Page 12 - Cannot Obstruct News Today

Head of the fbi. he was crazy. a real nutjob. i faced great pressure because of russia. thats taken off. and even though the president pushed back against any obstruction implications in june -- >> in the meantime, no collusion, no obstruction. >> reporter: the presidents lawyers are now asserting a new defense, the president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under the constitutions article ii and has every right to express his views of any case. this pushba...

Morning. listen. you cannot charge a president with obstruction of justice for exercising his constitutional power of fire comey and his constitutional authority to tell the justice department who to investigate who not to investigate. thats what thomas jefferson did, lincoln did, what roosevelt did. we have presidents that clearly establish that. >> so much to dig into here. im joined by stanley pottinger from the civil rights division under nixon and ford administrations, involved in the water...

Refuse to testify. i think it was a very bad thing. i think it is a very good thing that the state attorney general is now involved because that is something the president cannot obstruct. and he cannot impede it because he has no power against the state. so thats -- thats a good thing. and i think that they should work together zbloolgts jeremy -- thats really the first salvo of that sort. because there are a number of states that can claim some sort of harm if this is still having to do with t...

What do you make of the fact that possibly robert mueller is working with new york attorney general eric schneiderman. >> i think it is a message. i was appalled by the pardon in and of itself. you are forgiving a contempt of court which cannot enforce judicial proceedings if it cant hold a witness in contempt or a defendant in contempt. and it was for violating civil rights. its bad in and of itself. but i heard it definitely as a message, hang tight, dont worry. you may lose the fifth amendmen...

You are forgiving a contempt of court which cannot enforce judicial proceedings if it cant hold a witness in contempt or a defendant in contempt. and it was for violating civil rights. its bad in and of itself. but i heard it definitely as a message, hang tight, dont worry. you may lose the fifth amendment privilege because ill pardon your original crime. but ill also pardon you if you refuse to testify. i think it was a very bad thing. i think it is a very good thing that the state attorney gen...

>> what were you saying if it comes out and they have a vote before july 4th, which is the goal. >> that would be a huge mistake. i dont think its going to happen. look, you cant have ted cruz and mike lee on one side and a few others in that group that are going to allow this process to be rammed down their throat. this is going to be more deliberate that what is portrayed, it has to be. there has to be more discussion. the american public is going to know what they are voting on before they vo...

I dont want to try to be a newt translator here. it might have been he was talking about criminal obstruction of justice versus impeachment which is a political process and its very hard to charge the president with a crime. if muler were to find anything troubling about the president himself, it might be he takes that to the houpgs, to tse of representatives, to the senate, and do with this as you want. >> thats way too fair to newt. >> is newt gingrich right when he says the president of the u...

He pardoned weinberger when weinberger could have easily pointed the finger back at bush. >> okay. i want to get jeffreys take on your argument. >> respectfully i could not think alan is more wrong, and the simple response is watergate. i mean, under alans theory -- let me finish, alan. let me finish. under your theory the president, since the fbi works for the president, he can tell them to do anything they want. well, in watergate, the president nixon and his -- they conspired, they made an ag...

Long way to go. >> why is it devastating? >> its devastating because it shows the pattern leading to him firing comey because comey is pursuing this investigation and the president is saying dont pursue this investigation. dont pursue the flynn case. but, more importantly, the facts in this investigation is closing in on the president of the united states and at the same time we need more information. we have a sprawling investigation being conducted by a special counsel. we need more facts. we ...

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