A professional observation: this is how criminals act, and someone who repeatedly acts this way—over many months—is almost certainly a criminal. I know this from many years working in the criminal justice system, and most of you know it from common sense. cnn.com/2018/01/31/pol…
2/ Let's be clear: this is witness tampering, it's a crime, and people go to jail for it every single day in the United States. If you're a Trump supporter and you don't see this, then there are MANY PEOPLE in jails tonight who you think (and should damn well say) should be free.
3/ If the president communicated to Rosenstein the questions he had secretly planted among Congressional investigators, then that's a clear attempt to influence Rosenstein's answers and even direct him toward acceptable answers that would establish Rosenstein as a "team" player.
4/ Even if that didn't occur, Trump pressuring Rosenstein to say—just before testimony under oath—that he (Rosenstein) was on Trump's "team" was a clear exhortation to give no answers under oath that would harm the president. This is EXACTLY what people go to jail for in America.
5/ And furthermore, it's very clear that the president's improper and corrupt attempt to influence Rosenstein's testimony WORKED. We know this because when Congress asked Rosenstein, under oath, if Trump had spoken to him about Russia—a bad fact for Trump—Rosenstein concealed it.
6/ And when Rosenstein was asked if Trump had ever demanded a loyalty oath—Rosenstein having just had Trump demand Rosenstein verbally commit to being on Trump's "team"—Rosenstein gave arguably a false or (at best) *incomplete* answer, seemingly due to Trump's improper influence.
7/ So here we have a corrupt (i.e. purely self-interested) attempt to influence a witness in a pending investigation, and we have—though the law doesn't even require it—clear proof the corrupt influence successfully altered *sworn testimony*.
It's a crime and must be called so.
It's a crime and must be called so.
8/ Decades ago, the GOP—the self-described "law-and-order" party—wouldn't have dreamed of supporting repeated, clearly criminal actions by a GOP president. But the contemporary D.C. GOP is a shell—a ruin—of its former self, having sacrificed longstanding principles for *nothing*.
9/ But I'll admit my real ire tonight isn't for Trump or the GOP but for lawyers and journalists who—based on their real-life experiences and professional knowledge—know for certain that these actions are *criminal* and don't use that word because they value propriety over truth.
CONCLUSION/ I said 8 months ago Rosenstein needed to recuse himself from the Russia probe because he's a witness. He was then—and we have even more proof he is now. The problem is that if he recuses himself and Trump doesn't pick Brand we'll get a stooge who'll shut Mueller down.
