Mueller Resigns, Says DOJ Regulations Prohibited Him From "Charging the President with a Crime"

This morning Robert Mueller called a surprise press conference to announce his resignation as Special Counsel. Mueller also made a brief statement providing an overview of his investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election.




While Mueller said the investigation did not conclude whether President Trump had committed a crime, Department of Justice regulations prohibited him from "charging the President with a crime" noting it "was not an option we could consider." This does not surprise me. To the extent that I wrote and discussed Mueller's investigation I warned people not to get their hopes up as Mueller is a prudent and cautious man. As such he was not about to disregard DOJ edicts against indicting a sitting President.




Nevertheless, Mueller pointedly said, "If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime." This certainly does not exonerate President Trump.


But there is a silver lining within DOJ policy. Mueller stated, "The opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrong doing." This is where Congress comes in.


At this point, however, there doesn't seem to be any appetite in Congress to initiate formal impeachment hearings outside of renegade Republican Justin Amash. Of course, no Senate led by Mitch McConnell will impeach Trump. But this shouldn't preclude House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from initiating impeachment hearings. Even if Trump isn't impeached, hearings could undermine public confidence in Trump and result in his defeat at the ballot box next year.


Robert Mueller has given Congress the blueprint. It is now up to Congress to use that blueprint to build a case against Trump or let the Mueller Report gather dust on the shelf.