These potentially criminal practices are not new. Trump has engaged in witness tampering for quite a while. Trump” loved” Michael  Cohen until the feds seized all of Cohen records, forcing him to flip.  Trump then called him a rat.   No, we’re not talking about Mafia bosses engaging in such threatening comments.  We’re discussing the President of the United States.

By comparison, Manafort resisted the feds and Trump glorified him. Rick Gates flipped and Trump responded  with a vengeance. The president socked  Gates while the trial was ongoing and even during  jury deliberations,   Trump even posed that he believed flipping of witnesses, the key tool of prosecutors should be eliminated.  Just think, these behaviors came  from the President of the United
States, a man supposedly tough on crime.

Donald Trump  has labelled numerous people who have questioned his motives or actions, as traitors.  The man who heads our national and domestic security including all federal law enforcement has refused to allow witnesses to testify, documents to be revealed, all on the basis of privilege.  He insists in court that he cannot even be investigated while he is president, even if he were to shoot somebody on 5th Avenue.

Believe it or not, this is America.  Nobody is above the law. Nobody. No person of extraordinary power should be allowed to intimidate a sitting or a future witness.  Surely tweeting hostile thoughts and threatening to remove from office constitutes intimidation of future witnesses.  If you knew that your name would appear in the twitter boxes of tens, if not hundreds of millions of people across the world and your job could be jeopardized, would you do your civic duty or hide?  Keep in mind, Trump himself, did not testify verbally because he claimed there would be a perjury trap by Robert Mueller. Instead, he testified in writing and evidence from the Roger Stone trial now strongly indicates that he might have lied.  

Witness intimidation, obstruction of justice, obstruction of Congress, refusing to turn over documents, demanding that witnesses not testify, actions threatening job position or security--these behaviors go against all American values underlying our laws and constitution.

What we are witnessing are likely impeachable offenses that are simply mounting in real time.  It is time for his ardent defenders to recognize that approving this type of behavior only makes it easy for future government officials, including future Democratic presidents, from mutilating our public trust.

When will his defenders speak their outrage and openly cry , “this is not right, no more”.

For the sake of defending our judicial system and our constitution, hopefully, it will be very soon.