Scott Turow: "A Crime in Public View": How William Barr Pardoned Donald Trump

[babylonsister]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/how-william-barr-pardoned-donald-trump?utm_source=facebook&utm_brand=vf&mbid=social_facebook&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR0A6GABBFFuQf8-JIH3BA7ujrz0hoUFrbc5poouyC5DqNJv4ejRrTqCkb4

“A Crime in Public View”: How William Barr Pardoned Donald Trump
Trump had plenty of reasons to obstruct Mueller’s investigation, whether or not there was an underlying crime. The most obvious one has been staring us in the face all along.
by Scott Turow
March 25, 2019 12:41 pm


Attorney General William Barr’s summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusions, in the fancy language of lawyers, impeaches itself. That means that its own words and reasoning call some of Barr’s conclusions into doubt, particularly Barr’s eagerness to say that Donald Trump can’t be proven to have obstructed justice.

snip//

This sounds like arcane legal stuff, but it’s actually a matter of common sense. In judging whether a suspect had a corrupt intent to obstruct justice, a reasonable prosecutor would look at the potential gain to the defendant by engaging in the questionable behavior. In most cases, if the target didn’t commit an underlying offense, he would have no reason to hinder the investigation.

But that is not true in Trump’s case. Throughout his election campaign and long after, Trump denied that Russia was responsible for the massive interference in our election that Mueller has now concluded occurred. Trump made these denials “despite,” to quote Barr, “multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.” Aside from any crimes Trump or his campaign committed by being in cahoots with the Russians, there are other clear gains to Trump in hindering the investigation. The most obvious is that the Russian interference, which both Barr and Mueller say the Trump campaign knew about, calls the legitimacy of the 2016 election into question.

With our focus on whether the president is going to jail, we have run past a point that is now undeniable: Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States after a sustained series of crimes by the Russian government aimed at boosting his chances of winning. Because of the political damage to the president that Russia’s criminal interference posed, he had an obvious reason to terminate the investigation. In other words, he had something to hide, and the Mueller inquiry seems to have concluded that there was plenty of evidence that he hid it.

To argue that no underlying crime means no obstruction is therefore nonsense. That is fallacious reasoning and it impugns Barr’s integrity and his reputation as a lawyer. Worse, it represents a troubling effort to paper over the acknowledged evidence that Mr. Trump committed a crime in public view.




Scott Turow, a Vanity Fair contributor, attorney, and best-selling author, is the author of Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, Ordinary Heroes, Identical, and Testimony.

[dalton99a]

1. Bill Barr was hired by Republicans for a purpose

Just like before:

[empedocles]

2. The Bush pardon, and his published anti-investigation of trump.

[lagomorph777]

3. Yup - same shit, same players.

Stone, Manafort, Barr - all have long and ignominious histories in Republican criminal activities.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. we need to follow up and prosecute this time

There are too many criminals in the Republican party who have gone unprosecuted for too long. It's no longer a political party; it's a mob using cult methods to get votes.

[OMGWTF]

9. x 1,000,000

[dchill]

11. Well put.

[Baltimike]

5. knr

[Jarqui]

6. A little more Barr Mueller background to Iran Contra

[smirkymonkey]

7. K&R

[zentrum]

8. This is part of why

....Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. He's got enablers and protectors.

I feel like Democracy has been dying by a thousand cuts for a few decades and is now in the ER, barely breathing.

[Corgigal]

10. Doesn't

his son and daughter (I believe) both, now work inside the Trump administration? My belief is they both been recently hired. Couldn't they find a job any where else? Maybe, some where not so corrupt?