Page 670 - Obstruction News Today

Loyalty as your lawyer is to you, i want to protect you, here are the consequences if you dont tell the truth." sometimes i have clients ask, "what if i just lie about it?" ill tell them, "i cant tell you to lie, heres what could happen if you do, heres how they might figure out that youre lying." this idea of impressing upon your client loyalty to someone else, to protect someone else, thats problematic both ethically and certainly could lead to him being looked at for obstruction. >> she was l...

>> thats a problem. so in the law, in terms of obstructing congress, or obstructing any proceeding, if a person corruptly tries to impede the conduct of a congressional inquiry, that is obstruction, and that is something that potentially can be investigated and prosecuted for. so i think theyre definitely based on whats being reported, and what the committee is apparently saying, there is the potential this person has criminal exposure. but i do think there is an issue here, john, with respect t...

Cooperation as far as potential criminal indictments based on the referrals from the committee? >> right, well we know that the justice department wants everything the january six committee has. for a long time, the january six committee was reluctant to turn over all the materials to the justice department, but they have begun to do so. we know from the committees report yesterday, the executive summary that they have already given them some materials about possible obstruction and witness tamp...

Representing someone before congress or before any government entity in any proceeding, to direct a client to lie, if thats in fact what happened. and then there is the issue of was his conduct potential obstruction of the congressional inquiry? but this is where the way that it happened, what the words were that were used, whether or not what is being reported is actually what transpired, because it doesnt sound like we have the other side of the story yet. so there is a lot of gray space here,...

But, yes, more information is always better. i think that to the extent they can go and speak to a potential witness having seen a transcript of that witness prior testimony, they can hone their questions and ask follow-ups so thats always going to be better. >> sara, this report will shed new light on new alleged obstruction were learning from the committees investigation including a story that cnn broke, which is trumps former white house ethics lawyer allegedly instructed a witness to mislead...

Transcript also follow according to the committee. it all adds up to a road map of at least four federal crimes where all roads lead to donald trump. cnns sara murray is at the capitol also with us legal analyst jennifer rodgers, good to have you here. what can we expect with this roll out? >> well, you know, were obviously still waiting on the report to come out but expecting them to release this report today. its eight chapters. there could be append disease that go along with it and could sta...

Question of what im looking for, expands on kens excellent point, which i think department prosecutors will look at this release of documents, not so much for the trump information, but for underlings who may be able to be charged and flipped. so, you know, tony ornato would be one of them, but theyre going to look very, very closely for any information that could help them charge people with either making a false statement or perjury or obstruction of justice to see if they can get them to be c...

Example because of this reporting we know that she -- her lawyer specifically allegedly told her to say she didnt recall key details when she did. but the committee also said that they believe that there were several witnesses that werent being fully truthful or were saying i dont recall when it wasnt believable and talked about potential witness tampering and obstruction. this came up in some of the hearings over the summer into the fall so i think one of the things people will look at asti ya ...

The culmination of this 18-month-long investigation, you know, congress was the victim. lets not forget on january 6th, this is the select committees final report. everything theyve collected. >> it is going to be out there really for historians to look at, even before that for the department of justice to look at. as you said for journalists to look at. we will learn so much more. dont forget. this is -- we already have learned so much since that and mainly from people inside the white house, f...

And others in the committee saying things along the line -- it was like she was reading from talking points. >> right, or someone was offered a lucrative job if they were willing to stay, essentially, on the former presidents team. i think when we look, when we finally get its report, all of the its pages, all of the evidence, thats the kind of underlying evidence well be looking for. for names of witnesses. >> potentially, im not a lawyer and im not a judge, potentially that could be considered...