The Charges Against Trump

 

This week there’s been a lot of back and forth, mostly in the form of memes, about whether or not Mueller exonerated Trump on obstruction of justice charges, and exactly what that even means. What’s been missing in this discussion is exactly what Trump is accused of doing. The Mueller Report details 10 instances of criminal obstruction of justice. For those not inclined to read the 400+ page report I’ve summarized the four most serious instances that nearly all legal experts agree constitute both prosecutable crimes and impeachable offenses.

1. Feb 2017, after it is revealed that Michael Flynn lied to the FBI and the VP, Trump ask FBI Director James Comey, “to letting this go.” Asking the Director of the FBI to drop an investigation into his administration is obstruction of justice.

2. May 2017, Trump fires James Comey. After initially attempting to manufacture a legitimate reason for the firing, Trump admits on national television that he fired Comey because he believed the Russia story was fake news. Firing the FBI Director to stop an investigation is obstruction of justice.

3. June 2017, after Robert Mueller was appointed as Special Prosecutor, and it was revealed that Trump’s campaign was one of the focuses of the investigation, Trump stated it was the end of his Presidency. Trump then directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to have the Justice Dept fire Mueller. McGahn refused threatening to quit first. Again, the President attempting to fire an investigator for investigating his conduct is obstruction of justice, regardless of if he committed the crime being investigated or not.

4. Fall 2017, after learning of McGahn’s testimony to the Special Prosecutor, Trump directly asked McGahn to lie about the fact that Trump had tried to fire Mueller. Attempting to pressure a witness into giving false testimony is obstruction of justice. Most experts point to this as the single most egregious act of obstruction committed by the President.

Bottom line, if the President hadn’t first pressured James Comey to drop the investigation, then fired him for continuing the investigation, and then attempted to fire Mueller for investigating him, we probably wouldn’t be talking about impeachment today. The fact that Trump made such a concerted effort to stop the investigation into contacts between Russia and his campaign is at least circumstantial evidence that Trump believed he had committed crimes, even if Mueller wasn’t able to prove that charge.

The fact that President Trump used his official position to obstruct justice is so well documented that there’s no serious doubt to his guilt. That’s why over 1,000 former Federal prosecutors from both parties signed a letter stating if it wasn’t for the Justice Department policy of not indicting a sitting President that Trump could easily be charged and convicted based on the evidence in the Mueller report, click here to read the letter (https://medium.com/@dojalumni/statement-by-former-federalprosecutors-8ab7691c2aa1) or watch the video below to watch several of the prosecutors describe the charges in their own words. CBS News has an article detailing all 10 instances of obstruction of justice (click here to read the article (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/obstruction-of-justice-10-times-trumpmay-have-obstructed-justice-mueller-report/)).