Matt Gaetz----Witness tampering:

[Kingofalldems]

Link to tweet

[Mrs. Overall]

1. Wow. Just about to post this.

As a member of congress, how on earth can he tweet something like this?

On edit: Just capturing the text of the tweet in case he deletes it:

Matt Gaetz
✔
@mattgaetz
Hey @MichaelCohen212 - Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot...

[Kingofalldems]

3. He's a republican.

They do anything they want.

[Perseus]

51. He is not very smart

He proves it time and time again, very easy for him to do, he opens his mouth and that is it, he lets the World know his lack of intelligence.

[OnDoutside]

5. Desperation ? Plus cocaine.

[True Blue American]

21. That man needs to be arrested

For threatening a witness. They were warned.

[MelissaB]

2. I just saw this. Holy fuck!

[Leghorn21]

4. Ha, I just posted and deleted this!!

GOOD TIMES, keep tweeting, you pack of LOSERS

ALL OF YOU

[deminks]

6. Republicans have not just become a cult. They have also become an organized crime family.

[Evolve Dammit]

73. Ain't it the truth. Thanks

[CurtEastPoint]

7. Isn't Mr. DUI the one w/the dead roommate or intern or whatever?

[Kingofalldems]

8. This is a crime.

Link to tweet

Refer it to the proper authorities, Madam Speaker.

[Mrs. Overall]

12. Rachel is on this fast!

Hope she covers this on her show tonight.

[Perseus]

55. shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both

I guess he should have not been so eager to help his master this time...

Both is a good word...

[HopeAgain]

9. Gaetz is a child

They say you stop maturing when you become an active alcoholic.

[MelissaB]

10. Needs one more rec to get to the greatest. Matt Gaetz needs to lawyer up.

[Pachamama]

13. Someone in congresscritter Gaetz's Office better read up on:

18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(b), 1515(a)(1)(B).

[Pachamama]

11. Friend on Capital Hill just sent me that...holy shit

[superpatriotman]

14. Another reason to be embarrassed to live in Florida

This guy's a piece of excrement.

[at140]

42. Hey.. I love Florida...never got below 40 deg entire winter in my town....nt

[Duppers]

46. Perhaps you're aware of this forum? 😂

https://www.democraticunderground.com/110315741

[at140]

48. Nope, I am blissfully unaware of sins and misbehaviors

my wife sees to that LOL.

[snowybirdie]

44. We love Florida!

Not embarassed. The weather is wonderful this time of year while my hometown is 22 and snowing. If you don't like it, don't visit!

[at140]

52. Tell me about it, spent most of my life in Chicago !

Happiest moment leaving Chicago was we sold the snow-blower LOL

[snowybirdie]

72. Me too

My kinda town, but not in February. Awaiting election results tonight via WCPT online

[at140]

81. When you get the results, will you post me a reply? Thanks

I got my hands full doing my taxes !!

[snowybirdie]

84. Hey Chicago, Good Job

Tony Prepreckwinkle and Lori Lightfoot in a run off for Mayor. Both black women, one an openly gay woman. Changes are a comin to Chicago!

[Evolve Dammit]

74. We're not talking about the waether here.....

[SidDithers]

15. Popehat thread...

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Sid

[dem4decades]

16. Cohen should answer all questions about infidelity as something he learned from Mr. Trump.

I will love to hear him call him Mr. Trump as he's detailing Trump's criminality.

[euphorb]

25. I expect Elijah Cummings would rule any such questions out of order.

[dem4decades]

56. I'm interested in what Cummings is going to say about Gaetz, re. witness tampering.

[at140]

53. Cohen procured for his boss, I am sure.. nt

[Mrs. Overall]

17. Kick

[NightWatcher]

18. Kick his ass out of Congress for this

[mopinko]

19. he needs to be censured. immediately.

balls in your court, nancy.

[Tactical Peek]

20. Will Melania remain faithful when Trump is in prison?

She's about to learn a lot.

[LoveMyCali]

41. Some people say

Melania isn't faithful now. I hear it from the best people.

[FiveGoodMen]

86. Maybe she'll turn out to have been complicit

Then she can get a cell of her own.

(May still not affect whether she's faithful, I suppose)

[Hassler]

22. Let's hope a Dem on the committee calls out the Gaetzi tomorrow.

[mia]

23. Trump does it, so other Republicans know that they can get away with it too.

Legal experts: Trump committed witness tampering in plain sight
Legal experts are accusing Pres. Trump of obstruction and witness tampering because of what he said today on Twitter. This starts what could be the most consequential week of the Mueller investigation yet.

https://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/legal-experts-trump-committed-witness-tampering-in-plain-sight-1387862083610

[Perseus]

60. I don't know that he will get away with it, we have not seen the Muller report

And I have a feeling there are a few pages on that report about obstruction of justice and witness tampering. I would not say he "gets away with it" yet, I am an optimist and I still think the orange buffoon and his family will pay for all the wrongdoing they have been involved in. Life has to be more just, and justice calls for crooks to pay their dues.

[MrsCoffee]

24. I see on his twitter account he claims to be Florida man.

[gademocrat7]

26. Another evil member of the rethug cabal.

Gaetz disgraces the office he holds.

[George II]

27. I have a screen shot of that tweet - I'm positive when he sobers up he'll delete it.

[MLAA]

28. Speaker Pelosi could censor his ass if nothing else, no?

[Duppers]

47. I hope so. That'd be nice. nt

[onenote]

61. Not unilaterally. It takes a majority vote

Of course, we have the majority now, so we could pass a resolution censuring him.

But keep in mind, the House has only censured one of its members 23 times in over 200 years, and only a handful of times in recent memory. So don't hold your breath.

[MLAA]

70. Here's hoping for 23! Thanks for the history 🙂

[denbot]

29. They act as if certain they have impunity.

I really think our country lives or dies on the GOP's decision on siding with Trump/Russia, and what we can do to counter punch.

[Leghorn21]

30. ...so Matt's buddy Jim Jordan piped in about 8 hrs. ago...nothing prosecutable, I guess:

Tomorrow @OversightDems will hold their
first big hearing. For their first big witness, they
will roll out the red carpet for Michael Cohen

Here’s the problem: Michael Cohen is going to
prison in two months for several crimes, including
LYING TO CONGRESS

Link to tweet

Keep tweeting, Gym, you can do better!!

[NastyRiffraff]

31. From the great Adam Parkhomenko:

Link to tweet

[Leghorn21]

40. And "Boss Hogg" is trending is trending at #8, raff!!

Tweets here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=%22Boss+Hogg%22

Been a great day for a bit of rightie PUBLIC HUMILIATION

and I’m LOVIN IT!!

[spooky3]

59. LOL!!!! nt

[cab67]

32. I agree with some other commenters.

Gaetz has crossed multiple lines here and should be censured by the House.

[Leghorn21]

33. Oh hey, so here's Mark Meadows, who apparently copied/pasted from Gym Jordan?

Can’t make it up: tomorrow Oversight Committee
Democrats plan to bring in their first star witness of
this Congress, Michael Cohen.

Michael Cohen is going to prison in 2 months, for
crimes including... lying to Congress.

Link to tweet

Could y’all be any LAZIER???!

[meow2u3]

34. Yours Truly give the Feds a heads-up

Link to tweet

[Kingofalldems]

37. Good job!

[meow2u3]

39. Just doing my civic duty

[Duppers]

50. Gave your tweet a 👍.

Ya done good.

[meow2u3]

82. Thanks

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. Gaetz taking one for the team - doing something to make the Cohen story "what girlfriends?"

and "is this legal?", rather than "Cohen has documentary evidence of Trump illegality"?

Why else do it in public?

[Scurrilous]

36. K&R

[wsbradshaw]

38. Mueller will never be done

This is exactly why the Mueller investigation will never be finished. Just when he is almost done something new pops up. Now he has to investigate Gaetz and all the people around him to see what makes him desperate enough to do something this stupid.

[Kurt V.]

45. and where he got such info he's claiming

[kentuck]

43. He should be censured on the floor of the House.

And he may be?

[Scruffy1]

79. Censred hell.

This is a felony and punishavle by up to 20 years. A censure is meaningless. Joe McCarthy got censured and reelected.

[spanone]

49. I suspect that came to gaetz directly from the 'president'. It's classic trump.

[mainstreetonce]

54. Absolutely

He is tweeting for Trump.

[underpants]

57. "This is what it looks like to compete in the marketplace of ideas," he added.

Trump Ally Rep. Matt Gaetz Insists He’s Not Threatening Michael Cohen by Suggesting He’ll Expose ‘Girlfriends’

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-ally-rep-matt-gaetz-insists-hes-not-threatening-michael-cohen-by-suggesting-his-wife-will-leave-him

[uponit7771]

58. KGOP screw the law, we make the law

[KY_EnviroGuy]

62. Has anyone cued the apologies, misspeaks and thoughts & prayers yet?

We can bet Faux has already reserved him a time slot with kneeling bench in waiting.

.......

[paleotn]

63. Obstruction and tampering

are chargeable offenses. So is drunk driving. Something this pathetic little shithead is very familiar with.

[onenote]

64. While everyone leaps to the assumption he's violated the law, the lawyer in me thinks that maybe not

I wish it was otherwise, but a careful reading of the relevant statutes offers Gaetz a number of arguments as to why his tweets don't violate the law.

First, the most relevant provision would appear to be 18 USC 1512, which states:

Whoever knowingly uses intimidation, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, with intent to—
(1) influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding;
(2) cause or induce any person to—
(A) withhold testimony, or withhold a record, document, or other object, from an official proceeding;
(B) alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal an object with intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding;
(C) evade legal process summoning that person to appear as a witness, or to produce a record, document, or other object, in an official proceeding; or
(D) be absent from an official proceeding to which such person has been summoned by legal process;

The key is the "with intent to" element. What exactly was Gaetz' intent. Hard to prove it was to influence, delay or prevent Cohen's testimony since its not as if Gaetz can take back the information he has put out there, nor is there any indication in his tweet that what Gaetz does is conditioned on what Cohen says. And it would be hard to prove his intent was to cause Cohen not to testify or withhold testimony for the same reason.

Second, subsection (e) provides a defendant with an affirmative defense: (e) In a prosecution for an offense under this section, it is an affirmative defense, as to which the defendant has the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence, that the conduct consisted solely of lawful conduct and that the defendant’s sole intention was to encourage, induce, or cause the other person to testify truthfully.

Tweeting is not unlawful conduct and Gaetz would undoubtedly argue that if he had any intent at all, it was to encourage Cohen to testify truthfully.

Gaetz is a monster, and his actions are reprehensible. But it's far from clear that he broke the law.

[world wide wally]

65. And Gaetz is a drunk...

With DUI's to prove it.

[yaesu]

67. its time , way past time, to start locking up these criminal republicans. nt

[Takket]

68. has anyone called for him to resign yet?

Given that Franken was called upon to resign immediately for kissing a woman long before he was a Senator, I would think by that standard Gaetz should be demanded to resign immediately for tampering with a witness as a SITTING rep.

if he refuses to resign he should be impeached. either way he should be arrested. this is open and shut witness tampering.

[watoos]

69. It's obvious why

He belongs to the Freedumb caucus.

[Kingofalldems]

71. And here's a fun fact:

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

75. This is the perfect response

Link to tweet

[IluvPitties]

76. White supremacist thug.

[TheRealNorth]

77. LOCK HIM UP

[Honeycombe8]

78. Well, when you lie with dogs...

you get fleas. These are the types of people that Cohen aligned himself with.

But really, I guess these guys like Cohen and Stone aren't like this, but when you're in deep legal trouble, and you know you have serious powerful enemies, I would fess up to my wife about affairs (if she didn't already know), so that would take that threat off the table, and she'd hear it first from me. But it seems like these guys are convinced to the bitter end that they will get away with anything and everything. Never give up the ship.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

80. Lock him up!

[arthritisR_US]

83. The scumbag has since deleted his

criminal tweet.

[dlk]

85. Witness Tampering is a Felony--Gaetz Shouldn't Get a Pass

[czarjak]

87. He went to law school?