A defender of President Donald Trump got snippy during a brawl over the Justice Department probe into E. Jean Carroll, when another panelist interrupted him to refute his take on the case, rejecting her apology.

Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll and was ordered to pay judgments of $5 million and $83 million, which have been upheld in court. Trump is still pursuing appeals.

CNN dropped a bombshell report on Wednesday that the Trump DOJ is investigating Carroll for possible perjury charges over a 2022 deposition in which she said outside backers did not fund her lawsuit.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip hosted a panel that included Keith Boykin, Peter Meijer, Jemele Hill, Pete Seat, Kmele Foster, and Staci Schneider to discuss the case.

Phillip immediately challenged Seat when he began to weigh in on the merits of the case, and Schneider jumped in to call BS when he claimed the merits depend on your “political” viewpoint.

When Schneider apologized for interrupting, Seat sourly noted, “But you are interrupting me, Staci” as she continued her rebuttal:

PHILLIP: So, one of the things that you should know about this is that Todd Blanche, who’s now the acting attorney general, he is a former attorney of President Trump’s and represented him in this case. He’s recused himself from this. But does that actually clear the Justice Department from the accusation that what they’re doing effectively is going after people that the president wants to see prosecuted?

PETE SEAT: Well, to me, the number one question is, did she commit perjury? If the answer-

PHILLIP: Is that the number one question?

SEAT: If the — you know, that’s what they’re potentially investigating.

PHILLIP: Well, given what Staci —

SEAT: I know you gave us the background of the entire unrelated case —

PHILLIP: Given what Staci just said, which is that that issue was litigated in the case, it went before a judge, and the judge found that it did not affect her credibility, at a certain point, it was not pertinent to the case. So, is that really the main question here?

SEAT: Yes, and I understand that. The timing seems to be the biggest piece of this to what you laid out. But if she did commit perjury, then the next question is, should she be held accountable for that?

SCHNEIDER: Can I answer that, though?

SEAT: And I think this dividing line is, like everything else, is where you sit on the political aisle.

SCHNEIDER: You know what? It’s not political.

SEAT: If you’re on one side —

SCHNEIDER: I don’t mean to interrupt you, and I apologize.

SEAT: But you are interrupting me, Staci.

SCHNEIDER: But I know I am. I am. But this is so not political. This is about — when the Justice Department goes after people for perjury, which can put somebody in jail, they go after racketeering cases where somebody might have lied on the stand. They go after political corruption cases. They don’t go after a civil lawsuit for defamation out of New York against a woman who’s now 82 years old.

PHILLIP: And in a pretrial —

SCHNEIDER: They shouldn’t do it.

PHILLIP: — a pretrial deposition at that. But, again, Trump has — Trump lost this case against E. Jean Carroll, period, the end. And now his Justice Department is putting her potentially in an investigation that could lead to a trial, that could lead to her being in legal jeopardy.

KEITH BOYKIN, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE AIDE: It doesn’t pass the smell test. And to Staci’s point, I actually did some research before I came on the show and looked at how many times the Justice Department actually prosecuted, criminally prosecuted somebody for a civil deposition perjury, I couldn’t find any examples. There may be some, but I couldn’t find any examples at all. And the evidence seems to suggest it is so incredibly rare that it clearly seems to be political.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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