Donald Trump should have been indicted for obstruction of justice

Special counsel Robert Mueller found no proof that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign in ways that would justify a criminal prosecution but he reached the conclusion that Congress had to decide whether Trump obstructed justice, because the U.S. Department of Justice could not indict the chief executive.

Now that Trump is no longer president, there is no reason why Attorney General Merrick Garland has not moved to indict him for crimes committed while he was in office, including those obstruction of justice charges that Mueller referred to Congress along with perjury, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses.

“The evidence accordingly indicates that news that an obstruction investigation had been opened is what led the President to call (White House Counsel Donald F.) McGahn to have the Special Counsel terminated,” said Mueller’s report, which also said: “Instead of relying on his personal counsel to submit the conflicts claims, the President sought to use his official powers to remove the Special Counsel.”

“Two days after the President directed McGahn to have the Special Counsel removed, the President made another attempt to affect the course ofthe Russia investigation. On June 19, 2017, the President met one-on-one with Corey Lewandowski in the OvalOffice and dictated amessage to be delivered to Attorney General Sessions that would have had the effect of limiting the Russia investigation to future election interference only,” said the Mueller Report.

Clearly, it appears that media reports and partisan accusations inflated the stories about the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia, but the fact that investigations were on and the belief that allies were about to be caught committing other crimes inspired Trump to engage in illegal conduct.

Mueller’s team identified multiple links between Trump campaign officials and people with ties to the Russian government but it did not establish “coordination or a conspiracy” but as his ‘hush money’ payments and other ways of doing business indicate, covering up is second nature to Trump.

“In addition to the interactions with McGahn described above, the President has taken other actions directed… at possible witnesses in the Special Counsel’s investigation, including Flynn, Manafort, and… Cohen,” said the Mueller Report.

That was witness tampering, in its purest form.

The Justice Department obtained a transcript of a voice mail from Trump’s personal attorney John Dowd to Rob Kelner, the lawyer for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, where he sought “some kind of heads up” about Flynn’s cooperation with the special counsel.

The report described a number of similar incidents that factually lay out the basis for criminal charges and then makes these assertions:

“Obstruction of justice can be motivated by a desire to protect non-criminal personal interests, to protect against investigations where underlying criminal liability falls into a gray area, or to avoid personal embarrassment. The injury to the integrity of the justice system is the same regardless of whether a person committed an underlying wrong. In this investigation, the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. But the evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the President’s conduct.“

“The obstruction-of-justice statute most readily applicable to our investigation is 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2),” said Mueller’s report even though it is clear that no evidence surfaced to show Trump was guilty of conspiring with Russia.

To underscore that criminal conduct was pervasive, the report said, “other statutes would apply” concerning obstruction and witness tampering.

“Regardless whether Section 1512(c)(2) covers all corrupt acts that obstruct, influence, or impede pending or contemplated proceedings, other statutes would apply to such conduct in pending proceedings, provided that the remaining statutory elements are satisfied,” said Mueller.

“Russian election influence came principally from the Internet Research Agency, LLC (IRA), a Russian organization funded by Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin and companies he controlled, including Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering (collectively “Concord”),” said Mueller. “The IRA conducted social media operations targeted at large U.S. audiences with the goal of sowing discord in the U.S. political system.”

“The IRA and its employees began operations targeting the United States as early as 2014. Using fictitious U.S. personas, IRA employees operated social media accounts and group pages designed to attract U.S. audiences. These groups and accounts, which addressed divisive U.S. political and social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists. Over time, these social media accounts became a means to reach large U.S. audiences,” the report said.

“By early to mid-2016, IRA operations included supporting the Trump Campaign and disparaging candidate Hillary Clinton. The IRA made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Some IRA employees, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated electronically with individuals associated with the Trump campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities, including the staging of political rallies,” said Mueller’s report, which asserted: “The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation.”

Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen plotted to build Europe’s tallest tower in Moscow while the presidential campaign was in progress. Internal Trump Organization documents revealed that secret negotiations continued long after Trump emerged as the Republican nominee.

Cohen also testified that he violated FEC laws by paying off women with whom Trump had sexual trysts, and he did so at the direction of Trump.

The ham-fisted attempts to conceal bad behavior are examples in which the coverup is worse than the crimes, but that is still a crime and we are led to believe that nobody is above the law. So it stands to reason, Trump should have been indicted and if charges are not brought against him soon then Attorney General Merrick Garland should be forced to resign.