Page 3 - Cannot Obstruct News Today

Director that could be determined to be an act of obstruction of justice, i gather you agree with the presidents lawyers, why? >> i agree with the presidents lawyers. made the same case to you last december. its simple. its not that the president cannot obstruct justice, while the president is commercing core constitutional powers of his office, like firing people, hiring people, pardoning people, telling people what to do, he cannot possibly be engaged in obstruction because to allow congress t...

Stated by numerous legal scholars, i have the absolute right to pardon myself, but why would i do that when i have done nothing wrong? why if the president has done nothing wrong would he not want to say so and agree to sit down with an interview with the special council? not so fast says trumps attorney rudy giuliani. >> this is the reason you dont let the president testify. our recollection keeps changing or were not asked a question, somebody makes an assumption. in my case, i made an assumpt...

Depends on the time of day, i guess, what day -- >> honestly. >> you get all kinds of answers when you ask things of the white house, right? i mean, we had that statement multiple statements from the white house about that statement aboard air force one, that he dictated, did he not dictate and that that letter they sent to the special counsels office in january, turns out,yeah, he did dictate it. so, i think were getting about as much accuracy and consistency with rudy giuliani as from the pres...

Legal side i wouldnt -- i would say, you know, if im going to sit there and testify or sit and speak to robert mueller on a few specific issues that he could talk to legal tea beforehand. rob: lets talk about the memo that "the new york times" got a hold of, here are points from that that the president cannot be compel today testify, the president cannot obstruct justice and has authority over federal investigations, a letter from months ago now, wendy, democrats take this as threatening, tell u...

Heather: so the presidents lawyers sent 20-page letter to robert mueller, his office and it was leaked go, figure, but lets take a look at some of the points made in the legal team memo thatotus cannot be compel todayestify, cannot obstruct justice and has authority over federal investigations, are all those things true? >> to be honest it depends who you ask, it depends what legal expert you talk to especially during this time you talk that some are one way or the other in the political heat of...

Ive used that example in the past arguing against this very positio position. article ii is not where the homicidal meets the constitutional. its --re are limits and what bothers me about the people arguing for this sweeping immunity is there is nary a mention by the framers of such a ssive immunity. theyre saying the framers discussed the presidents powers in details. many of these framers were uncomfortable with the degree of presidential privileges yet no one mention this is sweeping immunity...

Have to keep your story straight about. >> were going to get to that meeting in a moment, ken, but all of this coming in the wake of this newly released memo, mimi alluded to it. this is the newly leaked memo obtained by the "new york times" in which president trumps lawyers argue the presidents powers are so broad he cannot obstruct justice, not be forced to testify and he can pardon himself if he wants to. how does this -- this new memo what does it reveal about the presidents legal defense? >...

Have been talking about is the letter spends a long time about a particular obstruction statute and they dont discuss the more relevant and more recent statute 1512. there are a lot of problems with the legal argument. >> they cite the wrong statute. lets focus on the big picture as you mentioned. just generally they say in this letter that the president, a president cannot obstruct justice because he is the president. is that right? is that a common view in legal thinking and among legal expert...

President, cannot obstruct justice because he is the president is that right? is that a common view in legal thinking and legal sort of among legal experts? >> heres the problem. it doesnt come up that often. almost never. one of the questions is whether or not he can be subpoenaed that happened when it came to the floor was in 19 nation and as everyone knows, the independent counsel at the time kenneth star said the president had other equipment at the time, had to come in and testify in respon...

Investigation and this is a quote. at any time and for any reason. >> cnn white house reporter sarah westwood is with us now. what are you hearing from washington about this discrepancy? he, you know, repeatedly it has been said that he did not dictate this letter. this letter, however, or the letter originally from his. >> the -- >> his son. but this completely dictates or rather distracts from what he said before. >> reporter: absolutely. one of many things we learned from this letter written ...