BREAKING: Did Don Winslow Try to Extort Senator Warner on Twitter/X? (2024)

Let’s start right off by answering our own question. We don’t know, just yet. We need more information before we can say a crime was definitely committed. But as you will see, the behavior we are about to outline is suspicious enough that we think law enforcement should knock on Mr. Winslow’s door.

As a brief background, Don Winslow is an author of some fictional novels, but he’s probably best known for being absolutely unhinged in his opposition to Trump. And Senator Warner is in the news right now primarily because he is reportedly trying to assemble a group of Democratic senators to try to meet with Joe Biden and convince him to leave the Presidential race:

Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) is attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask Joe Biden to exit the presidential race, according to two people with direct knowledge of the effort. https://t.co/fyXjgqogNK

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 5, 2024

And, he is also in the news because Biden took a swipe at him in his interview with George Stephanopoulos, but that is neither here nor there, because what has our attention right now is the fact Don Winslow posted this on Twitter/X:

Dear@MarkWarner

Are you sure you want to go down this road?

You definitely know what I'm talking about.

Think about it very carefully.

— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) July 6, 2024

Indeed, credit goes to Yashar Ali for being the first we saw to catch some of the implications.

Author Don Winslow appears to be threatening — perhaps with negative information — US Senator Mark Warner who serves as Chairman of Senate Intelligence.

This comes after reporting has revealed that Warner is organizing a group of Senators to talk to Biden about his candidacy. pic.twitter.com/7Z7rD9NLWR

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 6, 2024

That sure as heck sounds like Mr. Winslow threatened a sitting senator. If we are right, the question is, with what did he threaten Warner and why? After all, not all threats are illegal.

Mr. Ali suggests but doesn’t outright say it is about Warner’s effort to convince Biden to leave the presidential race and while that seems like a likely possibility, we can’t be 100% sure.

And, of course, another question is what is Winslow apparently threatening him with? Mr. Ali speculates Winslow is threatening Warner with the release of negative information, but for all we know he could be threatening to support someone to primary Warner in the next election. Or he might be threatening to withhold money. Or heck, he might even be threatening violence.

There’s no way of knowing, but we are of the opinion that law enforcement should knock on Mr. Winslow’s door and ask him what he meant by that, because that sounds like it might be extortion. We have written extensively on what extortion is, here, and we won't repeat all of it in this piece, but let’s use some hypotheticals to show how the law of extortion might apply here.

Let’s say hypothetically Winslow sent a text message to Senator Warner saying the following:

Don’t try to get Biden to drop out, or I will tell the world about how you slept with a hooker in Thailand. I have the pictures.

Naturally, we are making up everything there. We don't know if Mr. Warner has ever been to Thailand or if he has ever engaged in sexual impropriety. Still, if we pretend this happened for the sake of illustration, that’s classic extortion and would likely violate the laws of several jurisdictions. That is true even if the senator did indeed commit the act. Truth is not a defense to a charge of extortion.

The same could be said if a person hypothetically said

Don’t try to get Biden to drop out, or I will send a man to break your legs.

That would also be extortion. On the other hand, this isn’t extortion:

Don’t try to get Biden to drop out, or I will move to Virginia and run against you in the primary.

This is because ultimately extortion is about trying to get something out of someone by certain kinds of improper leverage. So, trying to get that thing by the use of a threat of violence or by a threat to accuse a person of bad conduct—whether it is true or not—is extortion. But if you are dissatisfied with the job a politician is doing, you’re allowed to try to run against him or even to support his or her opponent. And you are allowed to tell that politician ahead of time that this is what you plan to do, so that the politician might adjust his or her behavior accordingly. That’s kind of how a Republic works, so it can’t be criminalized.

We would also note that it's not just the FBI that can get involved—and thank G-d that is the case, because we don’t trust the Biden administration to enforce the law in this circ*mstance. There’s a very strong chance that this communication originated in one state or U.S. territory and traveled to another. So that would mean that any potential crime was committed both in the originating state or territory and the receiving state or territory, in addition to it being committed on the federal level. Furthermore, this might be seen as an affront to the state of Virginia even if they otherwise wouldn't have jurisdiction over this investigation because Mr. Warner is supposed to represent the people of Virginia and that might give Virginia authorities the power to investigate. So multiple agencies in multiple jurisdictions might have the right to investigate Mr. Winslow. We hope at least one of them does.

Again, we are not saying Mr. Winslow definitely committed a crime. We are only saying that what he said definitely makes us suspicious enough that if we were in law enforcement, we would knock on his door and demand to know what he meant by that post.

We would also add that his behavior raises the possibility of bribery, because again we don’t know what Winslow might have been threatening or what he is trying to stop Warner from doing. We won’t bore you with the details, but certainly if Winslow was saying ‘I won’t give you money if you don’t do X or if you do in fact do Y,’ you get into the realm of potential bribery. Even then there are nuances that might make all the difference between whether bribery was committed, or not, and we aren't going into all of them here. Still, the Supreme Court has read the bribery statute pretty narrowly so that if Winslow explicitly said, ‘if you try to get Biden to quit his campaign I won’t donate to you anymore,’ that can’t be bribery, because it has to relate to Warner’s official functions in office. Bribery is about the abuse of official power, and we don’t think pressuring a person to drop out of a political campaign counts as an exercise of official power in light of how the Supreme Court has interpreted federal bribery law.

And of course, state bribery laws might be implicated, too.

But we will never know unless someone from law enforcement knocks on Winslow’s door and that absolutely should happen.

On to reactions, which includes many people who surely think they are defenders of democracy who are supporting this attempt to bully a sitting senator:

If I were a public official and heard that from @donwinslow I'd do what he says.

— Chaya Bhuvaneswar (@chayab77) July 6, 2024

She doesn't seem to think that is a bad thing.

I believe Mark Warner is one of the wealthiest U.S. Senators.

So it’s really not surprising that he is influenced by the corporate oligarchy.

He’s a turncoat, he’s a weasel, he should be voted out of the Senate in 2026

— The Resistor Sister®️♥️🇺🇸 (@the_resistor) July 6, 2024

I am beyond pissed how they are turning on Biden instead of uniting behind him it’s disgusting everyone of them 🤬🤬🤬

— Melissa Cammarano (@melissacammaran) July 6, 2024

You really don’t, Senator #WeBackBidenHarris because the alternative is a convicted felon rapist dictator king pic.twitter.com/vVdf60vJkq

— (((Tara Dublin))), Rock Star Author 📚❤️‍🔥🤘🏻 (@taradublinrocks) July 6, 2024

I called his office. His voicemail was full.

Apparently, I'm not the only one pissed off about his actions. Dems in congress will end up losing this election if they don't join forces and unite behind Joe. @MarkWarner

— Lisa (@patsfanlisa) July 6, 2024

All I know is Mark better not show up for Biden’s victory speech in November. @MarkWarner

— M Litton (@Southern_Bluey) July 6, 2024

What the actual eff does that mean?

Please do it!

— The Gnome 💙💛 (@42Gnome) July 6, 2024

Some people just used it as a chance to denounce what Warner was doing.

Excuse me@MarkWarner 😡‼️
I think the PEOPLE voted for our candidate already.
We chose Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to represent Democrats.
Sit down😡‼️ And shut up. https://t.co/amEOB3qhB8

— Laura Gawlinski (@GawlinskiLaura) July 6, 2024

Shame on you @MarkWarner. The voters knew how old Biden was in 2020 and in the 2024 primaries. We the people have spoken!!! Let our votes be your guidance. https://t.co/2wRMSEM5On

— BrownsFanInVirginia (@VaHippen) July 6, 2024

Were the people told the truth about his mental status when they voted for him or her?

In any case, some apparent Democrats denounced this behavior:

This is not helpful. Despite our many flaws, I am proud to be in @TheDemocrats , and not a Soviet-style personality cult dictatorship like the @GOP . Democracies almost always defeat dictatorships. We need to unite and win! https://t.co/j6DilRMkWU

— navin.pokala@threads navinpokala@bsky (@NavinPokala) July 6, 2024

You have nothing. If this is where we're at, Biden will be gone by the end of the month. Don't try it. Enough with the blind Blue MAGA loyalty. https://t.co/B4aSP8I835

— Ed Oswald (@edoswald) July 6, 2024

Blackmailing people is not the look we need. https://t.co/5IaYLlAq9C

— Ben Price 🖐 (@actualbenprice) July 6, 2024

Of course, there was at least one guy who didn’t seem like a supporter of Biden or Winslow, who was just along for the ride:

You’re all turning on each other, betrayal and backstabbing… it’s delicious.

— The Flag Guy (@TheFlagGuy_) July 6, 2024

Whispers: Shh. Just watch in silence. If they know we are enjoying it, they might stop.

Also, some people picked up on some of the same issues we did:

Are you just openly trying to blackmail a United States senator? On behalf of Biden?

— Aaron J*****🇺🇸🇲🇽🏴‍☠️ (@aatamkdaddy) July 6, 2024

What's a little public blackmailing of a sitting Senator?

— Damin Toell (@damintoell) July 6, 2024

Concerning that, he is blatantly threatening or trying to blackmail a sitting US Senator. I hope the Capitol Police will take it seriously and investigate Winslow's intentions with this post.

— Hunter Wallace (@MosesWalla87049) July 6, 2024

This is crazy. If anyone else did this, we’d all demanding an investigation into Don. He doesn’t get to make public threats against a US senator.

— Just Carmen (@Carmen50) July 6, 2024

Dude is threatening a U.S. Senator. Seems kind of black-maily. https://t.co/oWroL6WMWG

— Mel B (@MelissaBalough) July 6, 2024

Finally, this person has this criticism of Warner:

Senator @MarkWarner is what you get when a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a cup thinks it’s two scoops of bourbon praline cream in a Konery toasted coconut waffle cone. 🍦 https://t.co/95ujPMMCr5

— DocBarrister (@DocBarrister) July 6, 2024

We have no idea what that food is, but it doesn’t sound very appealing to us.

Jokes aside, this behavior is disturbing and deserves criminal investigation. Again, we’re not saying a crime definitely occurred, but we are saying that an investigation aimed toward determining whether a crime has occurred is wholly justified.