Jan 6th Committee Public Hearing Live, page-2005

The Ketchup is going to be flying!

“Add Witness Intimidation to the List of Potential Jan. 6 Charges Against Trump"

It might look like there are two unrelated storylines unspooling in the wake of Cassidy Hutchinson’s devastating testimony at the January 6th committee’s sixth hearing of the summer on June 28. The first is the claim being advanced by allies of Donald Trump that she is lying when she says she was told of his angry conduct in his limousine when he could not go to the insurrection. The second is the question of whether she was the victim of witness intimidation because of veiled pre-hearing messages that she received from Trump’s orbit.

In fact, they are the same story. The right-wing attacks on her testimony appear to be unfounded— which would make them the post-hearing continuation of the intimidation that may have taken place before she testified. DOJ must investigate under the federal witness intimidation statute, 18 USC 1512(b).

A good cop/bad cop scenario looks to have unfolded. The “good cops” are those passing messages apparently attempting to shape testimony in advance. On the flip side, break away and you’re viciously attacked by known partisans like Ornato—and by Trump himself. Following Hutchinson’s explosive testimony, Trump dismissed her as a “whack job,” stating that an unspecified group of “patriots” had “said bad things about her.” He continued to direct his fire at Hutchinson over the weekend.

Don’t underestimate how overwhelming such a campaign likely is for a 26-year-old woman who, however accomplished, is still at the start of her career professionally and in her political party.

Hutchinson’s case should sound familiar. It mirrors what Trump has done to others, most prominently Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen. As the Mueller Report found, Trump apparently conveyed reassuring messages before Cohen cooperated, then “turned to attacks and intimidation” once Cohen began to cooperate with the Trump-Russia investigation.

“The Department of Justice should not make the same mistake twice. It should immediately open a witness tampering investigation.”


https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/07/potential-charges-trump-witness-intimidation.html