I’m a fan of the Sister’s in Law podcast, so I sent them a few questions via tweet. Some are based on the report of the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Since I’m a long-winded Vulcan I provided the background to my questions below.
Meadows or others in the Trump campaign obstructed, delayed and possibly falsified COVID test reporting. They started at the Tulsa rally and did it later during Trump’s infection period. (Based on the reporting of Carol Leonnig’ & Jonathan Karl)
1) Could you address how medical privacy laws have been used to hide the Trump admin’s violations of state & federal COVID test reporting laws?
Because of medical privacy laws, the media can’t see or prove how Trump, Meadows and/or campaign staff intimidated public health officials and what their response was.
Your show often drills down and focuses on specific laws broken and what cases a prosecutor will or will not bring. Jill Wine-Banks discussed how it’s important for the American people to know what is being uncovered so we can fully comprehend it.
The press can’t get those communications between Meadows Meadows, doctors and the health department. But the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis can get those communications and show them to the public. But that will not be enough. They public needs to know what laws were broken and if anyone will be charged.
2) What violations of laws should Rep. Clyburn address during the Coronavirus committee hearings?
On the 1/6 committee Liz Cheney has been using the “language of the law” to talk about what they are looking to charge Trump with. Could the Coronavirus committee use the same method to show the public?
Example: Mark Meadows or someone in the Campaign Leadership told the contract nurses & physician assistants from the White House Medical Unit in Tulsa to STOP THE TESTING.
Is that witness tampering? Is that obstructing a government official from completing their duties?
Allowing people to die of COVID was a policy choice of Donald Trump.
What were the crimes committed within that policy?
Elie Mystal spoke to Mehdi Hasan about how Trump and the GOP have turned allowing people to die into a policy choice. I think that allowing is the wrong word. There will be hard evidence of Trump and his campaign staff intentionally broke laws that led directly to people getting sick and dying. The evidence needs to be uncovered, the public needs to see it, and the law breakers need to be indicted.
Over 806,000 people have died from COVID. But in America the “economy” is “balanced” against the dead.
Are there federal laws about intentionally transporting people with a deadly virus across state lines?
What about a failure to alert the state health authority about a mass gathering where infected people will be attending? (This is relevant during Trump’s Infection Tour.)
The policies of the Trump COVID response, and how Trump & his campaign staff spread COVID across the country impacted interstate commerce.
The bottom line is that in addition to executive privilege, medical privacy laws enabled the Trump team to hide the number of infected –who then infected others, damaging the economy.
3) Is willful infecting 100’s of Secret Service agents a federal crime?
Is covering it up a crime?
In Carol Leonnig’s book Zero Fail she reported how the Secret Service Agents and campaign staff were told to delay their testing for 3 days and to get tested in another state after the Tulsa Rally.
(This violates both Oklahoma Laws & Federal law on COVID test reporting. Failing to deliver results within 24 hours violates the CARES Act, Oklahoma law says positive tests must be reported immediately to the State Health Dept)
The Secret Service agents asked a Trump Appointed IG to investigate, he refused.
4) What other major laws were broken by Trump & his admin in their response to the COVID pandemic?
How do we talk about why there should be prosecution for them?
When I wrote about prosecuting Trump in this piece last week, Trump Can Go To Hell. Why Not Jail? I heard, “Trump will never be prosecuted for ANYTHING!”
The public has already seen the crimes in real time and the committees are providing the evidence now. The response I saw is, “We aren’t surprised. We all saw it happening.” and “Nothing will ever happen to them. They will all avoid accountability.”
5) Could you talk about what evidence and types of public testimony are needed to make it clear the horrific nature of their crimes and their knowledge of their intentions?
This needs to be shown, beyond the horrible things they have already said in public. Show the “receipts”
Hear from the families of the victims! Jill talked about why the public needs to see this, since the DOJ can’t show what they are doing.
I suggest that someone read aloud their callous texts that were not a “differences of opinion” but acts undertaken that were done willful and with malice aforethought that directly lead to sickness and death.
Also could you discuss
6) The fear of prosecuting people in the Trump administration for any crimes related to their COVID response?
We have an AG that is afraid that just following the law makes them look political.
If the intentional actions that led to people dying is a crime, is it important to prosecute? Or should we do as other Democratic administrations have done and just, “Look forward and not backward?”
7) How do we start the drum beat for prosecutions for the Trump admin’s COVID crimes?
And that leads to my final question for the Sister’s in Law.
8) What are some of the ways that Joyce’s “radical transparency” for the DOJ could apply to the large scale, intentional crimes made by people that have led to mass death from COVID?
LLAP,
Spocko
@spockosbrian
