President Trump has reacted to former fixer Michael Cohen planning to testify before the House Oversight Committee by attacking Cohen and his family online and on television. Legal experts say that behavior looks a lot like witness tampering.
On Friday, Trump tweeted that Cohen is "lying to reduce his jail time" and made a vague reference to Cohen's father-in-law. "Watch father-in-law," Trump said. He echoed the claim in an interview with Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro.
"In order to get his sentence reduced, he says, 'I have an idea. I'll tell — I'll give you some information on the president,'" Trump told Pirro. "Well, there is no information. But he should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that's the one that people want to look at ... And I guess he didn't want to talk about his father-in-law."
Asked to identify who Cohen's father-in-law is, Trump replied, "I don't know, but you'll find out, and you'll look into it. Because nobody knows what's going on over there."
Giuliani made a similar claim last Sunday, telling CNN that Cohen's father-in-law "may have ties to something called organized crime."
When he was pressed on his comments about Cohen's father-in-law, Giuliani said they were justified.
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Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School who is an expert on criminal law, said Trump and Giuliani's comments are "definitely witness tampering."
"Trump has suggested that if Cohen testifies, his family could be prosecuted," Ohlin told INSIDER. "That's a classic form of obstruction of justice and typically the FBI, and the Justice Department, takes that very seriously. If Trump were a private citizen, instead of in office, he would already be indicted for what he has said about Cohen."
“[I]t’s another example of obstruction and witness tampering in plain sight,” said Seth Waxman, a former federal prosecutor based in Washington DC. “If this had been discovered in an email during an investigation, prosecutors would be jumping up and down about finding another example of criminality.”
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“I’m extremely concerned about Mr. Cohen’s declaration that threats have been made against him and his family,” Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat on both the House intelligence and oversight committees, told VICE News. “His testimony is extremely important to our investigations. Under Article 1 of the Constitution, it is a crime for anyone to intimidate or prevent witnesses from testifying before Congress. We will not tolerate witness tampering by the President or any of his surrogates.”
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Legal experts said that by publicly suggesting Cohen’s wife and father-in-law should face scrutiny over possible unspecified crimes, Trump and Giuliani appeared to be threatening Cohen not to divulge any damaging information about the president.
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“For the president to suggest that the full force of the federal government will be used against Cohen’s father-in-law if Cohen gives anticipated unfavorable testimony before Congress is wrong and probably illegal,” said Harry Sandick, a former prosecutor. “I do think that threatening the family member of a witness with prosecution is over the line.”
On Thursday, Lanny Davis, Cohen's attorney, said Giuliani should be held accountable for his remarks and called on Congress to stand up to the president.
Davis said "family is out of bounds," adding that Congress should censure Trump for his comments and investigate Giuliani.
"The House of Representatives now has an obligation," he said. "A resolution of censure when the president of the United States indisputably intimidates and obstructs justice to prevent a witness from testifying is an order. So is a federal criminal investigation of Rudy Giuliani for witness tampering."
"Mr. Trump has immunity from indictments, so it's alleged or argued in the Justice Department," he added. "But Mr. Giuliani has committed a crime or at least should be indicted for that crime on the face of what he said on national television."
Any team of prosecutors pursuing an open investigation in which Cohen is a witness could potentially decide to bring charges. That could include probes being led by special counsel Robert Mueller, the Southern District of New York and New York State, Waxman, a former prosecutor, said.
President Trump tweeted on Thursday morning, apparently in response to Davis' interview, "So interesting that bad lawyer Michael Cohen, who sadly will not be testifying before Congress, is using the lawyer of Crooked Hillary Clinton to represent him - Gee, how did that happen? Remember July 4th weekend when Crooked went before FBI & wasn’t sworn in, no tape, nothing?"
DOJ veterans say Trump and Giuliani's recent attacks against Cohen could rise to the level of criminal conduct (Business Insider)
Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenas President Trump's former fixer, Michael Cohen: Lawyer (ABC News)
TRUMP’S “THREATS” AGAINST COHEN’S FAMILY LOOK A LOT LIKE WITNESS TAMPERING, FORMER PROSECUTORS SAY (Vice News)