Trump Kicks Off the Week With Some Light Witness Tampering
President Trump’s trip to Argentina for the G-20 summit was relatively subdued. He bailed on a press conference “out of respect for the Bush Family.” He refrained from bro-ing out with Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. He dined with Chinese President Xi Jinping. But on Monday morning the president was back in the same time zone as the special counsel’s office, which quickly consumed his thinking. After firing off some tweets about the questionable progress he made with Xi, Trump unloaded on the the Russia investigation. “Bob Mueller (who is a much different man than people think) and his out of control band of Angry Democrats, don’t want the truth, they only want lies,” the president tweeted. “The truth is very bad for their mission!”
Pretty uninspired. It gets better.
Before trying to convince America that Mueller is leading a crazed gang of corruptible liberals, Trump attacked his beleaguered former attorney, Michael Cohen, while praising his beleaguered former adviser, Roger Stone, who has said he will not cooperate with federal investigators. “‘I will never testify against Trump,'” Trump tweeted. “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.’ Nice to know that some people still have ‘guts!'”
Link to tweet
The president behaving a like a mob boss is nothing new, but in this particular instance he may have actually committed a crime. As noted by George Conway, the lawyer and husband of Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s tweet is in pretty clear violation of U.S. legal statutes 1503 and 1512, which cover obstruction of justice and witness tampering. It’s hard to argue that praising those who don’t cooperate with federal investigators while slamming those who do doesn’t qualify, especially as the figures mentioned are currently grappling with charges or potential charges. Fortunately for Trump, the man he installed at the top of the Justice Department last month is a big fan of Trump and not so much of the law.
Link to tweet
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-witness-tampering-762562/