Trump Skates Close to Witness Tampering

Lawfare: “Donald Trump is swimming in dangerous waters. The day after his former campaign manager was convicted by a federal jury on eight felony counts, the president of the United States made a sequence of public statements praising Paul Manafort for refusing to cooperate with a lawful federal law enforcement investigation and for not ‘flipping’ on the president—and, conspicuously, did not rule out a pardon.”

“Before making any more comments that a reasonable person in Paul Manafort’s shoes—or Robert Mueller’s shoes—might construe as urging Manafort not to ‘flip’ or dangling the possibility of a pardon, there is a federal statute Trump might want to consult: 18 U.S. Code § 1512(b). That law makes it a federal crime ‘knowingly’ to ‘corruptly persuade… another person … with intent to … influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding’ or ’cause or induce any person to withhold testimony . . . from an official proceeding.’ It also makes it a crime to attempt to do so.”