Last updated on November 25th, 2018 at 04:56 pm
Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman said on MSNBC that what Sean Hannity did when he encouraged witnesses to destroy Russia investigation evidence was witness tampering and the punishment for that felony is 20 years in prison.
Video:
Akerman said:
I think the thinking in the White House is to tamper with witnesses. What Sean Hannity admitted to and actually was enticing people to do was to destroy evidence which is a violation of the witness tampering statute. It’s not just people who destroy testified but it’s also people who ask others to do it. If you look at the language of the statute. Whoever knowingly persuades another person to do so with intent to cause or induce any person to alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal an object with intent to destroy commits a 20-year felony. He’s doing it on TV.
We have a rash of witness tampering going on right now. We’ve got it with manafort who will have to answer to this tomorrow before a judge and may go straight to jail add a result. We have it with Donald Trump who is making the story for Don Junior that can be used by Don Junior and others. This is all witness tampering. This is a crime that didn’t exist because in the Watergate days. This is a crime that’s been separated out what was a five-year felony that Congress is now made a much more serious crime with a punishment of up to 20 years.
Since Trump and Hannity talk every night on the phone, it isn’t difficult to see how Trump used Hannity’s show to send a message to witnesses in the Mueller investigation to destroy evidence. The connection is there, which is one of the reasons why Sean Hannity telling witnesses to destroy evidence is a crime. Given that Mueller always seems to have a lot more evidence than is publicly speculated, he probably already knows what Trump and Hannity are talking about.
Witness tampering is not a crime that is committed by defendants who have evidence on their side. People who tamper with witnesses tend to be facing overwhelming evidence and are dead to rights nailed.
The crime wave has grown to such a degree that the Supermax may need a dedicated wing to hold all of the Trump criminals.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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