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On Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren started her calls for impeachment of President Trump on obstruction of justice charges. In a promoted tweet that was still being promoted on Friday, Warren was asking for those who agreed to sign on.
So Sen. Warren has read the entire report and has concluded that Trump should be impeached. So the question is, how exactly did President Trump impede the investigation? If you research corruption of justice and the legal wording behind it, you find that Special Council Mueller was correct in being unable to prove obstruction. While I am in no way advocating that Trump was operating morally, it doesn’t appear he was acting with intent which is required.
In researching obstruction of justice, the following statement is in the Mueller report:
Obstruction of Justice. Three basic elements are common to the obstruction statutes
pertinent to this Office’s charging decisions: an obstructive act; some form of nexus between the
obstructive act and an official proceeding; and criminal (i.e., corrupt) intent. https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf
Throughout the Mueller report, the Special Counsel lays out the facts regarding Trump’s actions, and reaches the conclusion that there was not sufficient evidence to produce a charge.
IV. CONCLUSION
Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw
ultimate conclusions about the President’s conduct. The evidence we obtained about the
President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were
making a traditional prosecutorial judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a
thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice,
we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach
that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a
crime, it also does not exonerate him. https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf
Coming from her law background and being a law professor at Harvard, one would assume she would understand the difficulty in pressing forward with impeachment due to the lack of evidence. Again, certainly not saying that Trump’s actions were moral and decent. Trump has proven he is not the role model for morality. It’s time to move on.
