First, they committed the crime.

Then, they intimidated the lawyers, judges and witnesses.

Then, they staged a Reichstag Fire event so the evidence could not be presented in Congress.

Now, private businesses are going after email lists, de-listing competitors where the crime could be discussed, refusing to do business with sitting congressmen who could keep the discussion of the crime alive, threatening commentators from discussing the crime and its evidence, trying to financially ruin the victim of the crime, and sending out intimidation and goon squads to the public square - all using the previous 'Reichstag Fire' event as their excuse.

....ALL because they took him seriously when he said "...because you'd be in jail" and decided, to avoid even the remotest possibility of it, to destroy the society around them such as to make their going behind bars impossible.

It's astonishing that GRRM, one of whose chief villains is okay with being King of the ashes and who himself talked about the consequence of cutting out tongues, is himself still in the Black Sleep of Kali Ma.