The Trick is Not Minding<\/p>\n
The President of the United States is the Chief Executive of the government.\u00a0 That role includes \u201cChief Law Enforcer,\u201d in the role of overseeing the Justice Department.\u00a0Traditionally (whatever that means anymore) that means that the President is careful not to interfere in the conduct of criminal prosecutions.\u00a0 The weight of his statements is considered prejudicial to a jury, and could alter a trial\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n
The famous example came from Richard Nixon\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Washington Post \u2013 August 3, 1970 – President Nixon today, speaking to news men on the importance of respecting the judicial process, said hippie leader Charles Manson was \u201c\u2026guilty directly or indirectly of eight murders.\u201d\u00a0 Manson is currently on trial in Los Angeles with members of his communal clan for eight murders, including Actress Sharon Tate<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Manson\u2019s attorneys immediately moved for a mistrial, and Nixon and the White House spent a couple of days walking back the statement.\u00a0 Ultimately the Manson trial proceeded and he was found guilty, spending the rest of his life in jail.\u00a0 He died last year.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 It would be even more surprising that the President would make that instruction in a case where he is personally involved.\u00a0 Surprise:\u00a0President Trump specifically tweeted instructions to the sentencing Judge for Trump\u2019s former attorney, Michael Cohen, who has made a plea agreement with the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
\nMichael 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. \u2013 Donald Trump Twitter 12\/3\/18<\/strong><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This followed Cohen\u2019s guilty plea for lying to Congress. \u00a0He lied about Trump\u2019s involvement in a Russian real estate deal during the 2016 election campaign. \u00a0In his allocution to the plea, Cohen specifically cites President Trump, putting him in the center of a conspiracy to hide the Trump Organization\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n
In our current era, where the \u201cnorms\u201d of political conduct have been obliterated, it might be easy to let this tweet go by.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of thousands by the President, saying all sorts of outrageous things.\u00a0 It\u2019s Trump\u2019s means of communicating to the people, supposedly akin to Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s fireside chats.<\/p>\n
But this one really isn\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s the President of the United States attempting to influence a judge through \u201cex parte\u201d 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\u2019s testimony.\u00a0 Maybe if Mr. Trump was still just a real estate mover and shaker from New York, this would be an acceptable strategy.\u00a0 But as President of the United States, he has taken the power of his office and placed it on the \u201cscale\u201d of justice.<\/p>\n
Cohen sees himself as the \u201cJohn Dean of the Trump Era.\u201d\u00a0John Dean was the White House Counsel for Richard Nixon, and orchestrated the White House cover-up of Watergate and other campaign crimes.\u00a0 When Dean saw himself being set-up by senior officials to take the fall, he made a deal with Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, and \u201cratted out\u201d the White House plans.\u00a0Dean was instrumental in the downfall of the Nixon Administration, \u00a0pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, and spent four months in custody.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
And that was only one of several tweets yesterday.\u00a0 The President also may have committed an overt act of obstruction of justice, encouraging Roger Stone to not cooperate with the Special Counsel.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI will never testify against Trump.\u201d 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 \u201cPresident Trump.\u201d Nice to know that some people still have \u201cguts!\u201d <\/strong>– Donald Trump Twitter, 12\/3\/18<\/strong><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The President\u2019s defenders will say that he is just encouraging Stone to \u201ctell the truth\u201d and not \u201clie\u201d to get a deal from Mueller.\u00a0 However, this is THE target of an investigation publicly encouraging a potential witness against him to \u201cnot talk:\u201d the very definition of obstruction of justice.\u00a0 And the fact that the \u201ctarget\u201d has the ultimate power of pardon, means that he can not only encourage, but back up that encouragement with a literal \u201cget our of jail free\u201d card.<\/p>\n
Nixon established a group in his White House called the \u201cplumbers.\u201d\u00a0There job was to \u201cplug leaks\u201d of information that Nixon didn\u2019t want in public.\u00a0 They took the task seriously, including \u201cblack ops\u201d to try prevent information from getting out.\u00a0 Famously, they broke into the psychiatrist office of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the Pentagon Papers. The \u201cplumbers\u201d went onto more break-ins including American history\u2019s most famous one at the Watergate complex.<\/p>\n
The leader of the \u201cplumbers\u201d was a lawyer and former FBI agent named G. Gordon Liddy.\u00a0 Liddy was fiercely loyal to Richard Nixon, so much so that he refused to answer any questions about his actions.\u00a0 Liddy ultimately served the longest prison sentence to come out of the Watergate prosecutions, four and a half years in federal prison.<\/p>\n
Liddy was also famous for his \u201cparty trick.\u201d\u00a0 He would light a candle, then put his hand in the flame, leaving it there until people could smell his flesh burning.\u00a0 When asked what the \u201ctrick\u201d was, Liddy would say \u201c\u2026the trick is not minding.\u201d\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t talk, and he went to prison.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Nixon resigned before he pardoned any of his subordinates, and many spent time in jail, Liddy the longest. \u00a0The trick was not minding.<\/p>\n
Stone, a young man when involved in the Nixon campaign, has taken on the \u201cLiddy\u201d role for Trump.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Stone will say:\u00a0 the trick is not minding.\u00a0 The trick may also be a \u201cdangled\u201d Presidential pardon, but Stone will know that, like Liddy, that may never come.<\/p>\n
The Mueller Investigation is coming closer to the core of the Russia Investigation.\u00a0 It may lead directly to the President.\u00a0 If it does, you can be sure that the President will fight back with every tool at his disposal, legal or extra-legal.\u00a0 The norms of the past; norms that even circumscribed Nixon\u2019s behavior, are gone.\u00a0 The outcome will depend on how much the American people care about the actions of their President.\u00a0 Trump depends on the hope that to the American people; \u201c\u2026the trick is not minding.\u201d<\/p>\n
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