Page 5 - Obstruction Probe News Today

Had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. we did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. >> so me made it clear he could not say the president didnt commit a crime, but he then went on to speak at length about why he couldnt do anything about it. couldnt do anything because of the rules barring the indictment of a sitting president that hemmed in the obstruction probe. >> the special counsels office is ...

Out a little bit today of why he didnt clear that up in the beginning that he wouldnt make a charging decision. one, you want to investigate so you memorialize everything when its fresh and you get the evidence. there could be other people related to the obstruction probe apart from the president. >> thats all true, he said all that, the special counsel today. but he never said why he didnt tell the american public and those interested parties i cant indict. >> and he said he wont explore hypoth...

Or does it actually change things? we wont know that for some weeks. >> frank figliuzzi let me hand this off to you as well. to heilemans point, mueller is saying when someone obstructs justice, donald trump was the subject, the target, whatever you want to call him of the obstruction probe, mueller making abundantly clear that he attempted to obstruct the investigation, if you read the report and the footnotes and witnesses to those ten incidents, its clear he did commit criminal obstruction. i...

Found a crime, but for the existence of the olc opinion. and he made it very clear, several times, that that was not his position. >> reporter: today, mueller appeared to point the obstruction issue to congress, ramping up the pressure on capitol hill for impeachment. >> the opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. >> reporter: mueller also making clear that his personal preference is not to...

Saying the obstruction probe was paramount. >> when a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lying to investigators, at strikes at the core of the governments effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. >> reporter: despite trumps constant refrain. >> i call it the russian hoax. >> its a total witch hunt. >> reporter: they found evidence that russia did influence the election to try to benefit trump and hurt hillary clinton. >> there were multiple efforts to in...

And this is "cnn newsroom." a new report in "the washington post," is sure to embolden democrats who wants to see donald trumps tax returns. it cites a draft memo, that says the internal revenue service must hand over tax returns unless the president cites executive privilege. house democrats have subpoenaed the presidents excommunications director, hope hicks, in their obstruction probe of mr. trump. they want to ask her about a misleading statement about donald trump jr.s meeting with a lawyer...

Influence his cooperation, a partially redacted court memo reads, "either he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the administration or congress that could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation. the defendant even provided a voicemail recording of one such communication." the mueller report published that voicemail from the presidents personal attorney flynns attorney. "if theres information that implicates the pres...

Cnns pamela brown explains how the white house is reacting to news of flynns work with investigators. >> reporter: well, president trump is responding to these latest revelations unsealed in court documents that michael flynn cooperated with muellers investigators in the obstruction probe. and the president is making the false claim that he was never warned about flynn before bringing him on as his national security advisor. president trump on a twitter tirade complaining again about the origins...

But that was legally sanctioned by the courts. so its not clear what mr. trump was alluding to. meanwhile, were getting fresh insights into the mueller probe and one key witness who gave the special counsel a lot of insider knowledge early in the investigation. we get the latest from cnns pamela brown. >> reporter: well, president trump is responding to these latest revelations unsealed in court documents that michael flynn cooperated with muellers investigators in the obstruction probe and the ...

Cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation. the defendant even provided a voice mail recording of one such communication. the mueller report published that voice mail from the presidents personal attorney to flynns attorney. if theres information that implicates the president then weve got a national security issue, so, you know, we need some kind of heads up. now, even though michael flynn provided evidence including the voice mail to robert muellers team, the special counsel did not pr...