Day 319: Trump Team’s New Legal Defense is Dumbest One Yet
It’s been a brutally rough couple of days for the Trump Team. It began when special counsel Robert Mueller continued closed in by charging and flipping former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. The next day, Donald Trump admitted to a federal crime on Twitter, only to have his legal team try and wrangle him out of it hours later.
Today, it looks like Trump’s lawyers have waved the white flag on the obstruction of justice elements and are touting a new legal theory: The ol’ ‘So what? It’s not illegal’ defense.
As reported by Axios, one of Trump’s pricey lawyers, John Dowd, is contending it’s impossible for a president to be guilty of obstruction of justice.
The “President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution’s Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case,” Dowd claims.
The problem with is that both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton were charged with — you guessed it — obstruction of justice, both times by a Republican-led House of Representatives.
Nixon’s Article of Impeachment are crystal clear:
In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his consitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice…
Clinton’s are too:
In his conduct while President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice…
Nixon of course resigned before impeachment proceedings could commence and was then pardoned by Gerald Ford. Clinton was impeached by the House for obstruction of justice and perjury.
Dowd didn’t say that a special counsel, like Mueller, couldn’t prosecute Trump. That’s a constitutional question that certainly appears like it will be explored by the Supreme Court before this saga is over. Dowd said a president can’t be charged with obstruction.
Someone should remind him of Nixon and Clinton.
319 days in, 1143 to go
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