Rosie O’Donnell lives
in a unique world, a private world different from the one inhabited and
experienced by the rest of humanity. Her
life is submersed in despair and teenaged angst.
On Wednesday as the
Senate took up the vote on the tax reform bill approved by the House the day
before, the has-been hag and unfunny comedienne took to Twitter to offer what
many categorized as a bribe to senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeff Flake
(R-AZ) to change their vote.
so how about this— ROSIE (@Rosie) December 20, 2017
i promise to give
2 million dollars to senator susan collins
and 2 million to senator jeff flake
if they vote NO
NO I WILL NOT KILL AMERICANS
FOR THE SUOER RICH
DM me susan
DM me jeff
no shit
2 million
cash
each
Dozens of
celebrities, including O’Donnell, vowed to flee America when Donald Trump won
the 2016 Presidential Election. It’s a
hackneyed line─an easy threat to make in a divisive political climate. We’re still waiting for them to make good on
their promise.
Michelle Fabio at Forbes
provides some clarity on bribing a member of Congress:
Under 18 U.S.
Code § 201, bribing a member of Congress is, indeed, a crime. The
statute prohibits anyone from "corruptly" offering "anything of
value to any public official" with the intent to influence the official or
an official act.
The word
"corruptly" is key, because in this context it means the accused
must have the "intent to influence" a public official. In a
hypothetical bribery case against O'Donnell over her tweets, the prosecution
would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that O'Donnell acted
"corruptly," with "intent to influence" the senators.
This would be a tough
standard to meet, especially because of O'Donnell's status as a comedian and
frequent—and quite vocal—political commentator. She could and would likely
assert that her tweets were not seriously publicly offering money to senators
but were intended to be hyperbole, political commentary and/or performance art
illustrating that "there
is a price," in reference to her claims that "THEY
BRIBED [Tennessee Senator Bob] CORKER AND COLLINS" and that "they
have been paid obviously."
In other words,
O'Donnell could argue she didn't tweet "corruptly" but rather tweeted
to point out what she perceived to be corruption involved with GOP tax
bill votes.
O'Donnell is well
known for tweeting controversial, arguably hyperbolic statements in the
current political atmosphere, including declaring President Donald Trump
"MENTALLY UNSTABLE," "MENTALLY
ILL" and "A
CRIMINAL," which would further make convincing a jury that O'Donnell
actually had the intent to influence senators through cash offers via tweets
extremely difficult.
And then there are the
optics. Despite direct pleas to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to
intervene, the concept of "felony by tweet" probably isn't a fight
this administration would be interested in pursuing—at least not in a courtroom.
The public forum of
Twitter, however, is always open.
First they ignore you,— ROSIE (@Rosie) December 20, 2017
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you win.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
There is no evidence that Gandhi is the author of that quote. 🤔— DL ✝️🇺🇸🗽🐾🐶🎅🎄🕎 (@Debsie53) December 20, 2017
Or, in your case:— TokenKafir (@TokenKafir) December 20, 2017
First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they ignore you,
then they pity you,
then they forget you.
UPDATE: Welcome readers of The
Briefing Room. We thank Pookie
for linking to this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please scribble on my walls otherwise how will I know what you think, but please don’t try spamming me or you’ll earn a quick trip to the spam filter where you will remain—cold, frightened and all alone.