What the Mueller report might mean for the Trump presidency
‘‘fake news’’ by the president, was true. reported that Trump had asked Comey to end the investigation of Flynn; Mueller found ‘‘substantial evidence’’ that this was true, despite Trump publicly saying otherwise. Trump also tried to persuade then-White H
Why does the Mueller report matter?
Robert Mueller, a former director of the FBI, was appointed as special counsel in May 2017 to examine possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election as well as other matters that ‘‘may arise directly from the investigation’’.
His 448-page report follows interviews with about 500 witnesses. Charges were brought against three companies and 34 people, including members of Trump’s inner circle. How was it presented?
Mueller reported to the attorneygeneral, William Barr, a conservative lawyer with a generous view of the extent of a president’s executive power under the United States constitution.
Shortly after receiving the report late last month, Barr and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, released a four-page summary.
It revealed that Mueller cleared the Trump campaign of collusion with Russia but did not reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice.
Did Trump obstruct justice? Barr and Rosenstein asserted that despite Mueller’s doubts, the president had not obstructed justice. As a result, Trump has repeatedly stated that he was ‘‘totally exonerated’’. However, the full report The Times The paints a different picture. It says that Mueller’s investigators would have cleared the president of obstructing justice ‘‘if we had confidence’’ that was Washington Post and the Times in early 2018 that Trump had asked McGahn to fire Mueller about seven months earlier.
McGahn refused repeatedly to undercut the stories because he knew they were ‘‘accurate in reporting on the President’s effort to have the Special Counsel removed.’’
Mueller noted that Trump the case. They found evidence ‘‘about the president’s actions and intent’’ that prevented them ‘‘conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred’’.
Why is obstruction of justice so important?
Mueller investigated 11 possible instances of obstruction of justice, which is a federal crime if ‘‘corrupt intent’’ can be established. They included the president’s firing of the FBI director James Comey as well as his efforts to remove Mueller from his post and curtail his investigation. The evidence for obstruction of justice could yet become a political problem for Trump, even if it failed to meet the criminal burden of proof. The impeachment cases faced by Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton were both based on obstruction of justice. What happens next?
Mueller is expected to face questions in Congress after Barr said yesterday that he had ‘‘no objection’’ to the special counsel giving evidence on Capitol Hill.
Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House judiciary committee, yesterday asked for him to attend ‘‘as soon as possible’’ and ‘‘no later than May 23, 2019’’. Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, are also accelerating separate investigations into Trump, his administration, his campaign and his businesses, all of which will great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes.’’
Cohn, who was chief counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., during McCarthy’s communist-hunting hearings in the 1950s, was disbarred by a New York court in 1986 because of ‘‘dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation.’’
– Washington Post scrutinise the Mueller report for evidence.
Will Trump be impeached? Impeachment of the president, aggressively pushed for by some Democrats, remains a remote possibility. The party’s leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, believes that a trial would be divisive and politically unwise unless startling new proof of wrongdoing emerges. Republicans hoped to secure political advantage from impeaching Clinton, but in November 1998 Democrats made midterm electoral gains as the hearings loomed. When they were eventually held he was acquitted.