‘ON MONEY’ FOR OBSTRUCTION

ALLEGATIONS that President Trump told FBI Director James Comey to back off an investigation into disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn could lead to massive legal problems for the commander-in-chief. “There is clearly probable cause that he’s committed obstruction of justice,” attorney Nick Akerman, an assistant special prosecutor during the Watergate investigation and current partner at law firm Dorsey & Whitney, told the Daily News Tuesday. Obstruction of justice as a federal crime covers anyone who “influences, obstructs or impedes” official federal proceedings, including court cases and investigations conducted by federal agencies. “You couldn’t come up with better evidence,” Akerman said of Tuesday’s New York Times report, which said that a memo Comey wrote after a Feb. 14 meeting claimed that the President asked him to end the investigation into Flynn. Obstruction of justice is a specific intent crime, meaning that the perpetrator has to intend to interfere with an ongoing federal investigation. Akerman said Trump’s reported statements to Comey were “right on the money.” He added that asking Comey to back off Flynn could be the first half of an obstruction “double whammy” against Trump, with the second half being firing Comey to impede the broader investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government.