If there was a missing piece of the puzzle on Obstruction of Justice .. there is no longer
It’s Now Likely Mueller Thinks Trump Obstructed Justice
Precisely........The intent of Trump to obstruct is now a foregone conclusion; what remains to be seen is IF a sitting president can be indicted or not....
The answer may be that a president may not be indicted (as most likely the SCOTUS would rule)....BUT, the ethical consequences are obvious and only a pardon from a subsequent POTUS would get Trump completely off the hook.
Jesus, what an article from the Times and Politico. They read like Kafka's
The Trial. How bizarre.
All of this is neither here nor there.
What Trump was frustrated at, and what the investigative teams have, in the end found out, is that, Trump never did anything wrong.
What he was attempting to do, was to end all of the investigations which were distracting from his presidency. You can call that "obstruction of justice," if you wish, but really, from the administration's POV, it only amounted to. . .
OBSTRUCTION OF INJUSTICE, since he NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG.
DUH.
He promised to "drain the swamp," and the political elites in D.C. want to impeach him for obstructing justice b/c of it? WTH?
This, from an ostensibly progressive source;
The FBI Hand Behind Russia-gate
The FBI Hand Behind Russia-gate
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/01/11/the-fbi-hand-behind-russia-gate/
". . . We suddenly have documentary proof that key elements of the U.S. intelligence community were trying to short-circuit the U.S. democratic process. And that puts in a new and dark context the year-long promotion of Russia-gate. It now appears that it was not the Russians trying to rig the outcome of the U.S. election, but leading officials of the U.S. intelligence community, shadowy characters sometimes called the Deep State.
More of the Strzok-Page texting dialogue is expected to be released. And the Department of Justice Inspector General reportedly has additional damaging texts from others on the team that Special Counsel Robert Mueller selected to help him investigate Russia-gate.
Besides forcing the removal of Strzok and Page, the text exposures also sounded the death knell for the career of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, in whose office some of the plotting took place and who has already announced his plans to retire soon.
But the main casualty is the FBI’s 18-month campaign to sabotage candidate-and-now-President Donald Trump by using the Obama administration’s Russia-gate intelligence “assessment,” electronic surveillance of dubious legality, and a salacious dossier that could never pass the smell test, while at the same time using equally dubious techniques to immunize Hillary Clinton and her closest advisers from crimes that include lying to the FBI and endangering secrets. . . . "
<snip>
". . . . On the home front, Trump, his wealthy friends, and like-thinkers in Congress may now feel they have an even wider carte blanche to visit untold misery on the poor, the widow, the stranger and other vulnerable humans. That was always an underlying danger of the Resistance’s strategy to seize on whatever weapons were available – no matter how reckless or unfair – to “get Trump.”
Beyond that, Russia-gate has become so central to the Washington establishment’s storyline that there appears to be no room for second-thoughts or turning back. The momentum is such that some Democrats and the media never-Trumpers can’t stop stoking the smoke of Russia-gate and holding out hope against hope that it will somehow justify Trump’s impeachment.
Yet, the sordid process of using legal/investigative means to settle political scores further compromises the principle of the “rule of law” and integrity of journalism in the eyes of many Americans. After a year of Russia-gate, the “rule of law” and “pursuit of truth” appear to have been reduced to high-falutin’ phrases for political score-setttling, a process besmirched by Republicans in earlier pursuits of Democrats and now appearing to be a bipartisan method for punishing political rivals regardless of the lack of evidence. . . "