Obama Attack On Constitution Explained — Cynical Publius, which is the pen name of an army officer who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan then became an attorney after retirement, posted this explanation on X concerning the potential consequences of the investigation into Barack Obama, John Brennan and others.
Cynical is one of the best commentators on X and we strongly encourage all to follow him for objective reporting on matters legal and military. He has been a guest on WPHT.
So a lot of my followers have been asking me to explain what Tulsi Gabbard’s reveal yesterday means as a practical matter, i.e., what can actually be done about it in the courts?
Well, while I am a lawyer, I’m not a litigator, and I’m not well versed in criminal law, so I’m probably not the right guy to ask. BUT… as a lawyer I do know enough to do basic statutory research, and as a public service I thought I would tie out Gabbard’s allegations against actual federal criminal statutes that MIGHT apply (note I did not say “DO apply”).
(Before I begin, I want to make two things clear because I know I will hear about these in the comments. Yes, the statutes of limitations for these various crimes are important here. But I am not going to get into that, as the very specific, non-public facts matter as to when the last acts in the alleged crimes occurred, and certainly with at least conspiracy it would seem the statute has not yet run. Second, I’m not going to get into “They’ll never win in DC” argument. The DOJ is full of smart lawyers who can figure out how to get these charges into friendlier venues.)
OK, let’s start.
In non-legal, layperson’s terms, Gabbard is alleging that certain elected and appointed federal government officials engaged in the following bad behaviors:
1. Knowingly falsifying classified intelligence reports for political gain.
2. Relying on such knowingly falsified classified intelligence reports as a basis to engage in illegal searches and seizures against political opponents, and otherwise compromising such opponents’ constitutional rights.
3. Releasing classified information to the media.
4. Conspiring with other government officials to accomplish any of the foregoing.
5. Lying about the foregoing to Congress while under oath.
6. Attempting to cover up any of the foregoing.
Hopefully we can agree that these cover all of the bad actions of DeepStateGate (and we’re not even including the media’s willingness to lie about all this).
I’ll now repeat that list and for each entry cite the federal criminal laws that may have been violated: __________________________________________
“Knowingly falsifying classified intelligence reports for political gain” 18 U.S.C. § 1001, “Statements or entries generally” (Basically this covers knowingly falsifying official documents.)
18 U.S.C. § 1519 , “Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy” __________________________________________ “Relying on such knowingly falsified classified intelligence reports as a basis to engage in illegal searches and seizures against political opponents, and otherwise compromising such opponents’ constitutional rights”
18 U.S.C. § 241, “Conspiracy against rights”
18 U.S.C. § 242, “Deprivation of rights under color of law” __________________________________________ “Releasing classified information to the media.”
18 U.S.C. § 793, “Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information”
18 U.S.C. § 798, “Disclosure of classified information” __________________________________________ “Conspiring with other government officials to accomplish any of the foregoing”
18 U.S.C. § 371, “Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States”
18 U.S.C. § 241, “Conspiracy against rights” __________________________________________ “Lying about the foregoing to Congress while under oath”
18 U.S.C. § 1621, “Perjury generally” __________________________________________ “Attempting to cover up any of the foregoing”
18 U.S.C. § 1505, “Obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees”
18 U.S.C. § 1512, “Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant”
18 U.S.C. § 1519, “Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy” __________________________________________
OK that’s it.
TO REPEAT: I am not saying anyone will be, can be or should be charged under the code sections I listed above. But they MIGHT be. Ultimately, that will be up to smart DOJ lawyers who have way more information on these matters than any of us do. I posted this merely so laypeople can do their own research, which I encourage.
An informed citizen is a powerful citizen.
Those code section cites above are easy to Google, and you don’t need to be a lawyer to understand the plain language of those laws.
I encourage you to review the actual text of these laws. I hope this helps inform the public debate.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. (P.S., if you are a litigator or criminal law litigator, please correct me if I said anything wrong, I would appreciate the clarity.)
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