When Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the J6 Committee under oath last week (a sin for present day Republicans), the committee revealed written attempts to get Hutchinson to “do the right thing” and to “remain loyal”.  The tweets, likely sent under direction of her former boss Mark Meadows, made philosophical observations about what a shame it would be for a nice young woman like her to… etc.  The witness tampering, and obstruction of investigations of extreme national importance, is ongoing.   

Witness tampering is a felony that carries a twenty year prison sentence.   The punishment is twenty years because the crime is such a serious threat to the rule of law.  If you can freely intimidate all witnesses and get their memories to disappear in all relevant areas, the administration of justice stops dead.  You have the rule of the mob, free to intimidate anyone who calls them a mob.

The only thing political about not prosecuting witness intimidation is a paralyzing fear that the other side will somehow use the prosecutions politically.   

During Trump’s first impeachment trial, the former president (who won reelection in a landslide, necessitating the peaceful, legal, patriotic protest of January 6th…) tweeted thinly veiled threats against people who were testifying truthfully about his attempts to get the president of Ukraine to announce a fake investigation into Joe Biden’s son.  He threatened witnesses publicly and in real time, as they were testifying in public hearings on television.   He also swiftly took revenge on witnesses and family members of witnesses for testifying truthfully.  He took his revenge lap right after impeachment failed, days after jury foreman Mitch McConnell announced he was working closely with the president’s defense team (Patsy Baloney, Federalist Society superlawyer and future White House counsel among them) to get the impeachment farce quickly dismissed.

For years prior to that hearing, and up to the present day, Trump’s standing order to anyone in his party receiving a Congressional subpoena is to tell Congress to shove its subpoena, and they’ll fight it out in courts until the clock runs out.  That’s a novel and brazen approach to lawful, compulsory subpoenas, sir.   The DOJ, headed first by Jeff Sessions and later by the supremely unprincipled Bill Barr (hell of a bagpipes player, I’ve heard) was clearly fine with all of their boss’s obstructive tactics, even the plainly illegal ones (someone has to prosecute crimes or they’re just partisan allegations of crimes).  Trump’s handpicked political operatives at DOJ were all on team MAGA, all shared the same goal of turning the clock back to the days before that Commie Supreme Court desegregated the schools, allowed women the final choice about whether to give birth, gave civil rights to homosexual perverts, due process protections to (presumed guilty) ordinary people arrested for crimes and gave the state’s blessing to the vile practice of miscegenation, race-mixing.

Fabulous piece of shit Jared Kusher comes to mind.   A C student in his private school, he attended Harvard after his billionaire father, Charles, made a two million dollar donation to that institution.  Now Jared is smart!  Charles Kushner was involved in some illegal activity, he juggled money between companies he owned and signed false papers on behalf of partners to make larger than legal political contributions (to Democratic candidates, funnily enough).   They had him dead to rights, the state’s main witness being his brother-in-law.

Charles Kushner didn’t get where he is by coloring between the fucking lines.  He hired a professional scumbag to set up a meeting between a hooker and his brother-in-law.  The hooker was good, picked the witness up and brought him to a hotel room rigged for video recording.   Charles brought the tape to his sister and told her if her husband didn’t dummy up the video would be all over the fucking internet.   His sister may have been wearing a wire, the case against Charles Kusher was now about a much bigger deal: witness tampering.

We know the prison sentence for the felony of witness tampering is twenty years.  Billionaires, however, usually get a steep “best people” discount on the rare occasions they’re sentenced for crimes.  Charles was sentenced to two years, served fourteen months, presumably because his behavior was so good.  Jared never forgave fellow piece of shit Chris Christie for prosecuting his innocent father.  Charles eventually got a pardon from Trumpie, no doubt one of the many Jared had his nose buried in while the planned coup d’etat was being feverishly enacted all around him while he was so busy working on a stack of pardons that he had no idea of any plans.  He told J6 investigators he was too busy working on pardons to listen to people like Patsy Baloney whining about Trumpie’s proposed, allegedly illegal plans.

Pardon me for this rant.   I’ve extended every benefit of the doubt to Joe Biden, not my first pick among the Democratic candidates, nor even my tenth.  Under the horrific circumstances, I think he’s doing a decent job.  I extend the benefit of the doubt to Merrick Garland, a methodical, capable prosecutor probably building a complex and difficult racketeering case (RICO) against Trump and his myrmidons, as he tries to restore public faith in the impartiality of the DOJ.  I’ve heard RICO cases are not hard to win, but are also, unless perfect, not hard to get thrown out on appeal.  Clearly it would be a fatal disaster if Trump was about to be locked up as a political mob boss, appealed and had the case overturned.  Seen that way, it is understandable, and smart, that Garland is building a careful, airtight case against a criminal syndicate.   

But if Garland doesn’t bring prompt prosecutions against people we know are actively committing the felony of intimidating witnesses to cover the gigantic criminal ass of the most prodigious liar the world has ever known, what the fuck?  What the fucking fuck, Merrick?