1/In the DOJ presser yesterday, both US Attorney Geoffrey Berman and FBI's William Sweeney went out of their to explain how grave and serious election law crimes are - undermine our entire political system, democracy, etc.
Watch:
Watch:
2/Berman: "Protecting the integrity of our elections – and protecting our elections from unlawful foreign influence – are core functions of our campaign finance laws.....we will not hesitate to....prosecute those who ....[draw] into question integrity of our political process.”
3/Sweeney: "American people expect and deserve an election process that hasn’t been corrupted by the influence of foreign interests....These allegations aren’t abt some technicality, a civil violation, or an error on a form....about corrupt behavior and deliberate law breaking."
4/As I watched Berman & Sweeney yesterday talk so pointedly about the gravity of election law crimes, it felt like they had another audience in mind - the White House. Sweeney: "The FBI takes the obligation to tackle corruption seriously – there are no exceptions to this rule.”
5/If you were in the WH yesterday, or if you were Pence, Pompeo, Barr, Mulvaney, others caught up in Ukraine scandal, those words and these indictments had to be frightening. For the crimes of Parnas, Fruman are the same crimes Trump and those in this conspiracy committed.
6/Finally, all this focus on election law violations makes the recent shuttering of the FEC, the independent watchdog responsible for policing US elections, even that more unacceptable. Join me in calling for re-opening it as soon as possible.
7/Always sharp @glennkirschner2 has a must read piece on @NBCNewsTHINK on why violations of election law are among the gravest crimes politicians/citizens can commit; failure to prosecute creates massive incentive to cheat. "High Crimes" in every sense. nbcnews.com/think/opinion/…
