| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Trump's Comey Tapes bluff: Perfectly legal |
| 2017-06-23 |
| [The Hill] Now that President Trump has tweeted that he didn’t tape James Comey, the anti-Trump zealots are accusing him of witness intimidation. This is most the absurd of the many absurd charges leveled against Trump by those out to get him without regard to the law. Trump’s bluff was calculated to get Comey to tell the truth. How can that be witness intimidation? If it were, Abraham Lincoln would have gone to prison rather than the White House. As a young lawyer, he, too, bluffed a witness into telling the truth. In one of his most famous murder cases, a witness testified that he saw Lincoln’s client kill the victim. The time it occurred was at night, so the witness testified that he was able to see the crime because there was a full moon. Lincoln then handed the witness an almanac and asked him to turn to the date in question. The almanac showed that there was no moon on that night, and the witness broke down and admitted that he had not seen the crime. The defendant was acquitted. Lincoln later acknowledged that he had deliberately fooled the witness into telling the truth by handing him an almanac for the wrong year. The correct year’s almanac indeed showed a full moon. I don’t want to compare myself to Lincoln, but I, too, used a similar bluff involving tapes when I was a young lawyer back in the 1970s. I was cross-examining a police officer who was lying through his teeth about what he had said to my client. Pretending that my client had recorded the crucial conversation, I read him what appeared to him to be a transcript of the tape. In fact it was only a transcript of my client’s best recollection about what he had been told. Believing there was a tape the witness changed his testimony and admitted making the crucial statement to my client. As a result we won the case. Prosecutors frequently bluff about the quality and quantity of the evidence they have against a defendant in order to get him to plead guilty or to become a cooperating witness. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #17 https://www.facebook.com/myiannopoulos/videos/944583225679573/ Link didn't work for some reason. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2017-06-23 17:14 |
| #16 Found this on Facebook and thought it was pretty funny. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2017-06-23 17:13 |
| #15 Won't be many judgeships confirmed in the next 18 months, as the Dems stall and block hoping for a change in Senate control, which is not unlikely. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2017-06-23 15:37 |
| #14 The Supreme Court, yes -- many of the judges have gotten a bit long in the tooth. But there are an awful lot of empty federal judgeships and appellate court appointments needed as well -- that effort has lagged for years. And if the 9th circuit is split, as it apparently needs to be, the entire national character of the judiciary could change, leaving no haven where liberal cases could get their start toward setting precedents. As for poor Mr. Comey, his actions during the past eight years were notable for being taken under a progressive Democratic president. Mr. Mueller is answerable to President Trump, who expects proper behaviour and knows what he did and did not do. Then there is the fact that the Democrats have not improved their position in the House, despite all the posturing and the river of money, so he cannot hope for succor there. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-06-23 15:24 |
| #13 Throluth Trump's not a lawyer, so unlike the Clintons I don't think he's trying to subject interpretation to what the meaning of the word 'is' is. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2017-06-23 15:21 |
| #12 almost certainly requires Comey to testify truthfully That would be logical. However, I'm remembering how Comey didn't require testimony, records, or deals when it came to protecting Dem operatives over the course of his tenure . . . . |
| Posted by: gorb 2017-06-23 14:47 |
| #11 Trump's tweets denying the tapes were interestingly worded. There's room there for the tapes to exist, he merely said he did not make them and that he does not have them. I believe he also used the word "tapes" exclusively which does not necessarily preclude the existence of other types of recordings. Keep in mind that whatever immunity deal Mueller gave his buddy Comey almost certainly requires Comey to testify truthfully. Trump may still be baiting the pair of them. |
| Posted by: Throluth Lover of the Sith4976 2017-06-23 13:48 |
| #10 What #7) NoMoreBS said. Any believer in Civil Liberty should be suspicious of power concentrated in any form of government. The Left is looking at a Frankenstein that they have spent decades constructing and are terrified that it can be turned against them... |
| Posted by: magpie 2017-06-23 12:55 |
| #9 So does NoMoreBS. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2017-06-23 11:59 |
| #8 #7 nails it. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-06-23 10:45 |
| #7 It's suddenly dawned on me that the entire frantic effort to find some reason to find some shred of legitimacy of dubious/criminal conduct by the President, and to gain control of the Congress is to impeach Trump and the motive behind impeaching Trump is simple. The Supreme Court , they are terrified of the changes the court will see after four or eight years of a Trump presidency. It would be more transformative than any other executive/legislative act, since the right, not the left, could use lawfare across the land to stop the march to socialism and cultural suicide. |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2017-06-23 10:07 |
| #6 the anti-Trump zealots are accusing him of witness intimidation If I might ask, what was the witness being "intimidated" to do exactly? |
| Posted by: gorb 2017-06-23 10:03 |
| #5 If Comey were honest - or bold - he would've replied, "I hope so, Mr. President!" |
| Posted by: Bobby 2017-06-23 09:40 |
| #4 Hope Comey lost some sleep over this. Nice gaslighting |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-06-23 09:15 |
| #3 Doesn't matter - it gets the rubes rialed up and violent which is what matters. Their goal is to de-legitimize the president and, if they are lucky (in their eyes), get someone to take a shot at him or his family |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2017-06-23 08:39 |
| #2 Cops play this game all the time when dealing with suspects, see if they twitch and snitch. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-06-23 08:30 |
| #1 Good ploy. I'm waiting for the moment when DJT says "Checkmate" to these clowns. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2017-06-23 07:46 |