Mueller says Trump can be prosecuted after he leaves office

WASHINGTON: In a hugely-anticipated Congressional hearing, former FBI special counsel

Robert Mueller

who investigated Russian interference in the US Presidential elections told lawmakers that President Trump could be prosecuted on obstruction of justice charges after he leaves office, and the reason he (Mueller) did not go further was Justice Department guidelines that say a sitting President could not be indicted.


The possibility of Trump having to face the law after he leaves office was one of the few a-ha moments in a four hour grilling of the now retired Special Counsel, whose probe has exacerbated a partisan polity and exhausted much of the country with its minute details. The political divide was on full display at the hearing, with Democrats and Republican cherry-picking the Mueller report to establish their case.

For the Democrats, that was the ten cases of obstruction of justice involving the President, including his efforts to fire Mueller; for Republicans, the fact that the report did not directly implicate Trump or his campaign of collusion with

Russia

and he mysterious origins of the probe was evidence of a witchhunt.

But in one of the more politically consequential moments of the hearing, Mueller told the Congressional panel that he did not exonerate the President on obstruction of justice charges – something Trump has often claimed. "The president was not exculpated for the acts he allegedly committed," Mueller stated bluntly, challenged Trump’s repeated assertion that the report absolved him of all charges.

Chairman of the House Judiary Committee Jerry Nadler: Director Mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction and that it completely and totally exonerated him. But that is not what your report said, is it?

Mueller: "That is correct. That is not what the report said."

NAdler: "In fact, your report expressly states that it does not exonerate the president"

Mueller: "Yes it does."

Although Republican members of the panel repeatedly argued that the probe did not establish any collusion or conspiracy between the President and his campaign and the Russians, Mueller’s opening statement contained a politically damaging assertion that cast a shadow on the 2016 election. Said Mueller: "Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of challenges to our

democracy

. The Russia government's effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious...This deserves the attention of every American."

Trump, who was evidently following the hearing keenly, tweeted incessantly about it. “So Democrats and others can illegally fabricate a crime, try pinning it on a very innocent President, and when he fights back against this illegal and treasonous attack on our Country, they call It Obstruction? Wrong! Why didn’t Robert Mueller investigate the investigators?” he raged, questioning the motives behind the Mueller probe itself and asserting it was the Democrats who were trying to oust him who needed to be investigated.

Despite Mueller’s damaging assertions about not exonerating Trump on obstruction charges, the President continued to maintain there was no obstruction as he retweeted a supporter who said “No collusion. No obstruction, No impeachment. Shut the coup cabal down!”

Outside the hearing and on social media Trump supporters continued to maintain Mueller’s testimony vindicated the President. His critics said it did not, and in fact, laid the ground for further action by Congress viz. impeachment.

“Mueller’s testimony has already made it clear that the President obstructed justice, that Mueller’s investigation did not exonerate him, and that Congress must act,” said

Elizabeth Warren

, the Democratic Senator who is running for the White House. But the party leadership, not entirely convinced that impeachment proceedings could be politically beneficial, appeared to take greater heart from Mueller’s view that the President could be prosecuted after he leaves office.