Earlier this morning CNN host Chris Cuomo tweeted out, then promptly deleted, a message asking whether he should reveal the name of the Reddit user who made the now infamous Trump-CNN wrestling video. He went on to imply that the whole purpose of outing the video's creator would be to humiliate him for other posts he shared anonymously on a Reddit thread.

"Should CNN reveal name of Reddit user who made trump wrestling video? Had a lot of bigoted and hateful material on page and website."

Why did @ChrisCuomo delete this tweet? Possibly because they found out it was 15 year old kid they are trying to extort. #CNNBlackmail pic.twitter.com/JfLWOI6bo4 — Mark M. (@mmontuori) July 5, 2017

Cuomo's tweet seemed to mimic a similar threat made by CNN's Andrew Kaczynski that was released earlier this morning (which we covered here).

Unfortunately for Cuomo, Kaczynski and all of CNN for that matter, it seems they probably should have brushed up on their knowledge of extortion laws before making their thinly-veiled threats. As Ted Cruz subsequently pointed out, Georgia law (the home of CNN's headquarters) strictly defines "theft by exortion" to include "dissemination of any information tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule or to impair his credit or business repute."

(1/2) Troubling. I assume CNN's lawyers are examining GA § 16-8-16 Theft by extortion. If CNN constructively obtained the gif-maker's IP... https://t.co/ChxqocuDgc — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2017

(2/2) it's a GA crime if they threatened to "Disseminate any information tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule...." https://t.co/ChxqocuDgc — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2017

Of course, Cuomo produces his show in New York so those backward Georgia laws don't apply to him. That said, Julian Assange conveniently points out that New York also has it's own rather unfavorable views of things like "coercion" and "extortion."

CNN just committed a crime violating § 135.60 of the New York criminal code "coercion" https://t.co/FwPPlczPRhhttps://t.co/AHQhjDS6ds pic.twitter.com/a7HAdMQQDV — Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) July 5, 2017

Of course, this isn't the first time Cuomo has openly displayed his ignorance of the law. As you may recall, he warned CNN viewers back in October that it was "illegal" for ordinary citizens to take a look at John Podesta's emails as posted on WikiLeaks...

"Remember, it’s illegal to possess these stolen documents. It’s different for the media. So everything you learn about this you are learning from us."

All of which makes Project Veritas' latest CNN video, which features a producer saying that he "just can't stand" Cuomo, all that much more entertaining.

"...[I] just can't stand that guy [Cuomo] when he talks, we're like shut up."