Obstruction is a crime
Who knew that the road to making America great again passed through the looking glass? “The President cannot obstruct justice,” proclaims President Trump’s personal lawyer, “because he is the chief law enforcement officer” of the United States. Translation: The man with the most power in the country is legally incapable of misusing that power.
If that were right, it would be great news, albeit a bit late, for President Bill Clinton, impeached in 1998 for obstruction of justice and another charge, and for President Richard Nixon, who faced articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice and other charges before his 1974 resignation.
Of course, of course, of course, of course the nation’s chief law enforcement officer can interfere in the administration of justice, perverting what is supposed to be the apolitical process of determining who is prosecuted and who is not.
There’s growing evidence Trump did that — by telling then-FBI director Jim Comey to lay off Michael Flynn, by firing Comey under false pretenses, and by inadvertently admitting in a tweet he now says was written by a lawyer that he knew Flynn lied to the FBI before he forced him out.
Indeed, according to CNN Monday, White House attorney Don McGahn now confirms that after Flynn lied to the feds in late January 2017, McGahn told Trump that he had done so. Despite knowledge of this crime, Trump kept Flynn on staff for two more weeks — and went on to tell Comey to let go of his probe into Flynn.
Trump must end the dangerous habit of defining down obstruction of justice. And all who purport to care about American credibility must stop pooh-poohing the underlying behavior at issue.
Flynn reached out to the Russian ambassador in December 2016, during the presidential transition. This almost certainly was in violation of the Logan Act, which prevents private citizens from conducting foreign policy.
The law is rarely enforced, and it surely sounds absurd to expect an incoming presidential administration to wait until moving into the White House on Jan. 20 to initiate any conversation whatsoever with any foreign government.
But to say that as a general matter is to obscure the dead-serious specifics of what these contacts with the Russian ambassador were all about.
One, prosecutors say he sought to try to get a UN vote on Israeli settlements delayed. Two, he urged against Kremlin retaliation in reaction to then-President Obama’s decision to expel 35 Russian diplomats.
That was a firm, belated punishment for Russia’s confirmed cyber-meddling in the U.S. election, a necessary signal for the nation to send lest Russia come to believe it could ratchet up its interference with impunity.
Flynn effectively reassured a hostile state actor there would be no consequences for its devious behavior. He may well have done so with explicit instructions from higher-ups in the transition.
One day after a Flynn contact with Russia, Putin followed the Trump transition’s advice; Trump then took to Twitter to praise a “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) — I always knew he was very smart!”
The meddling by Flynn, designed to soft-pedal the meddling by Russia, was gravely consequential on its own. Even if congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller were to find no other collusion during the campaign itself — and some is already known — shenanigans during the transition weakened U.S. power.
And the current President continues to insist that in making the calls, Flynn did nothing wrong.