Maybe my logic is a little murky so bear with me. The D.C. Criminal code § 22-1806 determines the legal punishment for the crime of accessories after the fact. A permanent U.S. legal resident, and Washington Post opinion columnist, Jamal Khashoggi was allegedly ordered to be literally butchered to death by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. After days of unreasonable and incoherent alibis, the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was ordered by the President of the U.S. to meet with the Saudi Rulers. The result was Pompeo weakly eliciting a ludicrous pledge from the suspected killers to investigate themselves.
The President of the United States has posited the idea of “rogue” killers as the real culprits as opposed to his Saudi friends. MBS is now the new victim of a witch hunt, according to Trump, and the most absurd of all the administration is allowing the Saudis a “few more days” to come up with a mutually agreed upon excuse. Unless I misunderstand the D.C. Code §
22-1806, the President of the United States, via his emissary, would be guilty of “Whoever shall be convicted of being an accessory after the fact to any crime punishable by death shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than 20 years. Whoever shall be convicted of being accessory after the fact to any crime punishable by imprisonment shall be punished by a fine or imprisonment, or both, as the case may be, not more than 1/2 the maximum fine or imprisonment, or both, to which the principal offender may be subjected.” Donald Trump is currently a resident of the District of Columbia and if MBS is guilty President Trump is an accessory after the fact.
Of course, the confusion would be that Mr. Khashoggi’s death, for I suppose a crime against the Crown, happened on foreign soil, but surely the President has culpability for being an immoral accessory after the fact. This, after all, is the same President who has, again and again, pointed an accusatory finger of disloyalty at President Obama for releasing assets to Iran (their money) in conjunction with the Iran Nuclear Deal. Also, during his factless tirades, he accused former President Obama and Hillary Clinton of being the co-founder and “founder of ISIS.” Despite the mounting evidence, with speculation that the Turkish Government is selectively leaking information to maintain leverage over the American President, Trump is responding to the question of audio, video and eyewitness accounts, with the words, “if they exist.”
Now, what seems like eons ago the President is still amidst the dark cloud from a smoking gun over allegations of his conspiracy with the Russian government to defraud the very people Mr. Trump is sworn to keep safe, Americans. The mere fact that Mr. Trump is so embroiled in illegality that suspected treason is on the back burner after fraud, tax evasion, theft and now murder, is a remarkable moment in American history. I am astounded that the mid-term elections are even in question, Trump supporters who call themselves patriots, out of some GOP versus snowflakes misguided loyalty, have allowed the country to fall so far, we are condoning murder. Trump acolytes have even taken to wearing t-shirts saying, I’d rather be a Russian than be a Democrat. Republicans will tell you the shirts were just a joke worn by a couple of yahoos; historically the men who set dogs on black protesters and sprayed water from pressurized hoses on women and children were just a few yahoos as well, until ropes and trees were within eyesight. Remember the advice of Benjamin Franklin America, ‘we must all hang together’ to stop this madness ‘or assuredly we shall all hang separately.’
18 Days: Vote in ’18 for Change.