This column by Clyde DeWitt originally ran in the July 2017 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition.
At this writing, James Comey has just finished his congressional testimony, barbecuing Donald Trump, and at least implicitly if not directly accusing him of criminal activity. Now, even if you read this the day it lands in your mailbox, there will have been many post-Comey-testimony developments, and they may have led any one (or more) of a large number of scenarios.
You may first be wondering what this political article is doing in an adult-industry trade publication, but if you do not realize that politics—especially national politics—greatly impacts the adult industry, then you became involved in it after 2009 (which may well be the case).
Important is Trump’s pro-evangelical agenda. Ever since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign, the Republicans have looked to evangelicals (née the Religious Right) for a ton of support. That, by the way, has become really odd in the Trump Era because Trump’s proposed budget, for example, cuts off money to many evangelicals, especially the ones living in poorer areas of red states as well as to older (and, therefore, trending more religious) generations. That leads to two points:
1) So long as Trump is fighting for his life against this political firestorm, congressional Republicans in more moderate districts/states will be reluctant to board Trump’s ship for fear that they might sink with it in 2018. That will make Trump’s agenda far more difficult for him to achieve.
2) Media hype (well, it sells newspapers and airtime) wonders whether this might lead to impeachment, making comparisons with Watergate. Do you really want Trump kicked out of office when Mike Pence is vice president? If you think so for even a second, look Pence up on Google about his views that line up with the evangelicals, which is bound to include anti-porn notions. If he could, Pence would change the United States in to a conservative Christian theocracy. On the other hand, you can count on Trump to have as a first priority a pro-business agenda, with the evangelicals being important—but secondary. Pence would have a pro-fundamentalist agenda. (That is not an objection to Christian citizens—only an objection to a Christian government.)
Remember Watergate
Point 2 segues into Watergate, which resulted in Nixon’s resignation in August of 1974. Those of you who were born that month are just turning 43. A great many readers of this publication are younger than that, but anyone born after about 1965 likely was too young during the series of events known as “Watergate” to know anything much about it other than perhaps studying it in American History 101.
It has long been this author’s recommendation that, roughly every three to four years, everyone should watch All the President’s Men with Robert Redford (playing Bob Woodward), Dustin Hoffman (Carl Bernstein) Jason Robards (Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee) and Hal Holbrook (“Deep Throat”). Not only is it a wonderful film; it is historically very accurate, being based upon Woodward and Bernstein’s book by the same name.
The reason for that recommendation is to remind you how money buys government and how easily that axiom can slide down a slippery slope to a point of abject corruption—much as it seems to be doing in the current administration. When you watch the movie, by the way, keep in mind that all of the shenanigans that ultimately gave rise to Nixon’s resignation were in an effort to gain an advantage for Nixon over his 1972 election opponent, George McGovern—a candidate who had little chance of winning, probably even had Nixon done no campaigning at all.
The Particulars of Obstruction
You are hearing much about the obstruction of justice laws in connection with all of this. Although states have laws in this category, the laws prohibiting obstruction of justice that are relevant are found in one of 22 sections of Chapter 73 of the Federal Criminal Code (18 U.S.C.). The crimes listed there range from assaulting a process server, tampering with a witness, obstructing a federal audit and, the one relevant here, section 1512(b):
“Whoever knowingly ... corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so ... with intent to—
“(1) influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding;
“(2) cause or induce any person to—
“(A) withhold testimony, or withhold a record, document, or other object, from an official proceeding;
“(B) alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal an object with intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding;
“(C) evade legal process summoning that person to appear as a witness, or to produce a record, document, or other object, in an official proceeding ...
“shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”
Take note of the “20 years” part! In the wake of Comey’s testimony in Congress, figure Democrats will be studying up on that statute. The important thing about the “Obstruction of Justice” statute is the immateriality of the issue of whether the offender broke any other law. The touchstone is impeding the investigation, like the president telling the attorney general—who serves at the president’s pleasure—to cancel an investigation of some federal official under pain of the attorney general’s discharge.
Fasten Your Seat Belts
As far as this author is concerned, the perfect scenario would be for this investigation to drag on for a long, long time, which certainly is a distinct possibility. As noted, that stands to cause members of Congress from moderate locales to distance themselves from Trump and, as follows, from his agenda.
Tweet, tweet, tweedle-lee-dee. (Bobby Day, “Rockin’ Robin,” 1958.)
Clyde DeWitt is a Las Vegas and Los Angeles attorney, whose practice has been focused on adult entertainment since 1980. He can be reached at [email protected]. More information can be found at ClydeDeWitt.com. This column is not a substitute for personal legal advice. Rather, it is to alert readers to legal issues warranting advice from your personal attorney. Political opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author, and not necessarily those of AVN Media Network, its owners or staff.
