Latest in The Russia Connection
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has released transcripts of two interviews with President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, one from February 2019 and one from March 2019. Both transcripts are available below.
The special counsel’s take on whether obstruction of justice can apply to presidential actions facially within Article II authority is consistent with the text, history, structure and principles of the Constitution, as well as the Supreme Court’s case law on the subject.
Robert Mueller, as an employee within the executive branch, was not in a position to disagree with the Office of Legal Counsel’s past work on the clear statement rule.
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Looking to the past actions of independent counsels and special counsels, Benjamin Wittes argues that the Mueller report’s interpretation of the clear statement rule is correct. There is additional Justice Department precedent that supports his case.
There is more to be said for Robert Mueller’s obstruction of justice theory than Mueller said in his report.
The report’s misapplication of the presidential clear statement rule exposed Trump to greater potential criminal liability than a proper analysis would allow, and raises questions about whether the obstruction investigation was properly predicated at the outset.
An overview of a wild few days in the relationship between the two branches of government.
The president has asserted executive privilege over the Mueller report and the underlying documents in order to be able to determine whether to assert executive privilege.
While certain aspects of Attorney General Bill Barr’s behavior could be defensible if they stood alone, taken as a whole his course of conduct shows that Barr is defending not merely the presidency, but this particular president.