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On Monday morning, the president took to Twitter to praise Roger Stone, his longtime political adviser and associate, for refusing to speak to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and Trump has zeroed in on Stone as a possible tie between Russia and the Trump campaign, investigating whether he had advance knowledge that WikiLeaks would publish thousands of emails stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers. On Sunday’s This Week on ABC, Stone vowed not to testify against the president. “Nice to know that some people still have ‘guts!'” Trump tweeted in response.
“I will never testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018
A number of legal experts from both sides of the aisle have said the president’s tweet could represent an illegal attempt to influence a witness in the special counsel’s investigation. George Conway, a longtime conservative lawyer and vocal Trump critic who is married to presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, suggested the message violated portions of the US code governing witness tampering and obstruction of justice:
File under “Stating the obvious” — George Conway (@gtconway3d) December 3, 2018
Neal Katyal, who served as acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama, piled on, as did lawyer and ethics expert Norm Eisen.
George is right. This is genuinely looking like witness tampering. DOJ (at least with a nonfake AG) prosecutes cases like these all the time. The fact it's done out in the open is no defense. Trump is genuinely melting down, and no good lawyer can represent him under these circs https://t.co/zqFUoQvWTf — Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) December 3, 2018
So did Obama’s former head speechwriter, Jon Favreau, alongside other prominent lawyers:
This doesn’t seem very cool or very legal. https://t.co/VHnQ5CnywE — Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) December 3, 2018
ArcherA87 on December 3rd, 2018 at 20:52 UTC »
It feels like the easiest thing to do is have someone say to Trump "I don't think you'd be smart enough to collude with the Russians" and that narcissistic trait would kick in immediately.
Buttersstotch18 on December 3rd, 2018 at 19:10 UTC »
If he's so fucking innocent, why is he praising Stone for shutting up... About nothing? I don't get how anyone still thinks Trump is innocent and this is just a ploy because Democrats lost. Jesus Christ this country is in trouble.
TooShiftyForYou on December 3rd, 2018 at 18:52 UTC »
Trump: "Michael Cohen is a weak traitor and thief who lies. He was also my personal attorney for more than a decade."