Prosecutable Case For Obstruction News Today

Barr, the report identified no actions that, in our judgment, constitute object struckive conduct. democrats have long felt the attorney general has been protecting president trump and has tried to water down the mueller report. i asked sarah sanders a little while ago on the north lawn, as she took about a dozen questions from reporters, why the american public should feel confident with a political appointee making the final call on obstruction. listen. >> were not asking you to. robert muelle...

Before mueller wrote a single syllable in his report. well be in this state of chaos the next 14 months. i dont think theres a prosecutable case for obstruction. i dont know everything. but what i have seen, firing jim comey is not obstruction. if the president has a right to waive his right to remain silent, does he also have the right to waive his right to not be indicted while president? id take my chances with 12 reasonable minded fellow citizens before i would house democrats. >> dana: take...

Crime. it becomes very academic when you have public tweets being called a potential basis for obstruction and you dont have an under lying crime. thats one thing flagged in the roar as to why it would be very difficult to contemplate a federal criminal prosecution for obstruction. that goes to day light here that you and bret have been talking about, which is mueller today made it sound like the olc opinion basically shut down the inquiry. that there was never going to be an obstruction case be...

Could not exonerate president trump on obstruction. lets bring in trey gowdy. i wanted to talk a couple angles with you. one, its very interesting in a special counsels report to have insufficient evidence versus no evidence, right? but if you dont have a case, as prosecutors, sometimes you have to let it go. >> yeah. i mean, there are a couple evidentiary thresholds. it takes probable cause to indict someone or arrest them but it takes beyond a reasonable doubt to get a conviction. most prosecu...

Mueller. >> dana: why do you think mueller decided to speak today? this is the first time youve heard him speak in two years. i understand the office is wrapping up. as we just established, he didnt say anything that wasnt already in the report. do you think he was trying to send a signal to congress? >> i mean clearly there was a signal in there saying constitution has a remedy for this. he didnt say the word impeachment but said, congress, its your job. if i speculate, thats just what this is....

Facts surrounding the obstruction case which were not meeting the bar for a criminal charge. here is the attorney general. >> special counsel mueller stated three times to us in that meeting in response to our questioning that he emphatically was not saying that, but for the olc opinion he would have found obstruction. he said that in the future, the facts of the case against the president might be such that a special counsel would recommend abandoning the olc opinion, but this is not such a cas...

Ramification, lets bring in bret baeir. i know one of the most important things when youre a journalist covering a story like this, if theres daylight or a discrepancy between two principles and in this case, as catherine pointed out, and i saw your first reaction was, barr said this, now mueller is saying this. are you hearing anything else about this in washington? >> the department of justice is saying that it was clear that mueller and his team told them and told attorney general barr in thi...