Report: Lawyer For Trump Asserts The ‘President Cannot Obstruct Justice’
- 6 years ago
President Trump’s personal lawyer John Dowd recently told Axios the "President cannot obstruct justice.”
President Trump's personal lawyer John Dowd recently told Axios the "President cannot obstruct justice."
He explained that is "because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution's Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case."
The statement follows a Saturday tweet made from Trump's personal account.
"I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies," it noted.
Dowd later said that he is the one who drafted that message, but, regardless of the author, it has raised questions about the timing of Trump's knowledge of the former national security adviser's untruthful statement to the FBI.
Soon after the Saturday tweet, MSNBC analyst and former spokesperson for the Justice Department Matt Miller took to Twitter, commenting, "Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice." "If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case," he further wrote.
Former Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub was less confident the revelation would prove significant. "Before we slipped into an alternate universe of unabashed corruption, this tweet alone might have ended a Presidential administration," Shaub noted.
Trump fired Flynn on February 13, at the time stating it was because of lies told to Vice President Mike Pence.
According to James Comey, who was the FBI director at the time, the president approached him on February 14 and asked that the investigation into Flynn be dropped, reports NBC News.
Comey did not do so, and, for various reported reasons, was fired by the president in early May.
President Trump's personal lawyer John Dowd recently told Axios the "President cannot obstruct justice."
He explained that is "because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution's Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case."
The statement follows a Saturday tweet made from Trump's personal account.
"I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies," it noted.
Dowd later said that he is the one who drafted that message, but, regardless of the author, it has raised questions about the timing of Trump's knowledge of the former national security adviser's untruthful statement to the FBI.
Soon after the Saturday tweet, MSNBC analyst and former spokesperson for the Justice Department Matt Miller took to Twitter, commenting, "Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice." "If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case," he further wrote.
Former Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub was less confident the revelation would prove significant. "Before we slipped into an alternate universe of unabashed corruption, this tweet alone might have ended a Presidential administration," Shaub noted.
Trump fired Flynn on February 13, at the time stating it was because of lies told to Vice President Mike Pence.
According to James Comey, who was the FBI director at the time, the president approached him on February 14 and asked that the investigation into Flynn be dropped, reports NBC News.
Comey did not do so, and, for various reported reasons, was fired by the president in early May.