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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 didn't commit a crime, but he then went on to speak at length about why he couldn't do anything about it. couldn't do anything because of the rules barring the indictment of a sitting president that hemmed in the obstruction probe. >> the special counsel's office is part of the department of justice. and by regulation, it was bound by that department policy. ch...

Out a little bit today of why he didn't clear that up in the beginning that he wouldn't make a charging decision. one, you want to investigate so you memorialize everything when it's fresh and you get the evidence. there could be other people related to the obstruction probe apart from the president. >> that's all true, he said all that, the special counsel today. but he never said why he didn't tell the american public and those interested parties i can't indict. >> and he said he won't explore hypotheticals, but we can. let's do the hypothetical if he came out and said i can't charge a presi...

Or does it actually change things? we won't know that for some weeks. >> frank figliuzzi let me hand this off to you as well. to heileman's 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, it's clear he did commit criminal obstruction. if he was anyone but the president he would have been charged. >> look, i know a lot of people are...

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 testify, but if forced, he'll stick within the bounds of his report. >> we chose those words carefu...

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 government's effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. >> reporter: despite trump's constant refrain. >> i call it the russian hoax. >> it's 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 interfere in our election. that allegation deserves the attention of every american. >> reporter: w...