Richard Painter: ‘It Was a Very, Very Stupid Thing for’ Trump to Attack the FBI on Twitter

EXCERPT:

PAINTER: “Well, in and of it — yes, in and of itself, I don’t think this tweet would lead to a criminal charge, in and of itself. But the problem is that this is part of a pattern of the president injecting himself into the Russia investigation. First, by asking Director Comey of FBI for loyalty, pressuring Director Comey not to go after Gen. Flynn and to drop the Russia investigation, and then firing Director Comey. And then, repeated attempts to try and figure out a way to curb the Mueller investigation. And now, repeated attacks on Mr. McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI. If this tweet were combined with any other actions by the president or people working for him to retaliate against McCabe in his capacity as deputy director of the FBI, then you could get to a point where there was witness intimidation. So we don’t know what’s been going on behind the scenes. But I have to say, this is an incriminating tweet. It certainly shows his state of mind. So if there were people working for President Trump who were taking actual concrete action against Mr. McCabe, he could be in very, very hot water. It was not — it was a very, very stupid thing for him to do to tweet that out.”