LIES LIES LIES
Trump May Have Broken Federal Law by Using Doctored Weather Map to Avoid Admitting He Lied About Dorian
President Donald Trump is still trying to prove his tweet claiming Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian wasn’t false, and he just went to extraordinary lengths to perpetuate his lie. The only problem now: it turns out he now may have broken the law.
On Sunday Trump posted this erroneous tweet:
In addition to Florida – South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated. Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already category 5. BE CAREFUL! GOD BLESS EVERYONE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2019
After news reports pointed out that Alabama was not, in fact, in the path of Hurricane Dorian, the National Weather Service was forced to issue what amounted to a correction.
Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east. #alwx
— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) September 1, 2019
Trump went berserk.
….when in fact, under certain original scenarios, it was in fact correct that Alabama could have received some “hurt.” Always good to be prepared! But the Fake News is only interested in demeaning and belittling. Didn’t play my whole sentence or statement. Bad people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2019
Still not satisfied, Trump on Wednesday held a press event – and held up a doctored weather map supposedly from the National Weather Service – with black marker extending the path of the hurricane into Alabama.
It was an obvious fake. (NCRM has added a red arrow in the photo above to show the faked black markered area of the doctored map.)
On Twitter, many responded, including those in the know, with the fact that the President may have committed a federal crime:
This is what you want. https://t.co/rrqMQ4HAPl
— A Crime a Day (@CrimeADay) September 4, 2019
Weather expert Dennis Mersereau:
It is a violation of federal law to falsify a National Weather Service forecast and pass it off as official, as President Trump did here.
18 U.S. Code § 2074: https://t.co/jvROnpSJLI pic.twitter.com/TnIuvZRJoS
— Dennis Mersereau (@wxdam) September 4, 2019
Here’s the text of the federal code that clearly shows Trump seems to have committed a crime:
“Whoever knowingly issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both.”
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