No Case for Obstruction of Justice

Experts: No Case Against Trump - Breitbart


While the GOP establishment, Democrats, and media have the knives out for President Donald Trump after his firing of ex-FBI Director James Comey—and the subsequent leaks from Comey associates portraying alleged conversations between the two—legal experts are skeptical that there is any case to be made for an “obstruction of justice.” Professor emeritus at Harvard Law School Alan Dershowitz writes in the New York Daily News that “on balance, the obstruction case against President Trump is not strong, as a matter of law”:


Section 1510 of Title 18 of the United States Code addresses obstruction of criminal investigations. It is a narrow statute, criminalizing only willful acts “by means of bribery” that have the effect of obstructing the communication of information about crimes to federal investigators. Even assuming Mr. Comey’s memo is accurate, there is no indication that President Trump willfully attempted to bribe the F.B.I. director. As the Supreme Court stated in United States v. Sun-Diamond Growers of California, “for bribery there must be a quid pro quo — a specific intent to give or receive something of value in exchange for an official act.”

There is no evidence of a quid pro quo.


But even if one adopted an unprecedentedly broad conception of bribery, Mr. Trump’s purported statement still would not violate Section 1510. The statute is designed to preserve the free flow of information, prohibiting only acts that obstruct investigators’ access to information. Bribery of a potential witness, for example, is behavior prohibited by Section 1510. But telling the F.B.I. director that someone is a “good guy” and expressing the hope that an investigation will cease does not obstruct the free flow of information.

 

Comey Under Oath: 'Have Not Experienced Any Requests to Stop FBI Investigations' - Breitbart

“So if the Attorney General or senior officials at the Department of Justice opposes a specific investigation, can they halt that FBI investigation?” Hirono asked.

“In theory yes,” Comey answered.

“Has it happened? Hirono asked.

“Not in my experience,” Comey responded. “Because it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something that — without an appropriate purpose.”

“I mean where oftentimes they give us opinions that we don’t see a case there, and so you ought to stop investing resources in it,” Comey said. “But I’m talking about a situation where we were told to stop something for a political reason, that would be a very big deal.

“It’s not happened in my experience,” Comey said.

 

“There has been no effort to impede the investigation, to date,”

replied acting FBI director Andrew McCabe.