Donald Trump has repeated lied to the American people about his cooperation with the Russia investigation. He said he was cooperating but behind the scenes he was working hard at trying to undermine and kill it.
The Law
Cornell Law school has the following definition of obstruction of justice on their website [Cornell Law} (I added the bold):
18 U.S.C. § 1503 defines “obstruction of justice” as an act that “corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice.”
TRUMP’S obstructions of the Mueller investigation
By any reasonable read of the law, Trump has repeated obstructed justice during the Mueller investigation. He is continuing this behavior now with Congressional investigations. The Mueller report discusses 10 specific instances of obstruction on justice. The top ones include:
- He sought to fire Richard Mueller [Vol. 2, Pages 77-90] .
- He asked the White House lawyer, Don McGahn, to deny he sought to fire Mueller [Vol. 2, Pages 113-120] .
- He encouraged Paul Manafort to lie. [Vol. 2, Pages 122-133]
In addition, he repeated called the investigation a witch hunt, claimed “presidential harassment”, and threatened the investigators with an investigation.
I was originally going to write solely about what the Mueller report says regarding Trump and the case for obstruction of justice. But since the redacted report had come out, Trump has repeatedly tried to keep the American people from seeing the full report or hearing testimony regarding the report, adding to the case for obstruction.
TRUMp’s OBSTRUCTions of CONGRESSIONAL investigations
Now he is refusing to cooperate with Congress. He is claiming executive privilege over the Mueller report to prevent Congress and the American people from seeing the unredacted version. This is seemingly in contrast to his statements on March 20,1919 in which he said “I want to see the report, and you know who will want to see it? The tens of millions of people …”[NPR1]. He is trying to prevent McGahn and Mueller from testifying to Congress. He is ignoring Congress’s subpoena power despite the fact that the Supreme Court has recognized Congress’s power to issue subpoenas, saying in order to write laws it also needs to be able to investigate.
Finally, he continues to lie to the American people by saying he is going to cooperate, wants the Mueller Report released, and claiming the report exonerates him. He changes his tune almost daily and banks on the fact that most people will not read the 400+ page report and therefore buy his attorney general’s bastardized summary of what it says.
Read the report [NPR2].
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