The Trick is Not Minding
The President of the United States is the Chief Executive of the government. That role includes “Chief Law Enforcer,” in the role of overseeing the Justice Department. Traditionally (whatever that means anymore) that means that the President is careful not to interfere in the conduct of criminal prosecutions. The weight of his statements is considered prejudicial to a jury, and could alter a trial’s outcome.
The famous example came from Richard Nixon’s Presidency in the middle of the Manson trial. He said, in what was an off-the-cuff comment to reporters, that Charles Manson was guilty of the Tate-La Bianca murders.
Washington Post – August 3, 1970 – President Nixon today, speaking to news men on the importance of respecting the judicial process, said hippie leader Charles Manson was “…guilty directly or indirectly of eight murders.” Manson is currently on trial in Los Angeles with members of his communal clan for eight murders, including Actress Sharon Tate.
Manson’s attorneys immediately moved for a mistrial, and Nixon and the White House spent a couple of days walking back the statement. Ultimately the Manson trial proceeded and he was found guilty, spending the rest of his life in jail. He died last year.
Noting this, it would be a surprise that the President of the United States would try to instruct a judge on how to sentence a defendant. It would be even more surprising that the President would make that instruction in a case where he is personally involved. Surprise: President Trump specifically tweeted instructions to the sentencing Judge for Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, who has made a plea agreement with the Justice Department.
Michael Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time. You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence. – Donald Trump Twitter 12/3/18
This followed Cohen’s guilty plea for lying to Congress. He lied about Trump’s involvement in a Russian real estate deal during the 2016 election campaign. In his allocution to the plea, Cohen specifically cites President Trump, putting him in the center of a conspiracy to hide the Trump Organization’s involvement.
In our current era, where the “norms” of political conduct have been obliterated, it might be easy to let this tweet go by. It’s one of thousands by the President, saying all sorts of outrageous things. It’s Trump’s means of communicating to the people, supposedly akin to Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats.
But this one really isn’t. It’s the President of the United States attempting to influence a judge through “ex parte” communication. Trump apologists would argue that this is just one more step in the Trump defense to the Mueller investigation, undermining the future value of Cohen’s testimony. Maybe if Mr. Trump was still just a real estate mover and shaker from New York, this would be an acceptable strategy. But as President of the United States, he has taken the power of his office and placed it on the “scale” of justice.
Cohen sees himself as the “John Dean of the Trump Era.” John Dean was the White House Counsel for Richard Nixon, and orchestrated the White House cover-up of Watergate and other campaign crimes. When Dean saw himself being set-up by senior officials to take the fall, he made a deal with Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, and “ratted out” the White House plans. Dean was instrumental in the downfall of the Nixon Administration, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, and spent four months in custody. Cohen can only hope for the same, though with the President weighing in, and additional guilty pleas to eight other felony counts, Cohen must expect more.
And that was only one of several tweets yesterday. The President also may have committed an overt act of obstruction of justice, encouraging Roger Stone to not cooperate with the Special Counsel.
“I will 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.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!” – Donald Trump Twitter, 12/3/18
The President’s defenders will say that he is just encouraging Stone to “tell the truth” and not “lie” to get a deal from Mueller. However, this is THE target of an investigation publicly encouraging a potential witness against him to “not talk:” the very definition of obstruction of justice. And the fact that the “target” has the ultimate power of pardon, means that he can not only encourage, but back up that encouragement with a literal “get our of jail free” card.
Nixon established a group in his White House called the “plumbers.” There job was to “plug leaks” of information that Nixon didn’t want in public. They took the task seriously, including “black ops” to try prevent information from getting out. Famously, they broke into the psychiatrist office of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the Pentagon Papers. The “plumbers” went onto more break-ins including American history’s most famous one at the Watergate complex.
The leader of the “plumbers” was a lawyer and former FBI agent named G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy was fiercely loyal to Richard Nixon, so much so that he refused to answer any questions about his actions. Liddy ultimately served the longest prison sentence to come out of the Watergate prosecutions, four and a half years in federal prison.
Liddy was also famous for his “party trick.” He would light a candle, then put his hand in the flame, leaving it there until people could smell his flesh burning. When asked what the “trick” was, Liddy would say “…the trick is not minding.” He wouldn’t talk, and he went to prison. Nixon resigned before he pardoned any of his subordinates, and many spent time in jail, Liddy the longest. The trick was not minding.
Stone, a young man when involved in the Nixon campaign, has taken on the “Liddy” role for Trump. Whether Stone is the conduit to Trump in the Russia-Wikileaks-Trump campaign chain is still unclear, but if he is, you can be assured that he will follow his hero and not talk. Stone will say: the trick is not minding. The trick may also be a “dangled” Presidential pardon, but Stone will know that, like Liddy, that may never come.
The Mueller Investigation is coming closer to the core of the Russia Investigation. It may lead directly to the President. If it does, you can be sure that the President will fight back with every tool at his disposal, legal or extra-legal. The norms of the past; norms that even circumscribed Nixon’s behavior, are gone. The outcome will depend on how much the American people care about the actions of their President. Trump depends on the hope that to the American people; “…the trick is not minding.”
