Michael Zeldin, a CNN legal analyst, has served as a federal prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice and was a special counsel to then-Assistant Attorney General Robert Mueller. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
(CNN) US Attorney General William Barr's March 24 letter to Congress summarizing the principal conclusions reached by special counsel Robert Mueller appears to have gone well beyond what the special counsel regulations authorize.
On their own initiative, and with no apparent authority in the regulations, Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined that the evidence that the special counsel provided was not sufficient to establish that President Donald Trump committed an obstruction of justice offense.
In his four-page letter, Barr explained that the special counsel's decision to describe the facts without reaching any legal conclusion left it to the Attorney General to determine whether the President's conduct constituted a crime.
Barr's action, however, appears to be in direct contravention of the letter and spirit of the special counsel regulations -- that is, to have a special counsel who is not a political appointee and who is independent of the Department of Justice make the decision whether to charge a crime.
This independence is especially important, where, as here, the attorney general appears to have had a predetermined point of view on whether Trump's actions could amount to obstruction of justice. (Barr, as a private citizen, wrote a memorandum to Justice Department officials in June 2018, saying that Mueller's obstruction inquiry was " fatally misconceived .")
patriot2024 on April 2nd, 2019 at 16:29 UTC »
Let's be clear. The Special Counsel did not clear Trump of obstruction of justice. The one who cleared Trump of obstruction of justice is the guy picked by Trump mainly because the same guy was saying Trump did not obstruct justice. This whole thing, together with Barr's latest action, is obstruction.
phatelectribe on April 2nd, 2019 at 16:17 UTC »
Spoiler: That's why Barr was hired.
I hope people realize that Barr would have had to read a page and take no longer than 6 minutes for each one, AROUND THE CLOCK AND WITHOUT BREAKS in the 40 hours he had it, but then that time includes digesting the report, referencing and drawing official legal conclusions based on existing stature, then write the summary.
....of a 400+ page report that took two years to compile and resulted in 6 guilty pleas and 30+ indictments.
Peeka789 on April 2nd, 2019 at 16:13 UTC »
Denying elected officials who have the proper security clearance....
Yeah I think that's overstepping bounds