Trump Continues To Claim No Obstruction Despite Mueller Report

by Dr. Mark Bear

While Trump continues blurting out, “no collusion; no obstruction,” to all who will listen, the evidence simply does not square with his words. First, let me address the no collusion claim:

Robert Mueller, Special Counsel assigned to look into Russian meddling in our 2016 presidential election, and his team did not investigate the colloquial term of “collusion,” but did use the high bar of conspiracy. Why? Because if one took the time to read the report there were hundreds of contacts between officials from the Russian government and the Trump Team. However, as Mueller provides his choice of either charging Trump or providing a pathway for others to investigate this matter more thoroughly, Mr. Mueller states in the report:

“But the evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal or political concerns” (All emphasis mine, Volume II, page 76).

And what to make of the ten instances where the Special Counsel clearly outlined areas where Trump potentially obstructed justice? In the event you have not read the report, I am glad to tell you I have, and what I see is a Special Counsel operating under the rules of the Department of Justice that one cannot indict a sitting President. So, what are those areas of potential obstruction? I will list five today, and the rest this weekend.

WATCH THE VIDEO OF TRUMP MAKING THIS CLAIM:

First, according to Mueller: “On January 27, the day after the President was told that Flynn had lied to the Vice President and had made similar statements to the FBI, the President invited FBI Director Comey to a private dinner at the White House and told Comey that he needed loyalty. On February 14, the day after the President requested Flynn’s resignation, the President told an outside advisor, ‘Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over.” In addition, later that afternoon, Trump cleared the Oval Office and specifically referring to Flynn – who was being investigated – asked Comey, “I hope you can see your way clear of letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” (Mueller Report)

Second: “In early March, the President told White House Counsel Donald McGahn to stop Sessions from recusing. And after Sessions announced his recusal on March 2, the President expressed anger at the decision and told advisors that he should have an Attorney General who would protect him. That weekend, the President took Sessions aside at an event and urged him to ‘unrecuse’ …” Furthermore, Trump “reached out to the Director of National Intelligence and the leaders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) to ask them what they could do to publicly dispel the suggestion that the President had any connection to the Russian election-interference effort.” Then adding insult to injury, Trump called Comey directly despite being warned by McGahn to not contact the Justice Department.” If this does not show obstruction, I do not know what does. (Mueller Report)

Third: “The day of the firing, the White House maintained that Comey’s termination resulted from independent recommendations from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General that Comey should be discharged for mishandling the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But the President had decided to fire Comey before hearing from the Department of Justice. The day after firing Comey, the President told Russian officials that he had ‘faced great pressure because of Russia,’ which had been ‘taken off’ by Comey’s firing. The next day, the President acknowledged in a television interview that he was going to fire Comey regardless of the Department of Justice’s recommendation and that when he ‘decided to just do it,’ he was thinking that ‘this thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.”

Fourth: “The President reacted to news that a Special Counsel had been appointed by telling advisors that it was ‘the end of his presidency’ and demanding that Sessions resign. Sessions submitted his resignation, but the President ultimately did not accept it. The President told aides that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and suggested that the Special Counsel therefore could not serve.” Furthermore, ““On June 14, 2017, the media reported that the Special Counsel’s Office was investigating whether the President had obstructed justice … The President reacted to this news with a series of tweets criticizing the Department of Justice and the Special Counsel’s investigation. On June 17, 2017, the President called McGahn at home and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre.” (Mueller Report)

Fifth: “On June 19, 2017, the President met one-on-one in the Oval Office with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a trusted advisor outside the government, and dictated a message for Lewandowski to deliver to Sessions. The message said that Sessions should publicly announce that, notwithstanding his recusal from the Russia investigation, the investigation was “very unfair” to the President, the President had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the Special Counsel and ‘let [him] move forward with investigating election meddling for future elections.” (Mueller Report)

“One month later, in another private meeting with Lewandowski on July 19, 2017, the President asked about the status of his message for Sessions to limit the Special Counsel investigation to future election interference. Lewandowski told the President that the message would be delivered soon … Lewandowski did not want to deliver the President’s message personally, so he asked senior White House official Rick Dearborn to deliver it to Sessions. Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through.” (Muller Report)

This weekend I shall provide each of you with the rest of the potential areas Trump obstructed justice. Suffice it to say that his message of “No collusion; no obstruction,” is yet another lie by Mr. Trump. The only question I have for you the reader: What are we going to do about it?

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