Liz: I’ll nix policy that shields prez

She has a plan for that as well.

If elected president, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren pledged Friday to overturn a Justice Department policy shielding sitting presidents from criminal charges.

Warren — whose 2020 rallying cry has become “I have a plan for that” — spelled out her mission in an essay on the heels of an extraordinary public statement from special counsel Robert Mueller, in which he said the policy in question prevented him from making a final determination as to whether President Trump obstructed justice.

“President Donald Trump did everything he could to delay, distract and otherwise obstruct that investigation,” Warren wrote of Mueller’s probe into possible coordination between Russians and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

“That’s a crime. If Donald Trump were anyone other than the President of the United States right now, he would be in handcuffs and indicted. Robert Mueller said as much in his report, and he said it again on Wednesday.”

The opinion protecting presidents from indictments was drawn up by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 1973, at the peak of the Watergate scandal, when speculation was rife that Richard Nixon could face charges.

Warren called the opinion “flawed” and said that, if she wins in 2020, she would push for legislation enabling the Justice Department to indict sitting presidents.

“Donald Trump believes that he can violate the law, and he believes that the role of the Department of Justice is to help him get away with it,” she wrote. “That’s not how our country is supposed to work.”

Warren also took several shots at Attorney General William Barr for allegedly protecting Trump by mischaracterizing Mueller’s findings while refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas.

“Barr has disgraced himself by acting like Trump’s personal defense attorney,” Warren wrote. “It’s ridiculous. The attorney general must represent the people, not the President.”