Seth Abramson: ‘Trump’s in such a deep hole, he’ll never get out’

Former criminal investigator and criminal defense attorney Seth Abramson, weighs in on the latest bad news for Trump regarding Robert Mueller’s investigation. 

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is examining Trump’s tweets in a “wide-ranging obstruction inquiry.”

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is scrutinizing tweets and negative statements from the president about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to three people briefed on the matter.

Several of the remarks came as Mr. Trump was also privately pressuring the men — both key witnesses in the inquiry — about the investigation, and Mr. Mueller is examining whether the actions add up to attempts to obstruct the investigation by both intimidating witnesses and pressuring senior law enforcement officials to tamp down the inquiry.

Mr. Mueller wants to question the president about the tweets. His interest in them is the latest addition to a range of presidential actions he is investigating as a possible obstruction case: private interactions with Mr. Comey, Mr. Sessions and other senior administration officials about the Russia inquiry; misleading White House statements; public attacks; and possible pardon offers to potential witnesses.

Former criminal investigator and criminal defense attorney, Seth Abramson, has been publishing extensive Twitter threads and mega-threads regarding the ongoing investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia since autumn 2016, and today he weighed in on the report by The New York Times in a short Twitter thread.

“When I think back to how roundly I was criticized for saying that Trump’s Twitter feed contained evidence of criminal conduct, I have to calm myself. *Anyone* who’s worked in the criminal justice system knows Trump was creating *serious* inculpatory evidence in the public sphere,” Abramson began. (Inculpatory evidence being evidence that shows a person’s involvement in an act, or evidence that can establish guilt.)

Continuing, Abramson tweeted:

  • “There should be *zero* shock that Trump is being investigated for Obstruction and Witness Tampering on account of his tweets, which in every respect suggest hard evidence of those serious crimes. Nothing is being ‘stitched together’; this is how cases of this sort are brought.”
  • “This NYT report is a blockbuster. Trump is now under investigation for secret pardon offers, witness intimidation, obstruction via tweets sent to millions of Americans. And Mueller wants to question Trump directly on all of it. Trump’s in such a deep hole, he’ll never get out.”

For those unfamiliar with his work, Abramson has been publishing extensive Twitter threads and mega-threads regarding the ongoing investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. And, while he has his critics, Abramson – a former public defender at both the state and federal level – has an impressive resume.

His online bio reads in part:

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Seth worked for eight years as a criminal defense attorney and criminal investigator and is now a tenure-track professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at University of New Hampshire. His teaching areas include digital journalism, post-internet cultural theory, post-internet writing, and legal advocacy (legal writing, case method, and trial advocacy).

Trained as a criminal investigator at Georgetown University (1996) and then the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute (2000-2001), Seth is a member in good standing of both the New Hampshire Bar and the Federal Bar for the District of New Hampshire. He’s worked for three public defenders—two state and one federal—representing over 2,000 criminal defendants over that time in cases ranging from juvenile delinquency to first-degree murder. He first testified in federal court as a defense investigator at the age of 19; represented his first homicide client at the age of 22 as a Rule 33 attorney for the Boston Trial Unit of the Committee for Public Counsel Services; and won his first first-degree murder trial at 29. Between 2001 and 2007, he was a staff attorney for the Nashua Trial Unit of the New Hampshire Public Defender.

If you are interested in reading more, Twitter user @chicken_afraido created a document linking to every Trump-Russia thread published by Abramson going back to autumn of 2016. The document begins with his updated bio from 8 December 2017, but then hops to his latest threads and works in reverse chronological order. He also has a web page linking to Abramson’s threads using category listings for those interested in a breakdown by topic.

Samuel Warde
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