Witness Tampering

Get Your Goon On

What did we learn from yesterday’s live hearing of the January 6 House Committee investigating Donald Trump’s failed coup attempt? We learned Donald Trump is a corrupt criminal on the levels of a dime-store mobster who believes he’s above the law. A goon is gonna goon. Wait, we already knew that. But, we learned a particular detail of his gooning.

At the end of yesterday’s hearing, vice chair and Republican Liz Cheney dropped the juicy little nugget that Donald Trump called a witness. This occurred after the last hearing on June 28 with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

Cheney said the witness has yet to appear in the hearings and didn’t take the call but alerted their lawyer, who told the committee. Cheney said the committee passed along the information to the Justice Department.

“We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” she said.

Trump’s response was to have one of his spokesgoons issue a kinda-sorta denial. The goon tweeted, “The media has become pawns of the Unselect Committee. Liz Cheney continues to traffic in innuendos and lies that go unchallenged, unconfirmed, but repeated as fact because the narrative is more important than the truth.”

First off, Mr. Goon, how do you know it hasn’t been confirmed? As for it going unchallenged, that’s Trump’s fault. How many people has Donald Trump told not to cooperate? How many Republicans who were a part of the coup attempt have testified? How many of the congressional goons who sought pardons from Trump have cooperated? A goon’s gotta gaslight.

The reason this is important is that it’s witness tampering. That is about as illegal as say…calling up election officials and telling them to give you 11,780 votes that don’t exist so you can win an election. We know that Trump does like to call people and extort them. Hello, Ukraine. We also know he likes to use burner phones and flush documents down toilets.

It was revealed during the June 28 hearing that other witnesses have been contacted by Trump goons with one saying (according to Cheney), “What they said to me is as long as I continue to be a team player, they know I’m on the right team. I’m doing the right thing. I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts.”

Well, at the very least, he has the transcripts read to him. This is the guy who couldn’t read daily briefing materials unless they contained photos of him.

So, what reason would Donald Trump have to call a witness? His best defense at this point is that it was a butt dial. He does have a lot of butt and it wouldn’t be the first thing that could be blamed on Donald Trump’s giant orange stupid ass.

But isn’t it awesome that during an investigation to determine if Donald Trump committed crimes (he did), he commits even more crimes? Yes. Yes, it is awesome. What would be even more awesome would be if Donald Trump goes to prison for a very long time, like for the rest of his life. It is possible that Donald Trump is indicted for crimes committed trying to derail the investigation. Remember, Richard Nixon didn’t resign because he planned or initiated the break-in at Watergate. He got caught in the cover-up.

Sedition and witness tampering is serious business. Donald Trump and his goons believe they are above the law. The entire Trump family believes they’re royalty. They also believe that if Trump says it, then his saying it makes it true. During the Nixon administration, it was believed that it was not illegal if the president does it, no matter what that “it” is. The Trump administration had the same belief, despite Watergate proving Nixon wrong. Perhaps Donald Trump believed his status as president (sic) was above that of other presidents. It wasn’t just being president (sic) that made Trump better than everyone else. It’s that Trump believes being Trump makes him better than everyone else. But this is the moron who believed being president (sic) and a Trump made him immune to COVID.

Hopefully, Donald Trump isn’t immune to the law.

Goons gotta go to prison.

Music note: I listened to the Foo Fighters’ “Wasting Light” album while drawing this.

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Sinking Like A Stone

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Yesterday was historic. We got to witness a public hearing in only the third impeachment inquiry in our nation’s history. We got to watch a president intimidate a witness while she was testifying. We may have seen a new article of impeachment created in real-time. And finally, a federal court found Trump confidant and partner-in-crime Roger Stone guilty on seven counts of witness tampering and lying to Congress.

Donald Trump and his goon, Rudy Giuliani, coordinated a smear campaign against Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch before she was ousted from that position. He ever praised a Ukraine prosecutor who was considered corrupt by our nation, Europe, and even Ukraine. Yesterday, his smear campaign against Yovanovitch continued.

Donald Trump has a history of bullying women and intimidating witnesses. He’s tweeted attacks in the past against his former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen (after he turned on him), former White House counsel Don McGhan (who witnessed several episodes of obstruction by Trump), and former FBI director James Comey who testified that Trump pushed him to drop an investigation over another partner-in-crime, Michael Flynn.

Trump said he would only watch ranking member Devin Nunes’ opening statement during yesterday’s hearing, which was kind of pointless. Nunes attempted to break committee rules by yielding his opening time to another committee member (when he’s only allowed to give that time to the Republican committee counsel). As usual, Trump was lying because he unleashed a barrage of attacks against Yovanovitch WHILE she was testifying.

He tweeted, “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go?” Yovanovitch was a low-level diplomatic officer stationed in Somalia early in her career. Chairman of the Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff (another of Trump’s favorite victims) stopped the proceedings to address Trump’s Twitter tantrum.

He asked Yovanovitch what effect Trump’s attacks on her would have “on other witnesses’ willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing.” She said, “It’s very intimidating. I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but the effect is to be intimidating.” In released summaries of Trump’s phone calls with the president of Ukraine, Trump said “some things will happen” to Yovanovitch.

If you think this isn’t witness tampering or intimidation, keep in mind that last year a Trump supporter mailed several pipe bombs to politicians, former government officials, and members of the media who have criticized Donald Trump. Hell, last week, someone took a knife to a Trump baby balloon. Yes, it’s witness tampering.

As if the gods agreed and wanted to make a statement, a verdict in Roger Stone’s trial was delivered in New York before the hearings in Washington were completed for the day.

A jury found Stone guilty on seven counts, including obstruction, lying to Congress, and witness tampering. He once called a potential witness and threatened to kill their dog. Roger Stone joins other Trump confidants who have been convicted or pled guilty, including Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Rick Gates, and “coffee boy” George Papadopoulos.

Stone can receive up to 50 years. He won’t get that much and Trump will eventually pardon him. Will Trump do the smart thing and pardon him after the 2020 election (along with Manafort) or will he attempt to fire up his base and do it sooner? His supporters do love horrible people. That’s why they’re deplorable.

Stone is going to prison for doing the same things Trump is doing today. Trump’s supporters argue he’s only expressing his opinion. But if they can say he didn’t pressure Ukraine because that nation’s president says he felt no pressure, then they need to accept that Trump is intimidating because Yovanovitch has said she feels intimidated. Logic, Republicans. Use it.

Roger Stone deserves what he’s getting. He belongs in prison. He also deserves to have his buddy there with him.

What’s more shocking here? That a guy with a Nixon tattoo on his back is going to prison for obstruction, lying, and witness tampering…or a Trump supporter is going to prison?

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Cheaters Gonna Cheat

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As you read about Paul Manafort’s plea deal being rescinded by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, keep in mind what landed him in jail before his convictions. Manafort was out on bail which he violated by obstructing justice and tampering with witnesses.

Mueller’s office says Manafort violated his plea agreement by repeatedly lying. You wonder why did he do that? Is he being manipulative? Is there further information he’s afraid will get him in deeper trouble? Is he still protecting Trump and why? Or, can he just not help lying because he’s always been a liar? The answer is probably a combination of each of those questions.

Manafort and Donald Trump are con men. Even though they deal in millions and billions instead of mere thousands, don’t give them another classification. They are lying con men and grifters. They are skeezy, sleazy, backstabbing, cheaters who will sell you, the nation, and their own family out for a couple of bucks.

Manafort made his deal with Mueller, so he would only get a few years in prison, instead of dying there, as he’s 69-years-old. Last August, he was convicted on five counts of tax fraud, one count of failing to disclose his foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud (and this was with a judge hostile to the Special Counsel). Facing an additional trial in Washington and charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering, failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, making false statements to investigators, and witness tampering, Manafort struck a deal and pleaded guilty to witness tampering and defrauding the United States. He also surrendered $22 million in cash and property, which means this Special Counsel investigation has actually made the country money.

He was probably thinking that even with a reduced sentence, no prison time is better than any, Manafort started cheating. He was lying and withholding information from the Special Counsel and even leaking details of the investigation to Donald Trump’s lawyers. Not only does Trump have an inside man at the head of the Justice Department, he had a rat in the investigation.

Trump has stated that he feels bad for Manafort, and he probably wouldn’t be in so much legal trouble if he had never worked for his campaign. Basically, Trump, the rule-of-law president, feels bad that Manafort’s lawbreaking was exposed. Now, he’s publicly dangling a pardon in front of Manafort telling The New York Post, “why would I take it off the table?”

Trump is obstructing justice and engaging in witness tampering. While a president does have the power to pardon anyone he wants, he doesn’t have the right to bribe, which is what a pardon in this case is. He’s publicly telling Manafort that it’s on the table.

Trump and Manafort’s lawyers are probably in trouble too for obstruction of justice, and this includes Rudy Giuliani.

Trump has refused to sit down with the Special Counsel and instead, answered written questions. According to reports, two of his answers are that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son, campaign officials and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Who wants to bet that Mueller already knows the answers to these questions? Who wants to place a higher wager on Trump telling the truth?

Like Manafort, Donald Trump can’t tell the truth under any circumstance. He believes he lives by a higher standard than everyone else and can’t be punished for anything he says or does. Hopefully, very soon, he’ll learn that lying to the Special Counsel isn’t the same as lying to the press or in a tweet.

Trump answered Mueller’s questions with help from his lawyers, who are the same lawyers Manafort was leaking information to. Is there any possibility the answers weren’t coordinated with what Manafort was telling Mueller?

Hopefully for all the shitweasels like Trump Jr, Roger Stone, Jerome Corsi, Julian Assange, Manafort, Giuliani, and the 45th president of the United States, orange will be the new orange.

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