An analysis by the distinguished retired Judge John H. Wilson
There is a line in the Grateful Dead’s song, “Terrapin Station,” that applies to the release of the Report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller – “I can’t figure out, if it’s the end or beginning.” Robert Mueller may have packed up his tent, but the Congressional circus has only just started.
A. The Mueller Report on Russian Collusion.
It is well known that one of the major findings of the Report is that “the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” This flies in the face of statements made by the Democratic Congressional leadership before the release of the report – notably people like Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), who stated in December of 2017 “The Russians offered help, the campaign accepted help, the Russians gave help, and the president made full use of that help, and that is pretty damning,” and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who said in November of 2018, “The evidence is pretty clear that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”
To date, this writer is unaware of a single Democrat who has admitted to being wrong, or making an incorrect statement, regarding whether or not President Trump colluded with any Russians who attempted to interfere in the 2016 election. In fact, when former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani demanded that CNN commentator Chris Cuomo apologize for “torturing (Trump) for two years with (allegations) of collusion,” Cuomo stated “not a chance.”
Regardless of any Democrat’s refusal to admit they were wrong, the fact remains – the Special Counsel, after two years of intensive investigation, could not find any evidence that President Trump, or anyone on his campaign staff, is a traitor.
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Instead, as I predicted just before the release of the Report, in my appearance on the Financial Survival Network with Kerry Lutz in April, Congressional Democrats now pin their hopes of ending the Trump Presidency on the second finding of the Mueller Report – “if we had confidence…that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
The Mueller Report makes this conclusion at page 8 of Volume II of the report – yet, one page earlier, the Report states as follows: “unlike cases in which a subject engages in obstruction of justice to cover up a crime, the evidence we obtained did not establish that the President was involved in any underlying crime related to Russian election interference.”
C. Legal Standards for an Obstruction of Justice Charge.
Obstruction of Justice under 18 USC Chapter 73 can take many forms, from Resistance to an Extradition Agent (Section 1502) to obstruction of the examination of a financial institution (Section 1517. The three sections the Special Counsel believed could apply to President Trump’s conduct are 1503 (Influencing an officer or juror), 1505 (obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies and committees), and two subsections of 1512 (tampering with a witness, victim or informant). In support of the application of these statutes to the President’s conduct, the Mueller Report details a series of unsuccessful attempts by President Trump to convince various members of his Administration to either remove the Special Counsel, or in the case of former US Attorney Robert Sessions, to “unrecuse” himself from supervision of the Special Counsel.
The Report concludes tomorrow
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