WH counsel faulted Mueller for not reaching conclusion on obstruction

WASHINGTON — The White House’s top attorney sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr last month, complaining about special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report, and Mueller’s decision not to render a legal conclusion on the obstruction of justice allegations surrounding President Donald Trump, according to a copy of the letter made public on Thursday.

White House counsel Emmet Flood, in a five-page letter to Barr sent on April 19, took issue with Mueller’s decision not to issue a recommendation on the question of whether Trump willfully violated any obstruction laws during the course of the 22-month investigation into Russian election interference.

“In closing its investigation, the [special counsel’s office] had only one job — to 'provide the attorney general with a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions reached by the special counsel,’" Flood said, citing from the order establishing the office. "Yet the one thing the [special counsel’s office] was obligated to do is the very thing the [special counsel’s office] — intentionally and unapologetically — refused to do. The [special counsel’s office] made neither a prosecution decision nor a declination decision on the obstruction question."

Mueller, in a redacted version of the report released last month, said the special counsel’s office examined 10 episodes of alleged obstruction involving Trump — including the president’s calls to fire Mueller — but opted against issuing a recommendation on whether to pursue charges, citing a decades-old Justice Department policy that bars the indictment of a sitting president.

“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment,” the report states.

Flood, in his letter, said the report’s statements on the issue of obstruction amounted to “political statements” and he argued that Mueller’s team “failed in their duty to act as prosecutors and only as prosecutors.”

Barr and outgoing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told lawmakers in a four-page letter last month that they ultimately decided after reviewing Mueller’s report “the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”