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Comey to oval office and saying you got to audition for your job again even though statutorily you can fbi director for a decade. there were several other times he reached out to him ultimately putting the arm on him about mike flynn and threatening him in public with in effect a witness tampering evidence saying i'm calling you out for being a liar when in fact it was the president who was coming forward with misstatements. yes i think there are critical elements of the obstruction statute in play here. >> michael crowley, i want you to -- i want your thoughts on the same question. but i also...

>> professor foley, let me ask you about another issue. something that struck me during the hearings was the role of jeff sessions. jim comey seemed to suggest that the attorney general -- that the fbi already knew that the attorney general was compromised, that he was going to have to recuse himself. does it strike you as, i don't know what the right word would be, but a violation of his pledge to recuse himself from anything relating to russia for jeff sessions to have then involved himself in the firing of jim comey, apparently over the russia investigation. >> look, i don't know -- >> it c...

You about another issue. something that struck me during the hearings was the role of jeff sessions. jim comey seemed to suggest that the attorney general -- that the fbi already knew that the attorney general was compromised, that he was going to have to recuse himself. does it strike you as, i don't know what the right word would be, but a violation of his pledge to recuse himself from anything relating to russia for jeff sessions to have then involved himself in the firing of jim comey, apparently over the russia investigation. >> look, i don't know -- >> it certainly does. are you asking -...

Obstruction under the facts as we know them today is that all the obstruction statutes either address obstruction of investigations or obstruction of pending proceedings. you look at this scenario and say this is an investigation. there's a stoatute that deals with obstruction of criminal investigations. it's 1510. it requires very specific elements. it requires an act of bribery that prevents a communication about a crime to a criminal investigator. there's no indication of such bribery here. if you want to use the more broad obstruction statute, pending proceedings, while they are broader in...

Pending proceedings. you look at this scenario and say this is an investigation. there's a statute that deals with obstruction of criminal pending investigations. it's call said section 1510 of the of title 18 of the united states code. but it requires very specific elements. it requires an act of bribery that prevents a communication about a crime to a criminal investigator. there's no indication of such bribery here. if you want to use the more broad obstruction statute, pending proceedings, while they are broader in their language and don't have that bribery element, you still have the prob...