There’s a diary on the rec list entitled, “Jerry Jones Testifies Trump ‘Persuaded’ NFL to Write Anthem Rule for His Benefit. That’s a Crime.”
No, it’s not.
The statute at issue and cited therein, via a tweet from columnist Shaun King, is 18 U.S.C. § 227, “Wrongfully influencing a private entity’s employment decisions by a Member of Congress or an officer or employee of the legislative or executive branch.” It falls under Chapter 11 of Title 18, “BRIBERY, GRAFT, AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST”. Section 227 reads, in relevant part:
(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 honor, trust, or profit under the United States.
(emphasis added). Under subparagraph (b)(3), the President is a “covered government person”. The definition of “official act” under Title 18, Chapter 11 is in § 201(a)(3):
[T]he term “official act” means any decision or action on any question, matter, cause, suit, proceeding or controversy, which may at any time be pending, or which may by law be brought before any public official, in such official’s official capacity, or in such official’s place of trust or profit.
An “official act” is a decision or action on a “question, matter, cause, suit, proceeding or controversy.” That question or matter must involve a formal exercise of governmental power, and must also be something specific and focused that is “pending” or “may by law be brought” before a public official. To qualify as an “official act,” the public official must make a decision or take an action on that question or matter, or agree to do so.
Id., Syllabus.
No matter what you think about the Drumpfenführer or the fact that he “influenced”the NFL to adopt its new National Anthem policy, persuasion alone, for political advantage alone, is not an “official act” within the meaning of the law, and therefore is NOT A CRIME.
Note that § 227(a)(2) states that the official violates the law if he “influences … the official act of another” official, not if he “influences” the business or employment decision of the private entity.
If Trump threatened the NFL’s antitrust exemption or tax status, or decided to sic the IRS, NLRB or DOJ on the league or its owners, that might violate the law. But I see no evidence of that in the diary or tweets declaring that what Trump is known to have done (or what Jerry Jones testified that he did) is a crime, which it’s not.
Can we PLEASE not do this?