As Outlined in the Mueller Report (A Mini Transcript of OA 324)
I am more convinced than ever that Bob Mueller thought the immediate result of his report being released would be a vote within a couple of weeks in the House to impeach the President. I believe that.
– P. Andrew Torrez
- Background
- Crimes
- #1: Efforts to Prevent Disclosures of Emails re: June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting
- #2: Firing Michael Flynn
- #3: Trump’s Reaction to Public Confirmation of the FBI’s Russia Investigation
- #4: Termination of FBI Director Comey
- #5: The President’s Efforts to Remove the Special Counsel
- #6: The President’s Efforts to Curtail the Special Counsel Investigation
- #7: Efforts to get Sessions to Reverse His Recusal
- #8: Trump Ordered McGahn to Deny that He’d been Told to Fire Mueller
- #9: Witness Tampering – Flynn, Manafort, [Redacted]
- #10: Witness Tampering – Michael Cohen
Follow Along with the Full Report Here
Background
Mueller’s Investigative Constraints
Andrew: There is Mueller telling you our investigation was designed not to give you a conclusion.
Andrew: This is a one way process. If it exonerated the President they would have said “this exonerates the President. ” If it would result in saying “we would indict the President” they would say “we’re throwing up our hands.”
Legal Standard for Obstruction of Justice
(1) An Obstructive Act
Andrew: The act: you have to do a thing.
(2) A Nexus Between the Act and an Official Proceeding
Andrew: To establish a nexus it would be necessary to show that the President’s actions would have the natural tendency to effect a proceeding; or that they would hinder, delay, or prevent the communication of information to investigator.
(3) A Corrupt Intent
In order to prove that somebody has “obstructed justice” you have to prove that there is an official proceeding, in which they meddled, for a bad reason.
– P. Andrew Torrez
General Conclusions of the Mueller Report
some of Trump’s Conduct was Garden-variety obstruction not related to his office
Andrew: This is responding to the 2017 unsolicited Barr memo.
Thomas: Which is BS anyway, we already know that’s BS.
Andrew: We know that’s BS, but … even if that argument were true, some of the conduct that President Trump engaged in is just garden-variety obstruction.
The President Does not have blanket immunity
Andrew: The argument that the President can’t obstruct justice by doing things he could otherwise reasonably do is just nonsense.
The president’s office gives him leverage
Andrew: In other words, you have to balance out the fact that, yes, some things are legal for the President to do. Also, the fact that there are things that are legal for the President to do means that he has enormous leverage over just about everybody with whom he comes into contact with.
Trump isn’t a knowing russian operative
Andrew: So what does this section mean? It means that we don’t have direct evidence that Donald Trump was … a deep cover Manchurian-candidate Russian operative.
Obstruction was for personal benefit, not presidential duties
Andrew: Yeah, Presidents have official duties, but when they undertake their official duties in such a way as to interfere with law enforcement investigation to benefit yourself, your campaign, or your family by exerting undue influence over that investigation, that’s a crime. That is said black and white on page 157.
It is reasonable for law enforcement to determine whether the president violated laws
Andrew: What does that mean? That means it is perfectly reasonable for a law enforcement official to determine whether the President violated the laws preventing you from obstructing justice.
Andrew: All of those are, again, garden-variety bad faith motives for obstructing justice.
The Crimes of President Trump*
*As of the date of this post and outlined in the Mueller Report
#1: Efforts to Prevent Disclosures of Emails re: June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Meeting
[X] Obstruction
[X] Nexus
(“Nexus” means the act is associated with an official investigation)
[ ] Corrupt Intent
Andrew: This is the best case scenario for Trump.
Andrew: Evidence does not establish that the President took steps to prevent the emails or other information from coming out in connection with the Special Counsel’s investigation. Rather, the steps that he took were in the context of developing a press strategy. However scumbaggy that is, that’s not depriving Congress or the Special Counsel of the emails, it’s depriving the public and that’s not a sufficient nexus. That is not a sufficient demonstration of specific intent.
#2: Firing Michael Flynn
[X] Obstruction
Andrew: Donald Trump literally cleared the room to talk to James Comey, demanded his loyalty, and said “I hope you can see clear to letting Flynn go.”
[X] Nexus
When he says that he ‘hopes’ a subordinate will do something it is reasonable to expect that the subordinate will do what the President wants. Indeed, the President repeated a version of “let this go” three times, and Comey testified that he understood the President’s statements as a directive, which is corroborated by the way Comey reacted at the time.
[X] Corrupt Intent
Andrew: The criminal intent is evidenced by the fact that there were multiple one-on-one meetings in which Donald Trump kicked the Attorney General out of the room against the advice of his top aides, including White House counsel Don McGahn. Trump later denied that he cleared the room.
Thomas: So it’s almost like this whole time when these people have been lying and lying and covering stuff up and lying and then in the end are like “we didn’t do anything wrong,” it’s almost like that’s, uh, maybe nonsense.
#3: Trump’s Reaction to Public Confirmation of the FBI’s Russia Investigation
[X] Obstruction
Andrew: The President asked that Dan Coats state publicly that no link existed between the President and Russia. Coats declined to say that, because of course links existed between the President and Russia.
[X] Nexus
[X] Corrupt Intent
Andrew: Contrast that with where we gave him the mulligan. [Crime #1] We gave him the mulligan on the Trump Tower meeting because maybe he was just trying to mislead the American public. This is not an example of that … Donald Trump was focused on the Russia investigation’s implications for his presidency and therefore attempted to circumvent DOJ rules and prevent Jeff Sessions from following the law.
#4: Termination of FBI Director Comey
[X] Obstruction
[X] Nexus
Andrew: In the interest of fairness, there is some competing evidence:
Andrew: If you fire the FBI director because you’re mad, but you know that the FBI investigation will still go on even after you fire him then maybe that’s not enough to prove obstruction of justice? That’s how far we’re bending over backwards, by the way, to defend Trump.
[X] Corrupt Intent
There are other stated rationales for why Trump fired Comey:
However …
Andrew: This is how you demonstrate corrupt intent in any case. You show that somebody says one thing but does a different thing because if the thing you said publicly was a thing that you believed, you would probably do that thing. The fact that you lied about it lets a jury infer that you have the requisite criminal intent.
#5: The President’s Efforts to Remove the Special Counsel
[X] Obstruction
Andrew: The obstructive act was Donald Trump tried in multiple ways to get Robert Mueller fired.
[X] Nexus
Andrew: The Special Counsel began investigating the President as early as June 2017. (When we say “Special Counsel” we mean Mueller’s office).
[X] Corrupt Intent
Andrew: In response to that request, Don McGahn decided to quit because he did not want to participate in events that he described as akin to the Saturday Night Massacre … If you or I had engaged in that conduct we would be under arrest at the moment.
Thomas: I think you’d just say “No collusion! No obstruction!”
#6: The President’s Efforts to Curtail the Special Counsel Investigation
[X] Obstruction
Andrew: After June, after the Mueller investigation was publicly evaluating the President’s own actions, Donald Trump tried to get Jeff Sessions to send a directive to Rod Rosenstein that the Mueller investigation could only look at future interference between Russia and the United States and not back at the 2016 interference.
Thomas: Totally normal, totally non-criminal behavior?
[X] Nexus
[X] Corrupt Intent
Andrew: He met with Corey Lewandowski, again, alone in the White House .. he did not contact the acting Attorney General. the President directed Reince Priebus to obtain Sessions’ resignation. That’s the blank resignation that he then made good on.
#7: Efforts to get Sessions to Reverse His Recusal
Andrew: I’m not even gonna read it, its just ridiculous.
[X] Obstruction
[X] Nexus
[X] Criminal Intent
At least one purpose of the President’s conduct toward Sessions was to have Sessions assume control over the Russia investigation and supervise it in a way that would restrict its scope.
Mueller Report, Vol. II p. 112
#8: Trump Ordered McGahn to Deny that He’d been Told to Fire Mueller
[X] Obstruction
[X] Nexus
[X] Corrupt Intent
Andrew: This administration, we know, responds immediately to press reports. The clear inference if you’re on a jury is the New York Times article came out then the President said “I’m in trouble! Alright, time to create some fake records to disprove this when they come looking for me.”
#9: Witness Tampering – Flynn, Manafort, [Redacted]
Andrew: The stuff on Roger Stone is redacted.
[X] Obstruction
Andrew: The obstructive act here is dangling a pardon, both directly and indirectly, in exchange for saying “hey, you better not flip.” That’s garden-variety, textbook obstruction of justice.
[X] Nexus
[X] Corrupt Intent
Andrew: There’s two pages of how the President also tried to tamper with the jury pool. If you recall, Manafort’s first jury trial the jury hung on 10 of the 18 counts, so it might have worked.
#10: Witness Tampering – Michael Cohen
[X] Obstruction
Thomas: Flip.
Andrew: Right? That’s the thing you say when you’re the bad guy!
Thomas: Said no non-criminal ever. You’d better not flip on me, Andrew!
[X] Nexus
Andrew: Super easy nexus. Not only was the Special Counsel’s office, but Congress and the Southern District of New York were all publicly investigating Michael Cohen.
[X] Corrupt Intent
Andrew: You’re thinking, yeah, but Michael Cohen, he’s a dirty scumbag lawyer. But the President indicated in his public statements that a pardon had not been ruled out for Cohen and also stated publicly that “most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble but that he didn’t see Michael doing that.” Some of this is obviously political, but again, “there is evidence that could support the interference that the President intended to discourage Cohen from cooperating with the government because Cohen’s information would shed adverse light on the President’s campaign-period conducts and statements.”
The Cover Up is Worse than the Crime
– P. Andrew Torrez
2 Replies to “The Ten Crimes of Trump”