Eric Swalwell: Trump Acting Like MS-13 by Threatening Michael Cohen

MS-13 gang member
AFP/Orlando Sierra

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) told MSNBC Thursday that President Donald Trump is behaving like one of the world’s most dangerous gangs to prevent his former attorney, Michael Cohen, from testifying against him.

A partial transcript is as follows:

ANDREA MITCHELL: Is there any chance that the House is going to censure Rudy Guiliani?

REP. ERIC SWALWELL: Well, not at this time. My position, and I think my colleagues share this, you know, the president has clearly, I think, obstructed, intimidated witnesses, and he’s actually tried to influence a jury deliberation with Paul Manafort. We should collect that evidence, conduct our investigations, and then see where we go. I don’t think we need to do one-off after one-off after one-off. I think that we should look at all of this in the context of what’s really going on here, which is his he doing this because he doesn’t want the truth to come out. You only do this if you don’t want the truth to come out If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t conduct yourself the way the president been acting.

MITCHELL: Do you think [Michael Cohen] has a legitimate cause of fear of what might happen to himself in prison or his family, his father-in-law and others who are related to him?

REP. ERIC SWALWELL: Yes, and this is a fear, Andrea, I’ve worked with for years as a prosecutor. So, the subjects may be different, we may be talking about the President of the United States, but this is how gangs conduct themselves. This is how MS-13, the president’s adversary, conducts themselves. What they do is try and intimidate people who have left the gang by threatening their family, by telling them if they cooperate, harm will come to them. First, we have to do what we can to protect the witness, we have to do what we can to make sure the witness protects themselves, but we also have to make sure that the witness knows is that the best thing they can do is to come forward, tell the truth, and not allow this type of tactic to be used.

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