Schiff: ‘It’s Clear’ Mueller Wants Congress to Consider ‘Consequences’ for Trump’s Obstruction

Thursday during CNN’s coverage of the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said it was clear Mueller “wanted the Congress to consider the repercussions and the consequences” of President Donald Trump’s “multiple attempts” to obstruct justice.

Schiff said, “On the issue of obstruction of justice, the report outlines multiple attempts by the president to mislead the country, to interfere with the investigation, to make false statements to the American people and to urge others to lie to the American people, to urge those of his staff to take actions to further obstruct the investigation which may have been refused, but they were not refused to any goodwill or good motive on the president’s part, far to the contrary. These actions had a material impact on the investigation. The special counsel was deprived of information or at least the timely access to that information as a result of things that the president did and said. It made our job, certainly in our committee, during our investigation, that much more difficult as it did the special counsel’s investigation.”

He continued, “Those acts of obstruction of justice, whether they are criminal or not, are deeply alarming in the president of the United States. And it’s clear special counsel Mueller wanted the Congress to consider the repercussions and the consequences. It is clear the special counsel believed no one was above the law, and that includes the president of the United States. The attorney general’s actions would make the president above the law. Would make the president such that he cannot commit the crime of obstruction of justice. That was not the special counsel’s view. If the special counsel, as he made clear, had found evidence exonerating the president, he would have said so. He did not. He left that issue to the Congress of the United States, and we will need to consider it.”

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