The racist and sexist social media histories of President Donald Trump, his family, and numerous members of his administration are well-documented, especially on Twitter.

But a new genre of damaging Trumpworld tweets has emerged in recent months.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election is taking particular interest in Twitter activity, per court filings and multiple reports.

ThinkProgress presents an illustrated guide to why you should never tweet.

George Papadopoulos at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on September 7, 2018. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In last month’s court filing explaining why Papadopoulos should report to jail, Mueller provided a valuable life lesson about deleted tweets. Trump’s ex-campaign adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries during the 2016 campaign, was sentenced to 14 days in prison with a year of supervised release.







Though Papadopoulos was dismissed as just a “coffee boy” by Trump allies, the former foreign policy adviser for the president’s 2016 campaign apparently had the most responsibility of any “coffee boy” in history.

Michael Cohen in New York, New York on April 13, 2018. (Yana Paskova/Getty Images)

The latest reminder never to tweet was included in Friday’s sentencing recommendation for Cohen, Trump’s former attorney who the president — “Individual 1” — allegedly directed to commit a felony.

Federal prosecutors cited a May tweet from Cohen that referenced a fictional “fixer” character from Showtime’s Ray Donovan to explain why the president’s ex-lawyer deserves a “substantial prison term.”

That legally-damaging tweet still hasn’t been deleted as of publishing.

Roger Stone at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, New York on April 23, 2017. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)

This August 2016 tweet from Stone — the longtime GOP operative and ex-Trump campaign adviser who was banned by Twitter last year — is apparently of specific interest to the special counsel.

Multiple reports indicate Mueller’s investigators have asked Stone’s associates about his tweet regarding John Podesta, the chairman of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s (D) presidential campaign, whose stolen emails were released by WikiLeaks hours after the “Access Hollywood tape” — in which then-candidate Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women — became public.


The U.S. intelligence community assessed “with high confidence” that Russian intelligence was behind the accounts that provided stolen information about Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump and Kanye West in the Oval Office of the White House on October 11, 2018. (Oliver Contreras - Pool/Getty Images)

The New York Times reported in July that Mueller is “examining (Trump’s) tweets under a wide-ranging obstruction-of-justice law.”

There is a lot of potential evidence for the special counsel to choose from.

The president possibly committed witness tampering by praising Stone for refusing to testify against him earlier this week.

“I will never testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018

Before firing him on the day after last month’s midterms, Trump repeatedly criticized former Attorney General Jeff Sessions — who recused himself from oversight of the Russia investigation in March 2017 — and potentially committed obstruction of justice.

So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017

Jeff Sessions said he wouldn’t allow politics to influence him only because he doesn’t understand what is happening underneath his command position. Highly conflicted Bob Mueller and his gang of 17 Angry Dems are having a field day as real corruption goes untouched. No Collusion! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2018

“The recusal of Jeff Sessions was an unforced betrayal of the President of the United States.” JOE DIGENOVA, former U.S. Attorney. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2018

Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren’t they the subject of the investigation? Why didn’t Obama do something about the meddling? Why aren’t Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Sessions! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2018

James Comey, the former FBI director who the president fired last year, has also been a frequent target of Trump’s incendiary tweets and possible obstruction of justice.

James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH. He is a weak and….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018

….untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017

Not that it matters but I never fired James Comey because of Russia! The Corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it is not true! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2018

Of course, Trump admitted that he fired Comey over “this Russia thing” in an interview with NBC last year.

The president later bizarrely claimed his conversation with Lester Holt was doctored.

Trump seemingly admitted to collusion and/or obstruction of justice in an April tweet.