May 6, 2019: More than a Thousand Former DOJ Officials Believe Trump Obstructed Justice

 

5/6/19: Looks like the Democrats are going to need more chicken figurines (see: 5/2/19). President Trump has decided to invoke executive privilege to stop former White House Chief Counsel Don McGahn from testifying before Congress. This is necessary, in Trump’s view, mainly because McGahn might restate what he told Mueller’s investigators. That is: The boss repeatedly asked him to break the law.

 

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“The Mueller report describes several acts that satisfy all of the elements for an obstruction charge.” 

Letter signed by more than a thousand former DOJ officials

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Trump has time over the weekend to ponder the likelihood that if Mueller himself testifies he would blast the president’s claim of total exoneration to flinders. With that, he decides Special Counsel Mueller should not testify either.

 

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MORE THAN A THOUSAND former officials from the Department of Justice sign an open letter, noting that evidence in the Mueller Report does not exonerate the president. Just the opposite:

 

Each of us believes that the conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting President, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice [emphasis added].

 

They go on to say, “The Mueller report describes several acts that satisfy all of the elements for an obstruction charge,” citing, to give just one example, Trump’s “efforts to fire Mueller and to falsify evidence about that effort.” 

McGahn told Mueller's investigators that the president ordered him to break the law.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (6/17/21): It will be two years before Congress manages to get McGahn to testify, albeit behind closed doors. 

What does he say? He says the president did ask him to fire Robert Mueller. Repeatedly. Trump had repeatedly denied that he did. 

Asked how he felt about being pressured to do something illegal, McGahn told lawmakers, “After I got off the phone with the president, how did I feel? Oof. Frustrated, perturbed, trapped. Many emotions.” He “felt trapped,” he explained, “because the president had the same conversation with me repeatedly, and I thought I conveyed my views and offered my advice, and we were still having the same conversation.” 

McGahn said he refused to call Rod Rosenstein, at that time the acting attorney general, and ask him to fire Mueller. “If the acting attorney general received what he thought was a direction from the counsel to the president to remove a special counsel, he would either have to remove the special counsel or resign.” That is: break the law and help obstruct justice. As Trump desired. 

Or resign.