Clinton says Trump only escaped indictment because of DOJ policy

Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that Donald Trump only escaped obstruction of justice charges because of the Justice Department rule barring the indictment of a sitting president.

“I think there’s enough there that any other person who had engaged in those acts would certainly have been indicted,” Clinton said at a TIME Magazine event. “But because of the rule in the Justice Department that you can’t indict a sitting president, the whole matter of obstruction was very directly sent directly to the Congress.”

Clinton’s 2016 electoral defeat was once again thrust in the spotlight last Thursday after the publication of special counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report, which detailed the 22-month probe into Russian interference in the presidential election.

The report said the special counsel found evidence of Russian meddling in the election but said there was insufficient evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Mueller also did not take a stance on whether the president obstructed justice, citing a Watergate-era policy in the Justice Department not to indict a sitting president. Such action would leave the president with no legal recourse to clear his name or protections normally afforded to criminal defendants, according to the report. But in his report, Mueller detailed 10 incidents in which Trump tried to interfere with the Russia probe.

“Fairness concerns counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought,” the report says.

Clinton also called for the release of an unredacted version of Mueller’s report to allow lawmakers the information necessary to move forward with a thorough investigation of the president’s behavior.

She added that she approves of the way Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed the prospect of impeaching the president. Such a drastic move should not be fueled by “partisan political purposes,” said Clinton, who emphasized the need for a “careful” approach.

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine

Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/23/hillary-clinton-trump-indictment-1288444
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Katie Galioto

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