President Donald Trump took shots at his former fixer Michael Cohen on Thursday morning, just a day after Cohen postponed his testimony to Congress citing Trump’s threats against his family.
On Wednesday, Cohen postponed his upcoming and highly anticipated February testimony to Congress through a statement by his attorney Lanny Davis because Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani have made threats against his family.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 23, 2019
Trump threatened Cohen’s father-in-law on Twitter and doubled down on those threats over the weekend during an interview with Jeanine Pirro on Fox News.
The threats came after House committee chairmen issued a joint warning to Trump not to engage in intimidation tactics against Cohen.
By threatening Cohen’s family, Trump violated that warning, leading many to accuse him of committing a felony.
Cohen is delaying his testimony due to threats from Trump and Giuliani.
Here is 18 U.S.C. § 1512:
“Whoever knowingly uses intimidation, threatens … or attempts to do so … with intent to … influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person” is guilty of a felony. https://t.co/e6T7A67dct
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 23, 2019
On Thursday, Trump once again attacked Cohen by gloating about him not testifying.
So interesting that bad lawyer Michael Cohen, who sadly will not be testifying before Congress, is using the lawyer of Crooked Hillary Clinton to represent him – Gee, how did that happen? Remember July 4th weekend when Crooked went before FBI & wasn’t sworn in, no tape, nothing?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2019
Legal experts responded by highlighting Trump’s witness intimidation and compared his tactics to the mafia.
Gloating that his intimidation tactics worked like a Mob Boss who says, “It’s too bad what happened to him.” https://t.co/XCSzVX4Pwz
— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) January 24, 2019
This is the kind of comment that could be used to prove intent to tamper with a witness. Just sayin’ https://t.co/LfhYxOPNhy
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 24, 2019
FBI interviews are never under oath and are often not taped. Trump criticizes the circumstances of Hillary Clinton’s interview but he refuses to be interviewed by the FBI himself. https://t.co/md0PqA0ZqS
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 24, 2019
Trump’s tweet about Cohen this morning continues his attempted witness intimidation in plain sight. His congressional allies would be screaming for impeachment if this were coming from a president they didn’t like. The history books will focus more on their villainy than his.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 24, 2019
Why did Buzzfeed story about Trump’s subornation of perjury cause a Tsunami while his witness tampering in plain view causes only a ripple? This is an even more serious crime (20 yrs v 5 yrs). Looks like only hidden POTUS crimes shock people. Crimes in plain view, not so much.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) January 24, 2019
Trump should be charged with witness intimidation. Cohen was all set to testify before Trump started threatening his family and it’s even more crucial that we hear Cohen testify because he can answer the question of whether or not Trump told him to lie to Congress about his Trump Tower Moscow project. If Cohen answers affirmatively, Trump is implicated in subornation of perjury, an impeachable and criminal offense.
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