18 U.S. Code § 227 stipulates that any federal employee, member of Congress, or member of the executive branch is forbidden from using their position within the federal government to influence the employment decisions of a private business, solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation. The penalty for doing so could result in fines and incarceration of up to 15 years, and anyone who is found guilty of violating that law could even be disqualified from holding office: (a)Whoever, being a covered government person, with the intent to influence, solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation, an employment decision or employment practice of any private entity— (1) takes or withholds, or offers or threatens to take or withhold, an official act, or (2) influences or offers or threatens to influence, the official act of another shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 15 years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honour, trust, or profit under the United States. It’s worth noting that U.S. Code specifies that no federal employee is exempt from the law, including the President of the United States. (Note, I'm not the original source of the above paragraphs. I quoted them from FB) Here is a link: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/227 LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP!
This is actually pretty big, it's an actual stature of law and he clearly violated it. And he can't say he didn't 'intend' to influence it, since he openly said to fire them.
Republicans will spearhead the charge right? Y'all are such big believers in locking people up if they have violated the law, right?
Hahaha! The left goes off the rails everyday with Trump in the white house. Every day since the election has been like Christmas!
Manafort had illicit contact and business deals with the Russians. Mueller was hired to investigate Trump ties to the Russians and Manafort was Trump's campaign manager. How is that difficult to understand?
There are now so many federal regulations that nobody can understand them all. One study states that people engaged in any kind of enterprise is probably violating three federal laws every day, with not a clue as to having done it or what the regulations are. While we always have someone ranting because things aren't perfect and pushing for regulations to make them so, all we achieve is to make things more difficult to do- let alone do well. While lawyers would like the idea that every person would need to be constantly accompanied by a team of lawyers advising them on every step or word, that is not very practical. IF we are to govern realistically and live realistically, we must keep rules and regulations down to the level people can understand and be aware of them. When the game is overwhelmed with rules and nit-pickers, it becomes impossible to play. This is nit-picking.
Please stop influencing me! Typical liberal brain where people are not treated as rational self accountable adults.
Wow, was a stupid OP since there was nothing "partisan" in what the President said. Did he say "fire all players who are Democrats?" No. End of topic.
There's a big difference between contact, and "illicit contact". The same significant distinction that illustrates the fallacy of this threads topic. Trump issued no binding edict. The thread is ridiculous, and so are your speculations about the nature of Manaforts "contacts".
So the President was off the clock when he was at a ****ing rally? He is trying to influence the owners of the teams to conduct an official act, namely firing players who he disagrees with politically.
Manafort hardly concealed them ... he was under surveillance. Why didn't Comey arrest him if the contacts were "illicit"? Kushner was fined a staggering $200 for failure to disclose his contacts ... FARA has no teeth, no one pays heed, and failing to disclose doesn't = "illicit". It also doesn't give Mueller any leverage at all.