Former White House official slams Trump for openly threatening witnesses on Twitter

Former acting solicitor general of the U.S. Neal Katyal told CNN on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's Monday tweetstorm was a case of blatant witness tampering, and that the president is acting like a mobster.

"When you read that tweet, and when you read it next to the other one tweeted right alongside it the minute before about Michael Cohen and how the book should be thrown at him, this is not the way any ordinary investigation proceeds," Katyal said, noting federal statutes prohibiting witness tampering. "Unless you are dealing with, you know, the mob or something like that. That is the way the president is talking."

"The president's defense is he was telling people not to lie. If so that would be a first, that is not the way Donald Trump behaves," he continued, scoffing. "It would be one thing if this were coming from Mother Teresa or something like that. It's coming from Donald Trump, whose pants are literally on fire when he opens his mouth."

Katyal said Trump's actions to protect himself follow a pattern "of recklessness when it comes to the rule of law."

"The mob does it with violence, he's doing it with pardons and with the law enforcement apparatus," Katyal said. "I served twice at the Justice Department, and I can tell you that these types of things are the things of two-bit criminals."

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