On January 17, BuzzFeed News published a damning report alleging that Donald Trump instructed his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to lie to the United States Congress about negotiations to build a Trump tower in Russia.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , the piece went viral almost instantly, and what ensued was extensive cable news coverage coupled with calls for impeachment and resignation. Breaking its trademark code of silence, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office reached out to BuzzFeed News , disputing the report.
Furthermore, the New York Times and the Washington Post failed to independently confirm BuzzFeed ‘s report. Contradicting media speculation, the Post ‘s sources noted that the special counsel’s statement “aims to make clear that none of those statements in the story are accurate.”
Accurate or not, BuzzFeed ‘s report may have triggered Donald Trump to commit an impeachable offense, according to investigative journalist Kurt Eichenwald. Trump’s reaction to the report, according to Eichenwald, is enough in and of itself to put an end to the Trump presidency.
The journalist laid out his theory in a series of messages posted to Twitter, Raw Story reports.
Eichenwald’s theory suggests that BuzzFeed ‘s story baited Donald Trump and made the president commit an even more serious crime than the one suggested in the report, effectively forcing him to commit an impeachable offense.
Here is how Buzzfeed’s story may have triggered Trump to commit another impeachable offense https://t.co/xCMTJnsBss
— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 19, 2019
Trump’s Friday tweet — punctuated with “Watch father-in-law!” — can be interpreted as witness intimidation, according to the journalist, which means that the president is publicly obstructing justice, intimidating Cohen and inducing him to lie to the Congress.
“He is inducing witnesses to lie, he is intimidating witnesses who provide damning evidence against him. So, it doesn’t matter if Trump urged Cohen to perjure. We have seen him commit impeachable offenses — serious offenses — with our own eyes.”
The reporter added that witness intimidation under federal law predicts a 20-year jail sentence, concluding that the fact that Americans witness the president committing a crime in the open does not mean that a crime has not been committed.
“Just because you witness Trump committing a crime doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see it for what it is,” Eichenwald wrote.
As per a report from the New York Times , Donald Trump’s tweets are being examined by Robert Mueller in what is considered a wide-ranging obstruction of justice probe. The special counsel’s office is reportedly looking into building a case against the president based on his social media statements.
Trump has infamously used Twitter to attack political opponents, fire administration officials, conduct diplomacy, start feuds with politicians and celebrities, and, perhaps most importantly, he has made negative statements about nearly everyone involved in Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference, key witnesses like Michael Cohen included.
