Former U.S. Attorney Tells Congress Trump Committed 'Multiple Crimes'
The Daily Beast By Barbara McQuade,The Daily Beast 1 hour 51 minutes ago


Rebecca Cook/Reuters

Statement as prepared for testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, and distinguished members of the Committee: Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today about lessons from the Mueller Report regarding obstruction of justice.

Overview of Testimony

The most significant finding in the Special Counsel's Report is that Russia interfered with our election in "sweeping and systematic fashion."

Through that lens, I will share 2 observations about the report -

What happened and why it matters.

First, the conduct described in the report constitutes multiple crimes of obstruction of justice, supported by evidence of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

If anyone other than a sitting president had committed this conduct, I am confident that he would be charged with crimes.

One thousand former federal prosecutors signed a letter agreeing that the president committed crimes.

Second, why it matters.

The obstruction described in the report created a risk to our national security because it was designed to prevent investigators from learning all of the facts about an attack on our country by a hostile foreign adversary.

Let me explain each of those observations.

Obstruction of Justice Occurred
First, what happened.

The special counsel's report describes ten episodes of potential obstruction of justice.

With regard to four of these episodes, the special counsel found "substantial evidence" for all elements of obstruction of justice.

First, the evidence shows a request to White House Counsel Don McGahn to remove Mr. Mueller as special counsel.

Second, a request to falsely deny public reports about that order and to create a false document to support the lie.

Third, efforts to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal decision, and to publicly announce that the Russia investigation would focus on future elections only.

Fourth, efforts to influence the testimony of Paul Manafort, another former campaign chairman.

Let me focus on one of those incidents.

The report describes President Donald Trump's persistent efforts to curtail the special counsel's investigation by directing Attorney General Sessions to reverse his recusal decision and to limit the investigation to future elections.

President Trump asked various intermediaries, including Corey Lewandowski, a private citizen, to convey his message to Mr. Sessions, but they ultimately didn't do it.

Mueller's Seething Message: This Isn't a Hoax, This Is a Crime

But for the acts of his associates, Mr. Trump would have limited the investigation to future elections, That would have prevented Mr. Mueller from learning the facts about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Although Mr. Mueller's investigation did not establish the crime of conspiracy against the Trump campaign under federal statutes, proof of an underlying crime is not required to prove obstruction, because it is the interference with the search for the truth that the law prohibits.

And let's not forget that the investigation did establish sufficient evidence to charge 37 defendants with crimes, including Russian intelligence officials.

That's despite the fact that some people, including the president, refused to talk to Mr. Mueller, lied to him, used encrypted messaging apps.

We don't know what he would have been able to find if not for that kind of obstruction.

The report identified possible motives animating the president's conduct, all of which would legally support obstruction charges.

One motive was concerns that the investigation would raise doubts about the legitimacy of Trump's election.

Another motive was concern that the contacts with Russia, documented by Mr. Mueller, would be seen as criminal activity by the president, his campaign or his family. (P. 157)

In fact, President Trump was described as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment against Michael Cohen for campaign finance violations relating to payments to silence a woman from making allegations about Donald Trump.

Regardless of motive, the conduct described in the report was an attempt to interfere with Mr. Mueller's investigation, and it amounts to obstruction of justice under the criminal obstruction statute.

Second, why it matters.

Mr. Trump's attempt to limit the scope of the investigation to future elections, had it been successful, would have harmed our national security by shielding Russia's conduct in attacking the 2016 election from the investigation.

But for the conduct of other individuals, Mr. Trump would have thwarted Mr. Mueller's efforts to gain valuable intelligence.

By seeking to end or curtail the investigation, President Trump attempted to limit our country's understanding of how Russia attacked our election, which would also diminish our ability to detect and defend against future threats.

That is a threat to our national security.

Mr. Mueller concluded his public remarks by "reiterating the central allegation of our indictments - that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election.

That allegation deserves the attention of every American."

I hope to answer your questions to give that allegation the attention that it deserves.


-------------------------
Dora Hates You

Who was that?

-------------------------
I :heart; Q

For those of you who can read I would recommend The Mueller Report.

In section 2 there are 10 counts of Obstruction of Justice involving Donald J Trump.
These counts are very well described and backed up with irrefutable, collaborated hard evidence. ( also known as facts )

Unfortunately, reading and facts are very difficult for the trump cultists.

If Donald J Trump was anyone else, except for being the President of the US, he would have been indicted and charged, pending trial or other legal action.

Being that he is currently the President of the US and that these obstruction charges are pending, the only remedy is impeachment.

The overwhelming and ponderance of the evidence leads to the question:
Why obstruct? Why doesn't Donald J Trump want the facts to be revealed and prosecuted?



-------------------------
So if you are a surfer I wish you the prosperity that allows you more time to pursue the salt water dream, and the true happiness that comes from warm water, clean waves and the companionship of your fellow surfers. If you are an internet troll just spewing bs then f off.

Four of the most disturbing highlights that have gotten too little attention.

1. Trump personally knew WikiLeaks was going to release illegally stolen, hacked information ahead of time - yet instead of notifying law enforcement, his campaign planned its press strategy around the release.

2. Trump personally directed members of his campaign to find the 30,000 missing (i.e. stolen & hacked by Russians) Clinton emails - they tried to do so, but were unsuccessful.

3. Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, secretly shared polling data on "battleground states" with a known Russian operative at a time that Russians were engaging in a social media disinformation campaign targeting American voters.

4. Trump ordered his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, to tell AG Sessions to constrain the scope of the Mueller investigation to just future election interference.




http://www.nytimes.com/2019/06...trump-impeachment.html

Lie. Mueller specifically said he could not say whether any of that constituted obstruction. Barr and Rosenstein could, however, and concluded that it wasn't. As do I and most people. It's over, dummies. Give it up.

-------------------------
I :heart; Q

I don't see anything wrong with any of that. Neither did Mueller.

-------------------------
I :heart; Q

If you guys are all convinced that the Steele dossier is true then why aren't you demanding that Steele testify? Is anyone even asking for it?

Seriously, compare the examples Democrats are claiming are clear evidence that Trump committed obstruction of justice to Clinton doing everything in her power to destroy any sign of 30,000 subpoenaed emails. No interest obstruction there.

Bill Clinton has a secret meeting on the tarmac in Phoenix with Loretta Lynch to discuss the golf they didn't play and the grandchildren Lynch doesn't have while Bill's wife is under investigation by Lynch and Obama's DOJ. No interest in obstruction here either.

Compare Trump knowing when Wikileaks might drop real emails written by dumbass Democrats that embarrassed dumbass Democrats to Hillary Clinton paying a law firm, who paid Fusion GPS, who paid Christopher Steele, who paid Russian sources for unverified gossip, then taking bullshit dossier to a FISA court, committing warrant fraud so they can spy on political opponents and then using the bullshit dossier to spark a two-year, $35M waste of time and money.

Hillary Clinton clearly obstructed justice and colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election. PLEASE impeach him. Democrats won't do it because they know they will fail. Hell, Bill Clinton clearly obstructed justice multiple times, perjured himself multiple times, had to pay over $850,000 in settlements to Paula Jones for sexual assault, and was disbarred. None of the Democrats gave a shit, yet they want everyone to throw Trump overboard for this? Good luck.



-------------------------
"The government who robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul," - George Bernard Shaw

“End of quote. Repeat the line.” - wise words from Joe Biden

“Your boos mean nothing, I’ve seen what makes you cheer” ~ Rick Sanchez

Quite obviously, the tampon has not read the Mueller Report. Very similar to all of his kind. Rather than sorting out information that is factual for themselves, they / he chooses to parrot a party line.

Mueller said , in effect that if Donald J Trump was not President of the US, he would be charged with 10 counts of obstruction of justice. There is also a very good case for conspiracy, that Mueller outlines . Barr is setting himself up for several charges for himself. Apparently he does not want to be charged with contempt of Congress.


The factual evidence is clear. 171 contacts between the Trump campaign officials and direct representatives of the Russian government, helping to facilitate the circumvention of our election process. Trump and his lakeys including the tampon refuse to acknowledge the facts . They have put an ideology of hate, misogyny, injustice, elitism, exclusion, above the National interests. Trump uses his position to further his and his family's personnel interest at the expense of the
Republic.

Nixon when confronted chose an honorable exit and resigned. I sure hope Trump does not resign. Impeach and indict them all.

-------------------------
So if you are a surfer I wish you the prosperity that allows you more time to pursue the salt water dream, and the true happiness that comes from warm water, clean waves and the companionship of your fellow surfers. If you are an internet troll just spewing bs then f off.

Edited: 06/11/2019 at 03:00 PM by jdbman

Hell no I didn't read the report. I have far better things to do than to dedicate my life to a crazy conspiracy theory. Since you seemingly don't have that limitation and read the report, quote the language that says that Mueller would have indicted but for the Office of Legal counsel's opinion.

-------------------------
I :heart; Q

https://www.lawfareblog.com/ob...ueller-report-heat-map

-------------------------
"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

""Our investigation found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations," Mueller wrote. "The incidents were often carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the President sought to use his official power outside of usual channels. These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney General's recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony."

Mueller, however, refrained from recommending prosecution, saying that there were "difficult [legal] issues that would need to be resolved," in order to reach a conclusion that the crime of obstruction of justice was committed by Trump.

Factoring into his decision not to weigh in on prosecution, Mueller wrote, was an opinion issued by the Office of Legal Counsel finding that "the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions" in violation of "the constitutional separation of powers."

"Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the President's conduct," Mueller wrote.

Mueller emphasized, however, that his analysis of the evidence did not clear the president of obstruction. Said Mueller: "f we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.""

....
lawfareblog

Mueller left open the door for congressional consideration of Trump's conduct. "With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice," Mueller wrote.

fact check


-------------------------
"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Can't be bothered by facts? The defendant says he's innocent. Good enough for me!

-------------------------
"I remember South Africa in the late 70's, sleeping on the beach at J-bay, smoking ganja with the blacks. On weekends we'd go to the pub in East London to drink beer and fight with the Afrikaners. They liked to fight, I liked to fight. It was a good time"

Not even close to what jdb claimed. Why I let myself get dragged into your fantasies is beyond me. I don't like people lying, I guess.

-------------------------
I :heart; Q

I'm amazed that any lawyer would take a witness's conclusion instead examining how he arrived at that conclusion. And by amazed, I mean disappointed.

-------------------------

"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

The FBI investigation conclusively determined that her server administrator took it upon himself to delete and scrub the server, without any direction from Hillary or her staff, after Hillary and her attorney provided work related emails to Congress. The FBI was able to recover and review all of the emails, and determined that no work related emails were intentionally deleted by Hillary or her attorneys. Therefore, she complied and cooperated, and even testified for hours.

Indeed, seriously compare that to this...




Trump continues to obstruct by blocking subpoenaed information, refusing to testify, and having his AG investigate the investigators while spreading "deep state" conspiracy theories.

I cite the Mueller Report . I obtained and read it. It is clear. WG has quoted what Mueller has said in Congressional testimony. Consistent and factual.

If the tampon had any friends an intervention of sorts would be in order. His credibility as a human left the planet long ago.

The facts are:

The Russian government succeeded in interfering in the 2016 Presidential Election.
There has been nothing done in retribution.
There has been nothing done to prevent future incursions.
Donald J Trump and his associates had 171 contacts with members of the Russian government or persons directed by the Russian government.
Nothing of this sort goes on in Russia with out the direction of Putin.

Donald J
Trump directly obstructed the Mueller investigation a minimum of 10 documented times.

Mueller said that if Donald J Trump was not President that he would be indicted. Mueller said that because of DOJ policy that it was not his job or jurisdiction to indict Donald J Trump.

That leaves it to Congress:

The remaining questions are:

Why did Donald J Trump attempt to circumvent the Mueller investigation a minimum of 10 times?

Why does the Administration and Donald J Trump not protect the United States against further foreign ( Russian ) intervention in our elections.?
Why are there not severe sanctions against the Russian government.?
( Some have said its an attack, why no retaliatory military action.)

Why hasn't the mother fucking son of a bitch been impeached?




-------------------------
So if you are a surfer I wish you the prosperity that allows you more time to pursue the salt water dream, and the true happiness that comes from warm water, clean waves and the companionship of your fellow surfers. If you are an internet troll just spewing bs then f off.

(Applause)

Where? Quote the report. Very simple request.

-------------------------
I :heart; Q

Here, look at this. I mean seriously Trumpablo, have you gone retarded?

"Our investigation found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations," Mueller wrote. "The incidents were often carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the President sought to use his official power outside of usual channels. These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney General's recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony." Mueller, however, refrained from recommending prosecution, saying that there were "difficult [legal] issues that would need to be resolved,"

-------------------------
I was right.

That is not a pure quote from the report and does not say that he did or didn't so something because of the Office of Legal Counsel's opinion. Mueller told Barr that wasn't the basis of his opinion.

-------------------------
I :heart; Q