{"id":308,"date":"2017-07-12T13:07:58","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T13:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=308"},"modified":"2017-08-20T12:29:31","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T12:29:31","slug":"im-not-a-lawyer-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/07\/12\/im-not-a-lawyer-but\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m not a lawyer, but…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not a lawyer, but\u2026<\/p>\n

The son of the Republican candidate for President, the campaign manager, and the son-in-law of the President chose to meet with a person they thought <\/em>was a representative of the Russian government in order to get negative information about the Democratic candidate. They then denied that meeting for over a year, until the New York Times forced them to acknowledge it.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/07\/11\/us\/politics\/trump-russia-email-clinton.html<\/a><\/p>\n

It sounds incredibly shaky. It is completely unethical. Any normal politician would realize that it absolutely fails the risk\/benefit analysis. Whatever they received in that meeting (and we only have Donald Junior\u2019s word that there wasn\u2019t anything) it wasn\u2019t worth the very foreseeable outcome they are experiencing today. The question remains \u2013 was it a violation of Federal law?<\/p>\n

Much as \u201cnever-Trumpers\u201d and others would wish it, the actions by the three are not a \u201cslam dunk,\u201d \u201cgo directly to jail\u201d event. However, there are several theories that would allow for Federal prosecution.<\/p>\n

The first, and probably most far-fetched, is the Treason section of Article III, Section 3 of the US Constitution. Treason is closely defined as \u201cgiving aid and comfort\u201d to the enemies of the United States. While participating with a foreign adversary in undermining the electoral process would seem to be doing exactly that, it is unlikely that Courts would see the current US\/Russia relationship as one of enemies at war. Having said that, if in the end it is shown that the Trump campaign helped direct the ongoing Russian attacks, it could end up as an included charge.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/five-myths-about-treason\/2017\/02\/17\/8b9eb3a8-f460-11e6-a9b0-ecee7ce475fc_story.html?utm_term=.04219371583c<\/a><\/p>\n

The second and likely charge, would be a violation of the Federal Campaign Laws. It is illegal for a campaign to accept money donated by a foreign citizen (or government.) The stretch in this charge, is that the Russians weren\u2019t offering money, they were offering information. This would have to be regarded as an \u201cin kind\u201d contribution, an action that can be assigned a monetary value. If no other evidence is available beyond what has been published, then the charge would be \u201cintent\u201d to accept this contribution, and the charge would get pretty thin.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.uky.edu\/electionlaw\/analysis\/foreign-contributions-us-elections<\/a><\/p>\n

The third possibility would require a lot more evidence that the Trump campaign was involved in directing the Russian attacks. Those actions began with a felony crime, the hacking of the DNC emails. The Trump campaign would have conspired with the Russians in the commission and\/or use of those stolen documents, and therefore been involved in a pattern of corrupt practices. This could result in a \u201cRICO\u201d charge, like those used against organized crime.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nolo.com\/legal-encyclopedia\/content\/rico-act.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, there is the \u201ccover up.\u201d While it is NOT illegal to lie to the media or the people, it IS illegal to lie under oath, to lie or misrepresent on Federal security documents, and\/or to lie or misrepresent to Federal investigators. As occurred in the Watergate prosecutions, many of the charges in the Trump case may end up being the \u201ccover up\u201d rather than the base crimes.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/fas.org\/sgp\/crs\/misc\/98-808.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

What about the President himself? As President of the United States, he is immune from criminal prosecution (though there is discussion as to whether he can be indicted.) He can be civilly sued (that\u2019s what caught up Bill Clinton, lying under oath in a deposition.) \u00a0There are only two processes for removing the President, impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by two thirds of the Senate; or temporary removal from office under the 25th<\/sup> Amendment (a majority of the cabinet and the Vice President, and ultimately two thirds of the House and Senate.)<\/p>\n

http:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/03\/11\/process\/<\/a><\/p>\n

We are (still) a long way from that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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They then denied that meeting for over a … Continue reading “I’m not a lawyer, but…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nI'm not a lawyer, but... : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/07\/12\/im-not-a-lawyer-but\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I'm not a lawyer, but... : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m not a lawyer, but\u2026 The son of the Republican candidate for President, the campaign manager, and the son-in-law of the President chose to meet with a person they thought was a representative of the Russian government in order to get negative information about the Democratic candidate. 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