The lawyer who represented Richard Nixon after he left the White House, William Jeffress, says Trump retaliatory action against Don McGahn could land him in prison for ten years.
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Trump’s retaliation against McGahn is a crime
Jeffress said during an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, “Well, through his tweets if nothing else, president trump has made it clear that he is furious at a number of people, certainly including Don McGahn, including Michael Cohen, likely including others who provided information to Mr. Mueller. And that information made its way into the report and was embarrassing to president trump. Now there is a criminal statute on the books. It’s called retaliation against witnesses. It punishes anybody who takes action to retaliate against a witness who has provided truthful information to law enforcement authorities. And president trump and his lawyers have got to be very cautious in taking any action other than words against any of these people who he is angry at.”
Maddow asked, “In terms of — what you just said there, other than words, with the kind of criticism that the president has levied already against people who have testified, potentially be shaky ground given the possibility of intimidation of witnesses being invoked here as a relevant statute, would it have to be some sort of act of furtherance to try to cause harm to those persons? Obviously, we have seen at least one act taken by the White House in that they have fired Don McGahn’s law firm with some white house anonymous sources telling reporters that that was taken specifically in response to Don McGahn essentially becoming an enemy of the White House based on his testimony.”
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The lawyer who represented Richard Nixon after he left the White House, William Jeffress, says Trump retaliatory action against Don McGahn could land him in prison for ten years. https://t.co/5E2V15mojp pic.twitter.com/1QpKKb77mX
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Jeffress answered, “The way the statute reads is if the president causes any harm to an individual in retaliation for his testimony, that’s a criminal offense carrying a prison sentence of up to ten years. And, yes, I think if you caused the firing of a law firm that caused harm to the witness and you did that specifically with intent to retaliate against the witness’ testimony, that would unquestionably be a crime.”
The 2020 election is right around the corner. Donald Trump is continuing to crimes at such a rapid pace that prosecutors will have their choice of charges to file against the possibly former president. Trump’s criminality is ongoing, so even winning a second term might not be enough for him to run out the statute of limitations on crimes that he is committing today.
Prison appears to be Donald Trump’s destiny.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
