Threats, intimidation and impeachment
Trump has weaponized die-hards and Twitter feed
I have the unfortunate distinction of recognizing witness intimidation when I see it. During my years as a state and federal prosecutor, I watched solid cases dissolve as witnesses were intimidated into refusing to testify about horrible crimes.
In every instance of fearful silence, the threat came from the perpetrator of the crime or someone closely connected to him. It never would have occurred to me that the man in charge of American law enforcement would be the source of intimidation in an investigation by federal authorities. Enter the stuff nightmares are made of … President Donald Trump.
Trump has a long history of using threats and intimidation to silence his critics, expand his financial empire and keep himself out of prison.
Porn actress Stormy Daniels said in 2018 on “60 Minutes” that seven years earlier, a man in a parking lot approached her and warned her to “leave Trump alone” and forget trying to sell a story of her affair with Trump. She said the man then looked at her daughter and added: “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Before the 2016 election, a dozen women accused Trump of sexual misconduct. He threatened to sue every one of them. The intimidation tactics did not stop at the White House door. After a whistleblower complaint detailed how Trump bartered U.S. financial aid to Ukraine for manufactured dirt on potential rival Joe Biden, Trump suggested the whistleblower’s source was a traitor who should be executed.
This week, he threatened to release damaging information about Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the decorated combat veteran who provided congressional testimony establishing a quid pro quo in the Ukraine call that led to the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
Blind, unshakable support
A catalog of other threats against Trump’s personal and political enemies has already been publicly aired. It’s longer than the Beatles’ hit list.
That Trump has revealed himself to be the thug we feared him to be should not come as a surprise. The surprise is that he’s able to openly employ tactics that would get any other politician shamed out of office in hours.
To understand the vaccine that protects Trump from accountability, we have to accept what Hillary Clinton knew all along. A part of Trump’s base is “deplorable.” No breach of ethics, crime or act of moral depravity will shake their blind support.
At some point, liberal America, of which I consider myself a part, must accept that many of our fellow Americans dislike people who don’t look like them, pray like them and think like them. Trump understands that. His immigration policy — I’ll keep those people who are not like you away from you — was his slingshot to the presidency.
In a Monmouth University Poll released this week, 62% of Trump supporters said there was nothing he could do to lose their support. Nothing. This has allowed those Trump supporters to publicly express the bigotry they had to contain before the most powerful man in the world said it was OK.
Trump recognizes this and maintains their loyalty through an IV drip of “killers and rapists,” “very fine people” and foreign “infestation.” In exchange, Trump has a personal army of followers who will attack those critical of him. Just ask the Democratic politicians who received pipe bombs last year from mega-Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc.
Death threats and revenge
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, testified this year that Trump uses “code,” like a mob boss, when he orders people to do things of questionable ethical or legal propriety.
Trump’s code language is understood by his closest followers, and sends shivers down the spines of witnesses cooperating in the impeachment probe. Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told House investigators she felt threatened when Trump referred to her as “bad news” in a public summary of the Ukraine call. She also said she worried her job and pension were at risk.
The danger in threats posed by Trump and his base is that witnesses will not be candid because they fear repercussions, or will not appear at all. And witnesses who have not tripped the public radar have little reason to voluntarily come forward and go through the agony that comes with America’s president trashing them to his 67 million Twitter followers, some of whom may target them for revenge.
Attorneys for the Ukraine whistleblower have already received death threats against the whistleblower and themselves. Yet Trump repeatedly attacks the media for protecting the whistleblower’s identity. Republican politicians like Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Rand Paul, who have called for a public outing despite the danger the whistleblower faces, are complicit in Trump’s intimidation efforts.
The primordial soup from which Trump, his die-hard supporters and the current GOP have evolved makes it impossible to distinguish parasite from host. Whatever historical dissection will reveal in years to come, the biggest loser of the Trump era will be our search for the truth.
WANT TO COMMENT? Have Your Say at letters@usatoday.com, @usatodayopinion on Twitter and facbook.com/usatodayopinion. Comments are edited for length and clarity. Content submitted to USA TODAY may appear in print, digital or other forms. For letters, include name, address and phone number. Letters may be mailed to 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA, 22108.