Source: https://www.lawfareblog.com/documents-letters-special-counsel-robert-mueller-trump-legal-team
Timestamp: 2020-06-05 00:05:43
Document Index: 740387568

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1505', '§ 1505', '§ 1505', '§ 1505', '§1505', '§ 1505']

Documents: Letters to Special Counsel Robert Mueller from the Trump Legal Team - Lawfare
Documents: Letters to Special Counsel Robert Mueller from the Trump Legal Team
Saturday, June 2, 2018, 3:49 PM
The New York Times has obtained letters sent to the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller by the president's legal team, one in January 2018 and one in June 2017. The correspondence makes an aggressive case as to the scope of President Trump's Article II power, arguing that as the head of the executive branch, the president cannot obstruct justice. The letters are available at the Times and below.
We express again, as we have expressed before, that the Special Counsel’s inquiry has been and remains a considerable burden for the President and his Office, has endangered the safety and security of our country, and has interfered with the President’s ability to both govern domestically and conduct foreign affairs. This encumbrance has been only compounded by theastounding public revelations about the corruption within the FBI and Department of Justice which appears to have led to the alleged Russia collusion investigation and the establishment of the Office of Special Counsel in the first place.2The Special Counsel acknowledged that he was aware of and understands this burden and, accordingly, has committed to expedite his effort.
As you know, under our system of government, the President is not readily available to be interviewed. Ample academic and jurisprudential material supports this important principle. Moreover, as we have indicated in our meetings, we are reminded of our duty to protect the President and his Office.Thus, in deciding whether to advise the President to be interviewed, we are guided by the controlling law in thisCircuit, In re Sealed Case (Espy), 121 F.3d 729 (D.C. Cir. 1997) (the “Espy” case), that those seeking information from the President must “demonstrate with specificity why it is likely that the subpoenaed materials [here, his testimony] contain important evidence and why this evidence, or equivalent evidence, is not practically available from another source.”11
We have, pursuant to the standard set forth in the Espy case, carefully reviewed your list of questions and the topics you have identified, and we have concluded that your office has already received the answers from the documents and testimony which have been voluntarily and expeditiouslyprovided by the President, the White House, his staff, the Trump campaign and the Trump organization. This letter will respond to your inquiries, and direct your attention to the evidence and testimony that is already in your possession.
To briefly review the relevant law and facts, § 1505 of Title 18, United States Code, as amendedby the Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982, forbids anyone from corruptly, or by threats of force or by any threatening communication, influencing, obstructing, or impeding any pending proceeding before a department or agency of the United States, or Congress.22 Under § 1505, a “pending proceeding” is limited only to agencies with rule-making or adjudicative authority. The investigation of Lt. Gen. Flynn was being conducted by the FBI, which possesses only investigative authority, not adjudicative; it cannot conduct “proceedings” within the cognizance of§ 1505.23No court has ever held than an FBI investigation constitutes a § 1505 proceeding, and the U.S. Attorney’s Manual makes clear that “investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are not §1505 proceedings.”24 The DOJ has even expressly acknowledged as much to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.25As a matter of law, then, the FBI’s investigation of Lt. Gen. Flynn was not, at the time of the President’s comments as recalled by Mr. Comey, within the scope of § 1505.
On January 26, 2017, Ms. Yates met with White House Counsel Don McGahn (“Mr. McGahn”). As outlined by Mr. McGahn in his White House Counsel’s Office memo dated February 15, 2017,29“Yates expressed two principal concerns during the meeting: (1) that Flynn may have made false representations to others in the Administration regarding the content of the calls; and (2) that Flynn’s potentially false statements could make him susceptible to foreign influence or blackmail because the Russians would know he had lied.” “Yates further indicated that on January 24, 2017, FBI agents had questioned Flynn about his contacts with Kislyak. Yates claimed that Flynn’s statements to the FBI were similar to those she understood he had made to Spicer and the Vice President.”30
For all intents, purposes, and appearances, the FBI had accepted Flynn’s account; concluded that he was confused but truthful; decided not to investigate him further; and let him retain his clearance. As far as he could tell, the President was the only onewho decided to continue gathering and reviewing the facts in order to ascertain whether Lt. Gen. Flynn’s actions necessitated severe and consequential action — removal from office. The President ordered his White House Counsel to continue its review of the situation, which ultimately concluded that Lt. Gen. Flynn had misled the Vice President. The President did not obstruct justice. To the contrary, he facilitated it.
So, to reiterate, within seventeen days of first being advised by DOJ leadership concerning Lt. Gen. Flynn, and within just three days of the President’s senior team confirming the requisite facts, the President took decisive action and directed Lt. Gen. Flynn, his highest ranking national security advisor, to resign. The President did so in spite of the fact that the FBI had, apparently, decided not to pursue the case further. The President did so in spite of the great political cost to himself.Far, far, from obstructing justice, the only individual in the entire Flynn story that ensured swift justice was the President. His actions speak louder than any words.
In his testimony Mr. Comey admitted that not only did he fail to confront the President, at the time he also never told the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General or even the FBI agents then conducting the counterintelligence investigation on collusion that he believed he had received any such direction from the President. Instead, he claimed he only told his senior FBI leadership, but did nothing to act on it. Interestingly, Mr. Comey claimed he did not tell the Attorney General because he thought that the Attorney General was going to recuse himself. While this is certainly a significant assumption by Mr. Comey and raises significant questions, it still does not justify failing to tell the DOJ about the alleged conversation — if Mr. Comey truly perceived it the way he now claims he did. And, two days after Mr. Comey was removed, the most senior member of his FBI leadership, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, contradicted Mr. Comey’s account by testifying that, “ there has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.”34 Again, the contemporaneous testimony of his senior colleague, and the inaction of Mr. Comey himself, all make clear that at the time of the conversation in question Mr. Comey did not really understand the President to be attempting an obstruction of justice. Recall that Mr. Comey’s June 8, 2017 testimony (after his termination) about the conversation followed both Mr. McCabe’s testimony and Mr. Comey’s own earlier testimony on May 3, 2017, just six days before his termination, that “it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something ... for a political reason. That would be a very big deal. It’s not happened in my experience.”35
As you know, and as Mr. Comey himself has acknowledged, a President can fire an FBI Director at any time and for any reason. To the extent that such an action has an impact on any investigation pending before the FBI, that impact is simply an effect of the President’s lawful exercise of his constitutional power and cannot constitute obstruction of justice here. No President has ever faced charges of obstruction merely for exercising his constitutional authority.39
A President can also order the termination of an investigation by the Justice Department or FBI at any time and for any reason. Such an action obviously has an impact on the investigation, but that is simply an effect of the President’s lawful exercise of his constitutional power and cannot constitute obstruction of justice. We remind you of these facts simply because even assuming, arguendo, that the President did order the termination of an investigation (and the President, along with Mr. Comey in his testimony and in his actions, have made it clear that he did not) this could not constitute obstruction of justice.
There have also been press reports — citing anonymous sources— about comments the President allegedly made during a May 9, 2017, meeting with Russian government officials that Comey was a “real nut job’’ and that “great pressure because of Russia” has been “taken off” him.54 Assuming arguendo the President said any such things, it (i) does not establish that the termination was because of the Russia investigation (regardless of the validity of such an opinion, presumably any President would not want someone he considered a “nut job” running the FBI); and (ii) in any event would be irrelevant to the constitutional analysis. A short, separate, classified response addressing this subject will be submitted to the Office of Special Counsel.
Accordingly, based upon the foregoing, we have advised the President that, pursuant to the standard clearly set forth in Espyand its progeny, your inquiry thus far demonstrates that no obstruction of the Flynn investigation or Russian collusion investigation appears to have occurred, and that your office has already been provided the voluminous testimony and documentation from which this conclusion is clearly drawn. Therefore, your office lacks “a focused demonstration of need” for the President’s responses, which is required by law “even when there are allegations of misconduct by high-level officials.”58
2 See, e.g., Adam Shaw, FBl’s Strzok and Page spoke of ‘Secret Society After Trump Election, Lawmakers Say, FoxNEWS.COM (Jan. 23, 2018); Brooke Singman, FBl’s Strzok Allegedly Dismissed Mueller Probe: ‘No Big There There’, FoxNEWS.COM (Jan. 23, 2018); Jonathan Easley, GOP Reps Demand Release of ‘Shocking’ Surveillance Memo, THE HILL (Jan. 19, 2018), The genesis of the entire investigation was apparently the Fusion GPS dossier, which was paid for by the President’s political opponent, given to (and possibly paid for by the FBI), and almost certainly used to obtain wiretaps of the Trump Campaign, notwithstanding that Mr. Corney himself admitted that much of the dossier was unverified and unreliable.
16 We note that you have declined our request on several occasions to share the classified notes of Mr. Corney, which have been leaked to the press and given to members of Congress and publicly disclosed. As Chief Executive Officer, the President has every right to have them. You provided them to While House Counsel. In addition, we note that Mr. Comey has had to correct his testimony on multiple occasions.
39 Mallory Shelbourne, Trump: Dershowitz Interview on “Witch Hunt” a “Must Watch”The Hill (Dec. 4, 2017),
What the President actually said was: “I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself - I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.”5The President and Mr. Holt then talk over each other for approximately a minute, before the President completes his original thought, making clear that he: (a) wanted the Russian investigation to go forward and “to be absolutely done properly”; (b) removed Mr. Comey in spite of the fact he understood doing so might prolong the investigation; and (c) did so because “I have to do the right thing for the American People. He’s the wrong man for that position”:
In this case, the only evidence of relevant Presidential action alleged by Comey is that the President expressed to Comey that General Flynn “is a good guy” and “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”21 The President, of course, has categorically denied saying “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.” Of course, even assuming, arguendo, that he used such words, it still is merely a deliberative statement by the President that, in its proper and obvious context, cannot be reasonably construed as a threat. Moreover, the fact that Comey remained in his position after this alleged conversation, continued the investigation otherwise unimpeded, and brought this particular statement up only afterhe was terminated in disgrace refutes any suggestion that he viewed the President’s statement as a threat.
While Director Comey testified that the President pressed him several times, according to his testimony that “pressing” had nothing to do with the Flynn investigation, but rather with the President’s completely proper and reasonable request that the Director say publicly what he had said privately three times, namely, that the President was not himself under investigation. The President made clear his reason for this request: according to Director Comey, the President explained “the cloud’ was getting in the way of his ability to do his job.”24 As Director Comey himself testified in a discussion with Senator Reed, there would have been nothing improper about Director Comey publicly making the factually accurate statement he had repeatedly made privately to the President and Congress — namely, that the President was not under investigation.25Indeed Director Comey testified publicly to precisely this fact less than two months later. Yet, Director Comey declined to do so at the time despite the President’s repeated requests.
3 Devlin Barrett & Philip Rucker, Trump Said He was Thinking of Russia Controversy When He Decided to Fire Comey, WASH. POST (May 11, 2017); Andrew Prokop,Trump has now Admitted He Fired Comey Because of the Russia Investigation, VOX.COM (May 11, 2017); Abigail Abrams, President Trump Links His Decision to Fire James Comey to Frustration With Russia Investigation, TIME.COM (May 11, 2017),
Full Transcript and Video: James Comey’s Testimony on Capitol Hill, NEWYORKTIMES.COM (June 8, 2017), (hereinafter, “Corney Transcript”).
6 There have also been press reports - citing anonymous sources - about comments the President allegedly made during a May 20, 2017 meeting with Russian government officials that Corney was a “real nut job” and that “great pressure because of Russia” has been “taken off’ him. Matt Apuzzo, Maggie Haberman, & Matthew Rosenberg, Trump Told Russians that Firing ‘Nut Job ‘ Corney Eased Pressure from Investigation, N. Y. TIMES (May 19, 2017), Assuming arguendo the President said any such things, it reflects nothing other than that President Trump has utterly lost confidence in Director Comey and believed that the highly public and sensational manner in which he handled the investigation was over.