Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
The relevant anti-extortion statute is

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/872#….

If Trump told staffers to extort, he too has committed that serious crime

If WH told @morningmika & @JoeNBC the Nat'l Enquirer wd smear them unless they laid off T on their show, that wd be a crime per 18 USC 872

An @NBCNews spox says Scarborough kept NBC execs apprised of blackmail threats "contemporaneously."

Even if 18 USC 1951(b)(2) = technically inapplicable, using WH office to punish media for exercising 1st Am rights would be abuse of power
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V.F. traces Trump's propensity for "alternately courting and lacerating reporters and columnists" back to one man

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/...social_twitter