A bill that would expand Ohio’s definition of obstruction of justice in response to protests around the state last summer passed the House Criminal Justice Committee on Thursday but drew sharp criticism from the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus.
Caucus President Rep. Thomas West (D-Canton) said House Bill 22 would increase division between communities and police and create potential for conflict.
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Steven Dettelbach, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio and 2018 Democratic attorney general candidate, joined nearly 800 U.S. Department of Justice alumni in suggesting that President Donald Trump obstructed justice in a Monday letter. “Each of us believes that the conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting president, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice,” the letter begins. It goes on to state that the “Mueller report describes several acts that satisfy all of the elements for an obstruction charge.” These acts include, according to the letter, conduct “that obstructed or attempted to obstruct the truth-finding process.” The letter claims that the “evidence of corrupt intent and connection to pending proceeding is overwhelming.” It discusses in detail the “attempts to fire Mueller and then create false evidence,” the “attempts to limit the Mueller investigation,” and the evidence of “witness tampering and intimidation.” “As former federal prosecutors, we recognize that prosecuting obstruction of justice cases is critical because unchecked obstructions—which allows intentional interference with criminal investigations to go unpunished—puts our…
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by Luke Rosiak Special counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation did not find potential “obstruction of justice” by President Donald Trump beyond incidents that were already largely known. “As the special counsel’s report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks,” Attorney General William Barr said Thursday morning. “Federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct. … There was relentless speculation in the news media about the president’s personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion.” “Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation,” he added. Mueller described acts of potential obstruction of justice without reaching any legal conclusions. Barr “concluded that the evidence developed during the special counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense,” he said at a press conference. They included, according to the special counsel’s roughly 400-page report: Trump “publicly expressed skepticism that Russia was responsible…
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Racial justice. Obstruction of justice. Social justice. The Justice Department. Merriam-Webster has chosen “justice” as its 2018 word of the year, driven by the churning news cycle over months and months. The word follows “toxic,” picked by Oxford Dictionaries, and “misinformation,” plucked by Dictonary.com. Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, told The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s announcement that “justice” consistently bubbled into the top 20 or 30 lookups on the company’s website, spiking at times due to specific events but also skating close to the surface for much of the year. While it’s one of those common words people likely know how to spell and use correctly in a sentence, Sokolowski pointed to other reasons that drive search traffic. Among them is an attempt to focus a train of thought around a philosophical problem, or to seek aspirational motivation. Such well-known words are often among the most looked up every year, including those that are slightly abstract, including “love,” he said. The designation for “justice” came soon after President Trump’s one-time fixer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss’ alleged sexual affairs. He…
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by Kevin Daley Attorney General nominee William Barr sent a memo to the Department of Justice criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, particularly those aspects of the probe relating to obstruction of justice in June. The unsolicited document, whose existence was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, argues President Donald Trump’s dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey does not rise to obstruction of justice, since the president was carrying out his constitutional responsibilities. “As I understand it, [Mueller’s] theory is premised on a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law,” Barr wrote. “Moreover, in my view, if credited by the Justice Department, it would have grave consequences far beyond the immediate confines of this case and would do lasting damage to the presidency and to the administration of law within the executive branch.” Barr conceded a sitting president could obstruct justice by destroying evidence or tampering with witnesses, according to the Journal. Still, he insisted that the president cannot commit obstruction of justice when exercising his lawful powers. Elsewhere in the memo, he warned that moving against Trump based on an inventive theory of criminal liability would inflame much of the country and compromise faith in…
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