Andrea Mitchell reported on Friday on MSNBC, at 12:55 p.m. EDT, that a single source told her that White House staffers have been purging their cell phones of texts for fear that they may be subpoenaed in any of the multiple investigations into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, including the Trump Campaign’s complicity in such Russian interference.
This is, yes, a single source, and unconfirmed. But any White House staffer, and anyone else on the White House staff, or anyone who was formally or informally in or associated with the Trump Campaign, from the President on down to a temporary clerk, should be forewarned — any one of you who destroys any electronic evidence, or who knowingly fails to preserve evidence, may face 20 years in prison. The federal criminal code at 18 U.S.C.A. 1873 defines the crime of Obstruction of Justice. Its broadest relevant subsection, 18 U.S. Code § 1519, states the following in the broadest but starkest terms:
18 U.S. Code § 1519 - Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy
Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
Up to twenty (20) years in the slammer! Anyone destroying evidence is not likely to get much sympathy — ask the many who were caught up in the Watergate scandal out of misguided loyalty to President Nixon. The more so here, because the White House Counsel’s Office has instructed staff to preserve electronic evidence. thehill.com/...
There is a lovely and venerable Latin maxim in our law: Omnia praesumuntur contra spoliatorem. That translates to “all things are presumed against the despoiler or destroyer of evidence.”
White House staffers and former Trump campaign associates should be forewarned. And investigators at every level should probe whether evidence has been thus destroyed.