The Trump Era has been a bona fide national disgrace, and a grotesque window into the murky depths of humankind's capacity for depravity and avarice. But one positive is that all these intricate schemes and budding constitutional crises are expanding the national vocabulary. How many people had honestly said the word "collusion" before this crew of multidimensional sketchballs went careening into the West Wing? And now we, as a people, have got a new word: suborn.



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'Suborn'

- specifically: to induce to commit perjury

- broadly: to induce secretly to do an unlawful thinghttps://t.co/fwgQ0kjVlN — Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 18, 2019

As in: Donald Trump, American president, suborned his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, to commit perjury while testifying under oath before the United States Congress about a deal they were pursuing to build a Trump Tower Moscow while he was running for president. At least according to a bombshell report Thursday night from the good folks at BuzzFeed News. Telling someone to commit perjury is itself a federal crime.

Just ask William Barr, the man Donald J. Trump nominated to be the next Attorney General of the United States:

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FLASHBACK:



Klobuchar: "A president persuading a person to commit perjury would be obstruction. Is that right?"

Barr: "Yes."



Klobuchar: "You also said that a president — or any person — convincing a witness to change testimony would be obstruction. Is that right?"

Barr: "Yes." pic.twitter.com/cn8WDKLUjI — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 18, 2019

It appears Trump's new attorney general nominee may believe Trump committed obstruction of justice. Not a great sign, bub! This is the allegation which led to the impeachments of presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Just in case you had any lingering doubt about where the new AG is at, here he is answering a similar question from Trump ally Lindsey Graham:

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Another FLASHBACK:@LindseyGrahamSC: "If there was some reason to believe that the president tried to coach somebody not to testify or to testify falsely that could be obstruction of justice?"



William Barr: "YES” pic.twitter.com/vOGXizG9bt — Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) January 18, 2019

Now, Barr has some extreme views on executive power, which set off some alarm bells when he was nominated. After all, Donald Trump essentially has an unlimited view of presidential power, because he seems to think he's still running one of his penny ante grifts through a privately held company in Trump Tower.

But this is a reassuring sign that Barr is still aware the law is the law—even when the President of the United States is breaking it. That is the test we now face as a constitutional republic. Is the president subject to our laws like any other citizen, or is he above it? Hopefully, Barr is on the right side of things in practice as well as theory. That's assuming Trump doesn't pull his nomination and replace him with Rudy Giuliani, Super Lawyer With Bridges to Sell. The president was apparently already "startled" to learn Barr had a close relationship with Robert Mueller. You know our president: always one for due diligence.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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