Government watchdogs and legal experts called collective ‘bullshit’ against the legal team of President Donald Trump on Saturday after it emerged his lawyers had sent a memo to Special Counsel Robert Mueller claiming that the president cannot be charged with obstruction of justice because, as the government’s top executive, he has nearly unlimited authority over ongoing Department of Justice investigations and could also, if he desired, issue pardons for those found guilty of misdeeds or illegal behavior.
In what the Times characterized as a “brash assertion of presidential power,” the 20-page letter—dated Jan. 29, 2018—states:
According to the Times:
Posted online, the confidential memo sent to Mr. Mueller by Trump’s legal team can be read here.
Citing a recent 108-page legal paper produced for the Brookings Institute (see below), Noah Bookbinder, chairperson for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), pushed back hard against the the claim that the president cannot—based solely on his position of power—obstruct justice. “The most fundamental American principle of all is at stake,” said Bookbinder: “No one is above the law.”
Subsequent to the revelations about the memo, Rudy Giuliani, now operating as one of Trump’s top personal attorneys, told ABC News the president would fight any attempt by Mueller to force testimony and indicated a legal battle would result if a subpoena by the special counsel’s office was issued.
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