Barr explains his position vis-à-vis Mueller in this interview. His explanation makes his position look even more untenable.
Here is an excerpt of an exclusive interview of Bill Barr that will air in full on “CBS This Morning” tomorrow.
With Barr, things just keep going from bad to worse. 1/11
This excerpt confirms the position that @rgoodlaw was the first to discern, based on Barr’s testimony before Congress: that the DOJ can determine and report that a sitting president has committed a federal crime, even though he or she could not actually be indicted for it. 2/11
I pointed out the problem with this position on May 1: 3/11 tinyurl.com/y2yvwfze
Barr also alleges that the Department does not use is powers to investigate crimes as an “adjunct to Congress.”
But where do the existing guidelines say that a special counsel CAN’T write a report that in effect is an impeachment referral to Congress? 4/11
In fact, the existing guidelines MUST allow for a special counsel to make such a referral in order for the guidelines to be tenable at all. 5/11
If, according to the guidelines, a sitting president cannot be indicted by the Department, then the only way a sitting president can be removed from office is by impeachment. 6/11
Under the guidelines, only Congress would ever be in a position to remove a sitting president from office for having committed federal crimes. 7/11
Since the Department has investigatory powers that Congress does not have (including especially the power to empanel grand juries), Barr’s position would make it extraordinarily difficult for Congress to remove a president from office — 8/11
which is perhaps the consequence that Barr wants, given his extreme views about the “unitary executive.”
(You think?) 9/11
Finally, if he and Rosenstein felt that the Department had to make a decision about obstruction given that Mueller declined to do so, he could have at least reached the RIGHT conclusion about that.
He obviously didn’t. 10/11
As more than 1,000 former federal prosecutors have said, the evidence is overwhelming that Trump did obstruct justice.
And you don’t even need 1,000 former federal prosecutors to know that.
Just read the Report for yourself. 11/11
