Jeez, how many ways to spell Obstruction of Justice are there?
Guess I’ll have to hit a bank later. Either I’m going to get a ton of money, or I’m untouchable if I am unsuccessful, since merely attempting a crime is no longer a crime.
So because Bugs Bunny put his finger in the barrel of the gun…and it blew up in Elmer Fudd’s face and not his own, Fudd isn’t guilty of assault.
Ok, I’m not a lawyer, so please explain how/why “As for the public nature of certain Trump actions, Mueller acknowledged that the public nature of them makes a corrupt intent more difficult to prove.”
I don’t see how it’s MORE DIFFICULT to PROVE. Possibly it’s more difficult (for a person who isn’t an unhinged narcissist) to UNDERSTAND the decision/strategy to publicly engage in criminal activity, but isn’t it actually EASIER to PROVE?
Please help me out here!
Those efforts included “direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony.” They also include private episodes — some previously reported, some new — in which Trump sought to use intermediaries to fire Mueller and to pressure then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to narrow the probes scope.
So, nothing to see here? It’s clear and will get clearer that Mueller & co. did a considerable amount of bar-raising before Barr was chosen to do the definitive lift.
So, just one more thing Donnie has failed at. Add it to the very, very long list…
I’m not a lawyer either but among my magpie’s trove of bits of knowledge there’s the idea that if you hide what you’re doing it shows consciousness of guilt. Any defense would certainly argue that Trump thought it wasn’t wrong to do. I guess his unusual psyche and its effect on his near-nonexistent ability to make moral and ethical choices isn’t accounted for in the legal system even if it seems obvious to us he’s as guilty as hell. At least Mueller’s argument here seems plausible if a bit counterintuitive.
Exactly what I was thinking.
If I try to rob a bank and fail because the teller won’t carry out my orders I guess I can’t be charged.
The sociopath’s defense.
This will all end up before the House in public testimony, and the Republicans will go on the warpath to try to defend Trump. I don’t think that’s going to work any better for them than it is for Barr…several things in the report are the opposite of what Barr said about it, and that’s just not going to go over well. It’s always the cover up that does you in, it makes you look guilty and appearance is half the game in politics.
Mueller apparently felt bound not to charge Trump with obstruction, but he lays out a clear case for Trump interfering in the investigation. The Democrats are going to make that case even more clear, and all that will do is make Trump and the Republicans look more and more guilty. I don’t know if it will end up in impeachment, not unless enough of the public turns against Trump to make Republicans fear losing office if they don’t abandon him. All of this will cast a large shadow on them outside of their enclaves…there’s really a story about how they have defended all of this all along that is going to have to be told.
However, he said, “the President’s power to influence actions, persons, and events is enhanced by his unique ability to attract attention through use of mass communications.”
“And no principle of law excludes public acts from the scope of obstruction statutes,” Mueller stressed. “If the likely effect of the acts is to intimidate witnesses or alter their testimony, the justice system’s integrity is equally threatened.”
Shorter Muller: Trump’s torrent of public gaffes is a powerful, untapped, and damning witness against him.
Just waiting for subsequent prosecutorial exploitation.
(And his own, endless dump of idiotic, 4:00 AM toilet tweets murdered his Fifth Amendment protections.)
Thanks for helping to un-muddy things 
This brings me around to how the Gestapo, after confiscating (e.g., stealing) the property of Jews and others, would then hand their victim an actual RECEIPT for said property.
It doesn’t get more intentional than that…
They kept meticulous records of the deaths in the camps, too. They would list everyone as having died of a “heart attack.” But they kept the records.
So the only thing saving Rump from obstruction was his underlings’ refusal to obstruct as much as he wanted. Thanks Comey!
Trump wanted to rob a bank, but his wheel man wouldn’t drive him there. Lots of intent, but…
But imagine just how frustrating it must have been for Donald Dotard. Trying every day 30-60 times to influence and quash the investigation, and having all these people blow him off. Imagine the venting to Sean Hannity and Jeanine.