Page 18 - Adjunct News Today

He raised more questions without answering more of them. that was really irritating. and i loved the comment that we dont think of our investigators powers as an adjunct to congres. theres a reason. you investigate, you charge or you dont. and thats that. >> capri: this is why ive asked the question of whether or not the senate, which is controlled by republicans, will actually call bob mueller. i know that lindsey graham has previously said he thinks this is over, but to everyones point here --...

Appropriate decisions under extremely, extremely difficult and novel circumstances. but we did what we thought was right for the country and within the bounds of the law, and importantly, with appropriate oversight. >> elliot, in terms of barr saying that mueller could have reached a conclusion on obstruction, its not that he outs that he wouldnt based on justice department guidelines. and mueller made that clear yesterday, and also barr wouldnt go into the second reason why he wouldnt even reac...

>> i personally felt he could have reached a decision. >> he seemed to suggest yesterday there was another venue for this, and that was congress. >> im not sure what he was suggesting, but the deprived of justice doesnt use our power of investigating crimes as an adjunct to congress. >> barr was also asked about the ongoing investigation into how the russia probe began, and if obama-era justice officials acted properly when wanting that investigation. >> you dont think they committed treason? >>...

Congress decisions. and thats just not accurate. because under that point of view, there is no mechanism by which the united states can hold a president of the united states accountable. mueller was obligated to follow the justice department guidelines or not. he chose to. but i think the bigger question here is why barr himself felt the need then to make the determination as to -- to make the determination as to criminality. he didnt have to make a decision. he could have just sent it to congre...

Investigation. >> yes, but, you know, sometimes people can convince themselves that what they are doing are in the higher interest, for the better good. they dont realize what they are doing is recent antithetical to the democratic system we. >> barrere said he disagrees with special counsel muellers sequester prettiation that the institution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to charge the president with a crime. >> i personally felt he could have reached a decision. >> h...

You going to do about it? >> well, when i heard the news this morning, i was stunned. i thought what is this authority to do this? and when i learned it was a 40-year-old bill, i thought the presidents idea of an emergency is something he wants to do without the legal authority, just as he did with the wall and now the courts have stopped him. i think this is very questionable legally. its not -- he doesnt have a lot of respect for the democratic system of government and the rule of law here and...

I dont want to be unfair to the president because he wont have his day in court. but i cant say he didnt do anything wrong. i cant exonerate him. i thought he bent over backward to be fair. >> william barr said specifically mueller could have reached a conclusion and not violated dod policy, quote, to make charges or indict a sitting president. if he had the evidence to support it, he would have read it in the report. it wasnt there. >> he does. he has five different counts of obstruction that h...

President. there is no finding or conclusion that the president obstructed justice. >> he said he couldnt and he left to congress. now well see what they do with it. >> additionally as william barr said the doj, the investigations they do, do not serve as an adjunct to congress. they just want a different outcome so now theyre going to continue to do this. >> who is they? >> the democrats and the cast of characters running trying to unseat president trump. this is what theyre raising money on, i...

Indict a president while hes in office, but he could have reached a decision as to whether it was criminal activity, but he had his reasons for not doing it, which he explained, and im not going to, you know, argue about those reasons, but when he didnt make a decision, the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and i felt it was necessary for us as the heads of the department to reach that decision. >> well, i mean, he seemed to suggest yesterday that there was another venue for this, and that ...

>> laura: it was bill barrs appearance that many were waiting for. while mueller prays the attorney general as acting in good faith in the process, he had language that raised the specter of disagreement between obstruction of justice. barr said mueller shirked his responsibility, which the ag repeated today. >> he could have reached a conclusion? >> he couldve reached a conclusion to indict a president of wrong doing in office. he couldve reached a decision whether it was criminal activity. >> ...