analyst Elliott Williams explains.
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Herschel Walker reprimanded for breaking debate rule
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Oct 15, 2022
Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker was reprimanded after pulling out a prop during a debate with his opponent, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.
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‘Glaring conflict of interest’: Williams reacts to Trump special master nominee
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Sep 10, 2022
The Justice Department and former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have submitted their respective nominees to serve as the special master reviewing materials seized from Mar-a-Lago and vastly different proposals for how the process should work. CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams and former FBI official Peter Strzok react to Trump’s nominees.
Opinion: America was lucky Trump didn’t seize control of the DOJ
Jun 24, 2022
Elliot Williams writes that former President Donald Trump had a vision: to overturn the results of a free and fair election in 2020 and to remain in power for at least another term. On Thursday, we learned just how close he came to having people he handpicked at the Justice Department make that vision a reality.
Opinion: What Democrats could learn from Mitch McConnell
Apr 12, 2022
Mitch McConnell’s refusal to say whether he will allow future hearings for President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominees if Republicans take control of the Senate should not come as a surprise, argues Elliot Williams. Democrats should fight just as hard to maintain the order of democracy.
The threat Ginni Thomas’ behavior poses to the Supreme Court
Mar 25, 2022
Elliot Williams writes the biggest current threat to the Supreme Court’s legitimacy as an institution continues to be the behavior of Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas.
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Analyst reacts to Sen. Hawley’s questioning of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
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Mar 23, 2022
During Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) focused his claims about her sentencing record in child pornography cases on one particular case, known as US v. Hawkins, in which she sentenced the offender to three months. CNN’s Erin Burnett and legal analyst Elliot Williams discuss.
Why it’s so hard to prosecute Donald Trump
Mar 8, 2022
Elliot Williams writes that based on the publicly available evidence and the likely star witness, the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal case against former President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization would have failed to lead to a conviction.
Kim Potter’s inexcusable mistake
Dec 24, 2021
Following the guilty verdict in the trial of Kim Potter, Elliot Williams writes an important question to ask is not just whether whatever sentence Potter receives is adequate, but how to prevent the next unspeakably tragic mistake by an armed officer.
Why Derek Chauvin’s sentence doesn’t resolve things for me
Jun 25, 2021
In saying in their sentencing memo that “no sentence can undo the damage” of Chauvin’s actions, prosecutors could also have been describing our collective, grim knowledge that no criminal trial can absolve an entire nation’s sins around race, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams observes.
About
Elliot Williams is a CNN legal analyst.
He is a principal in The Raben Group’s Government Affairs Practice Group in Washington, DC. Williams spent nearly eight years as a senior political appointee in the Obama administration, as deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Department of Justice – where he played significant roles in helping secure Senate confirmation for both Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates – and before that as assistant director for legislative affairs at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Williams previously worked as judiciary counsel to now-Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and started his career as a practicing attorney — first clerking for two federal judges, and then participating in the US Attorney General’s honors program, where he served as a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
He was recognized in 2015 as one of “D.C.’s Rising Stars” by the National Law Journal and sits on the board of the Constitutional Accountability Center. He earned a law degree and master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
