ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 6 May 2019
1. Screen shot of the letter by hundreds of federal prosecutors saying Trump would have been charged with obstruction
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Eric Tucker, AP Justice Department reporter:
"Today there was a letter released by more than 370 former federal prosecutors in the Justice Department, people who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations, and they say very strongly in this letter that the evidence against President Donald Trump is so strong that he would have been charged with obstruction of justice were he not the president. And basically they say anybody who did what Donald Trump did would have been indicted."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE Washington, DC - 18 May 2018
3. STILL image of Trump seated in the Oval Office
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 6 May 2019
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Eric Tucker, AP Justice Department reporter:
"Last week Attorney General Barr was on the Hill and he very clearly said that in his view none of the president's acts added up to obstruction of justice. He made that determination because Special Counsel Robert Mueller presented evidence on both sides of the obstruction question but ultimately decided not to reach a conclusion. And so this letter from these former prosecutors basically aims to contradict the assertion by the attorney general that there was no obstruction of justice."
POOL
Washington, DC - 1 May 2019
5. Attorney General William Barr taking the oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 18 April 2019
6. Zoom into cover page of Mueller report
POOL
Joint Base Andrews, Maryland - 5 April 2019
7. Donald Trump gets off Marine One, shakes hands, walks on tarmac
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 6 May 2019
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Eric Tucker, AP Justice Department reporter:
"It is hard to sort of figure out demographically what unifies or unites all of these prosecutors and in fact one of the points that they make in the letter is that they are individuals who came from all parts of the country, rural districts, urban districts, big cities, small cities, east, west, north, south. And they basically are trying to make the point that the evidence against the president is so strong that it can't be ignored. One of the things that's really interesting is they say it's not even a close call, this isn't a matter of of close professional judgment, this is really something that is obvious and should be obvious to any sensible prosecutor. They say it would defy logic and experience, their own experience, for anyone to look at all of this evidence and reach a different conclusion."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 6 May 2019
9. Screen shot scroll of the names of former federal prosecutors saying Trump would have been charged with obstruction
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 5 April 2019
10. Donald Trump walks out of White House and stops to talk to press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE Palm Beach, Florida - 17 April 2018
11. STILL image of President Trump during a Mar-a-Lago meeting with Japan's president Shinzo Abe.
Nearly 400 former federal prosecutors have signed onto a letter saying President Donald Trump would have been charged with obstruction of justice if he were anyone other than the president.
The letter was signed by more than 370 former Justice Department prosecutors who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations. It was released Monday by Protect Democracy, an advocacy group formed two years ago that is critical of the Trump administration.
The former prosecutors say special counsel Robert Mueller's report "describes several acts that satisfy all of the elements for an obstruction charge." Those actions include Trump's efforts to have Mueller fired; Trump's attempts to limit the scope of the Russia investigation; and Trump's tweets and public statements aimed at discouraging aides from cooperating with prosecutors.
"In our system, every accused person is presumed innocent and it is always the government's burden to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt," the letter states. "But, to look at these facts and say that a prosecutor could not probably sustain a conviction for obstruction of justice — the standard set out in Principles of Federal Prosecution — runs counter to logic and our experience."
Mueller examined nearly a dozen acts by the president for potential obstruction of justice. He ultimately reached no conclusion on whether Trump had criminally obstructed justice, citing in part an opinion from the department's Office of Legal Counsel that says a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein then stepped in and determined Mueller's evidence was insufficient for an obstruction charge. Trump has used that finding to claim that the report found no obstruction. But the ex-prosecutors make clear that in their view the evidence leans heavily in the other direction.
"As former federal prosecutors, we recognize that prosecuting obstruction of justice cases is critical because unchecked obstruction — which allows intentional interference with criminal investigations to go unpunished — puts our whole system of justice at risk," the letter states.
"We believe strongly that, but for the OLC memo, the overwhelming weight of professional judgment would come down in favor of prosecution for the conduct outlined in the Mueller Report," it says.
