Michael Cohen (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Yesterday, Michael Cohen decided to delay his voluntary testimony in front of the United States House of Representatives. Cohen said that the delay was due to “ongoing threats” issued against him and his family by one of the most powerful men on Earth, Donald Trump, and Trump’s decaying television id, Rudy Giuliani.
The president, and his attack clown, have successfully engaged in witness tampering. Here’s the federal code:
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(b) Whoever knowingly uses intimidation, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, with intent to—
(1) influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding;.. shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.(d) Whoever intentionally harasses another person and thereby hinders, delays, prevents, or dissuades any person from—
(1) attending or testifying in an official proceeding;… or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both.
Trump’s entire Twitter game has been to intimidate Michael Cohen to the point where he will not publicly testify. And it has worked.
Trump, and his enablers, will argue that it’s not witness tampering if you are just trying to get the person to tell the truth. But that is an affirmative defense Trump can make it at his trial for witness tampering if any federal prosecutor had the guts to charge him. In the meantime, his use of intimidation and harassment through the media should be enough to get the ball rolling.
It won’t be enough, of course, because we are a weak and decadent people. There are too few among us who would fight to see the president subjected to the rule of law, and too many who will cower and scrape in his presence. There’s a scholarly debate to be had about whether mean tweets are enough to sustain a charge for witness tampering, but we can’t even get to that ground because we’re stuck struggling against the morass of humanity who think Trump can’t be held accountable for anything.
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But wait, it gets worse. Instead of protecting Michael Cohen from Trump’s attempts intimidate him, the United State Senate decided to subpoena Michael Cohen.
I get it, Cohen is weak and contemptible and knows things the public deserves to know. The Democrats want to get him to testify to the collusion he participated in; the Republicans want to further sully his reputation. He’s an easy target.
It’s clear that the Senate is afraid of Trump, but not scared of Cohen, so Cohen gets a subpoena and Trump gets away with witness tampering.
The only upside is that Cohen’s impending testimony will inspire Trump to commit additional acts of witness intimidation, in plain sight for anybody with a sense of legal propriety to see.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.