Seth Abramson - What's next for a criminal president

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1281781353017741313.html

(THREAD) Here's a checklist of everything that—as a criminal defense lawyer—I'd expect a client to do if he were the U.S. president, a career criminal, headed toward a possible election defeat, and aware that he might be indicted post-election. I hope you'll read on and retweet.

1. PARDON ROGER STONE. Stone could have gotten his prison sentence reduced by flipping on Trump over pre-election collusion with three nations (Russia, Israel, and Turkey) and Trump's chargeable lies to Mueller. Stone made clear he was ready to flip.

STATUS:SENTENCE COMMUTED.

2. PARDON MICHAEL FLYNN. Flynn—a pre-/post-election foreign agent—could've flipped on Trump over pre-election collusion with Russia, Israel and Turkey but didn't (and then broke his plea deal).

STATUS: PARDON or COMMUTATION FLOATED and ANTICIPATED, if Flynn case isn't DISMISSED.

3. KEEP MICHAEL COHEN QUIET. Cohen has nothing left to lose; he's been excommunicated from Trumpworld. But he still has dirt to offer about Putin's pre-election bribery of Trump.

STATUS: Barr ensured Cohen's silence with HOME CONFINEMENT TERMS that preclude a book or interviews.

4. STOP OR SLOW ACTIVE SDNY INVESTIGATIONS. Geoffrey Berman had many investigations of Trump and his agents—particularly Giuliani—ongoing at SDNY.

STATUS: Barr successfully REMOVED BERMAN from his job after his attempts to bribe him into a more lucrative role backfired publicly.

5. STOP OR SLOW ACTIVE EDNY INVESTIGATIONS. Richard Donaghue had many investigations of Trump and his political operations—particularly his inaugural committee—ongoing.

STATUS: Barr REMOVED DONAGHUE from his job by giving him a job at Main Justice. This will slow all his cases.

6. PLACATE MANAFORT. Manafort has the goods on Trump—Trump himself said so to friends in early 2018—but fortunately also has other people besides Trump to fear.

STATUS: Approximately 50% of the Ukraine scandal that got Trump impeached was actually about attempts to aid Manafort.

7. FIGHT ALL RECORDS RELEASES. Trump's tax returns will obviously incriminate him. His actions make that plain.

STATUS: The one sense in which Trump "won" the two Supreme Court cases this week is that in both cases it's PROBABLY TOO LATE TO MAKE ANY RECORDS PUBLIC pre-election.

8. SUPPRESS THE VOTE. If Trump loses in 2020, he can be indicted on January 21, 2021 as the unindicted co-conspirator in the Cohen case, as well as any other pending federal investigations.

STATUS: The GOP is spending millions to FIGHT MAIL-IN BALLOTS Trump thinks will hurt him.

9. CONFUSE VOTERS. Trump's top Ukrainian ally concedes he was lying in his Biden allegations. What if GOP allies in Congress could muddy the waters to make future accurate claims against Trump seem less plausible?

STATUS: GRAHAM and GRASSLEY and JOHNSON are on it in the Senate.

10. HIDE OR OBSCURE INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE. Trump has cut the number of people who can listen to his calls with foreign leaders; keeps misusing the NSC NICE archive; is making more and more private calls from the residence; is firing all whistleblowers.

STATUS: MISCHIEF MANAGED.

CONCLUSION. These are just the top 10 things you'd expect a career criminal who's guilty as charged to be doing in advance of a possible indictment. Media must explain this to America—we're witnessing a consciousness-of-guilt presidency the likes of which we've never seen before.