Bully pulpit in every way
The Post collects more lawyers who point out that Trump is witness tampering in plain sight.
In another tweet Monday, Trump praised another longtime associate, Roger Stone, who also has drawn Mueller’s scrutiny, for having said he would never testify against Trump.
“This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about ‘President Trump,’ ” Trump wrote. “Nice to know that some people still have ‘guts!’ ”
The tweet about Stone drew immediate criticism from several lawyers, who said it amounted to witness tampering.
Among those who chided Trump was George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and a frequent Trump critic. On Twitter, he referenced Trump’s tweet and wrote: “File under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1503, 1512,” citing sections of the federal code that deal with obstruction of justice and witness tampering.
Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) weighed in later.
“This is serious,” Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote on Twitter. “The President of the United States should not be using his platform to influence potential witnesses in a federal investigation involving his campaign.”
It’s disgusting that he’s doing it at all, and it’s disgusting that he’s doing it on Twitter where anyone and everyone can see it. It’s so mobsterish, so law-contemptuous, so brazen, so openly criminal. It’s as if Don Corleone went on The Tonight Show to say “Make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
Why is he not under arrest?
Because of all the fences that have been put up around the presidency.
Also, slavish tribalism.