The Left and the media long suspected that the Department of Justice memo upon which former Attorney General William Barr based his decision not to prosecute then-president Donald Trump for obstruction of justice contained a “smoking gun” that would prove Trump guilty and discredit Barr’s conclusions.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson apparently put that theory to rest when she ordered the release of part of the memo that dealt with how Barr reached that decision. Barr relied on advice from several sources, including the Office of Legal Counsel. The OLC recommended against prosecuting Trump, not only because there are constitutional issues with prosecuting a president for obstruction, but also because even if Trump were a private citizen, there wouldn’t be enough evidence to charge him.
Recall that Special Counsel Robert Mueller left the decision on charging Trump with obstruction to the attorney general. After listening to many opinions, Barr said there wasn’t enough evidence to justify an indictment.
The parts of the memo released so far call into question Mueller’s decision not to exonerate Trump himself. Perhaps Mueller was hoping that Barr’s DOJ would find a way to prosecute the president where he could not.
The Justice Department filing is likely to both fuel and frustrate Trump’s biggest critics, particularly Democrats who have long argued that Barr stage-managed an exoneration of Trump after Mueller submitted a 448-page report into his findings about his investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the election, and whether Trump tried to obstruct that investigation.
The central document at issue is a March 2019 memo written by two senior Justice Department officials arguing that aside from important constitutional reasons not to accuse the president of a crime, the evidence gathered by Mueller did not rise to the level of a prosecutable case, even if Trump were not president.
Judge Jackson had earlier issued a blistering assessment of Barr’s “disingenuousness” about what was in the memo and the series of events that led to his decision. Jackson ordered the entire memo released. – READ MORE
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