July 2, 2022 Editor

How Trump World pressures witnesses to deny his possible wrongdoing

Trump and his allies shower potential witnesses with flattery privately while publicly blasting those who dare cross him

By , and

June 30, 2022

image above: Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, on Capitol Hill this week. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

WN: The young lady has guts . . .

That Trump and cronies act like the Mob in plain sight goes without saying. How to curb/prevent it is the problem.

But it is also a far greater dilemma than its (by comparison mere) longstanding domestic presence. The United States of America is the Ultimate Mob, wielding its greed and will to dominate around the world. There is rarely any conventional Western news organization that does in-depth coverage of that . . . So much for journalistic integrity . . .

Not only does Liz Cheney not understand this, she in her political career has been in lockstep with that American Horror Story. The greatest witness/authority on this remains Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Please see: The United States is “The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today”: We Hear Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Speech Against the Vietnam War On the 35th Anniversary of His Assassination (April 4, 2003):

His claim covered then, before and since . . .

The longstanding witness tampering by the government of the United States in MLK’s case by some understandings became deadly, as recounted in this book: An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King. Of it:

Martin Luther King Jr was the most powerful and eloquent champion of the poor and oppressed in US history, and at the height of his fame in the mid-sixties seemed to offer the real possibility of a new and radical beginning for liberal politics in the USA. In 1968, he was assassinated; the movement for social and economic change has never recovered.

The conviction of James Earl Ray for his murder has never looked even remotely safe, and when William Pepper began to investigate the case it was the start of a twenty-five year campaign for justice. At a civil trial in 1999, supported by the King family, seventy witnesses under oath set out the details of the conspiracy Pepper had unearthed: the jury took just one hour to find that Ray was not responsible for the assassination, that a wide-ranging conspiracy existed, and that government agents were involved.

An Act of State lays out the extraordinary facts of the King story—of the huge groundswell of optimism engendered by his charismatic radicalism, of how plans for his execution were laid at the very heart of government and the military, of the disinformation and media cover-ups that followed every attempt to search out the truth. As shocking as it is tragic, An Act of State remains the most compelling and authoritative account of how King’s challenge to the US establishment led inexorably to his murder.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated at approximately the same place. From left are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King and Ralph Abernathy. Charles Kelly/AP

An article on this is found here: Why Martin Luther King’s Family Believes James Earl Ray Was Not His Killer. After the assassination, King’s family did not trust the findings of the FBI, which had harassed the civil rights leader while he was alive., by , UPDATED: JAN 15, 2020· ORIGINAL: APR 4, 2018.

Veteran civil rights prosecutor Barry Kowalski, who worked on the federal case against the police who beat Rodney King in 1991 . . . said that none of the subsequent theories or inquiries ever disproved the initial one: that Ray killed King, acting alone.

“I remain absolutely convinced that those well founded findings were correct,” he said.

Then MLK’s very memory is whitewashed, in a way castigated by Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:

27Woe to you, [American Democrats and Republicans], you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

29Woe to you, [American Democrats and Republicans], you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. 30And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers. 33You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts the larger issue above in No Future Without Forgiveness, in the former South African apartheid context thus, from my book review of it:

Tutu likewise decries the repeated claim, “We did not know.”

If they ‘did not know’, as many claimed, how was it that there were those within the white community who not only knew of the baneful results of official policies but who condemned the vicious policy and worked to end it? (p. 217).

In particular, Tutu singles out the judiciary for censure, precisely because of its purported claim to uphold justice.  He also chastizes the media, even the “liberal” journalists, for perpetuating racism.  Further afield, he indicts the United States that “enthusiastically supported any government however shabby its human rights record as long as it declared itself to be anti-Communist (p. 237).”  The white churches likewise were reprehensible, though generally have since repented–unlike elements in the judiciary.  “The former apartheid cabinet member Leon Wessels was closer to the mark when he said that they had not wanted to know, for there were those who tried to alert them (p. 269).”  Still, Tutu graciously states: “ ‘There but for the grace of God go I (p. 253).’ ”

For all that, Tutu in his Chapter (Eight) of Horrors, wisely writes, from which the book title:

It is ultimately in our best interest that we become forgiving, repentant, reconciling, and reconciled people because without forgiveness, without reconciliation, we have no future (emphasis added; p. 165).

excerpts:

Donald Trump never changes his playbook. He behaves like a mob boss, and these messages are fashioned in that style. Giving an order without giving the order. No fingerprints attached.

As rumors flew in the spring of 2018 that Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen was preparing to flip on his former boss and offer potentially damaging testimony to federal prosecutors, Cohen received an email.

“You are ‘loved,’ ” read the email, which indicated it was relaying comments from former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and was quoted in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s 2019 report. “Sleep well tonight … you have friends in high places.”

It was one of a number of times messages of cajoling support or bullying encouragement were delivered to potentially important Mueller witnesses.

And it was strikingly similar to the communications Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said on Tuesday had been received by witnesses who have testified for the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Evidence across multiple state, federal and congressional investigations points to a similar pattern: Trump and his close allies privately shower potential witnesses with flattery and attention, extending vague assurances that staying loyal to Trump would be better than crossing him.

Meanwhile, Trump publicly blasts those who offer testimony against him in bluntly personal terms, offering a clear example to others of the consequences of stepping out of line.

“Donald Trump never changes his playbook,” Cohen said in an interview. “He behaves like a mob boss, and these messages are fashioned in that style. Giving an order without giving the order. No fingerprints attached.”

A witness, Cheney said, told the committee about receiving phone calls indicating that Trump reads transcripts and “to keep that in mind” during interviews with the committee.

“What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know I’m on the right team. I’m doing the right thing. I’m protecting who I need to protect. You know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World,” Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, said the witness testified.

Cheney described another call received by a witness. “[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition,” she said, quoting the witness.

Cheney did not identify the witnesses who had been contacted. But a person familiar with the committee’s work said both quotes came from Cassidy Hutchinson, the 25-year-old former aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. Her explosive testimony Tuesday that Trump knew the rioters were armed when he urged them to march on the Capitol has become a signature moment in the committee’s investigation.

Cheney also did not explain who sent the messages, making it difficult to assess whether they were people especially close to Trump or fringe players unlikely to be acting on his orders. She also did not indicate whether the committee has access to text messages or emails that might provide written corroboration.

But she said that she thought “most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns” and the committee would be carefully considering how to respond.

The messages received by House committee witnesses would be illegal if they were designed to influence their testimony, said Timothy Belevetz, a former federal prosecutor and a defense attorney at Ice Miller, who said federal laws cover attempts to tamper with congressional testimony. It is illegal to threaten a witness if they do not testify in a certain way — but also to promise to reward them if they do so.

“You have to draw conclusions with respect to their intent — are they making these statements with the intent to influence the witness?” he said. Regardless, he said: “It’s exceedingly troublesome.”

Please click on: How Trump World Pressures Witnesses

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Editor

Wayne Northey was Director of Man-to-Man/Woman-to-Woman – Restorative Christian Ministries (M2/W2) in British Columbia, Canada from 1998 to 2014, when he retired. He has been active in the criminal justice arena and a keen promoter of Restorative Justice since 1974. He has published widely on peacemaking and justice themes. You will find more about that on this website: a work in progress.

Always appreciate constructive feedback! Thanks.