PUSHBACK

Barr: Mueller Could Have ‘Reached a Decision’ on Whether Trump Obstructed Justice

The attorney general claimed the DOJ rules preventing Mueller from indicting Trump did not bar him from determining “whether it was criminal activity.”

In an interview with CBS This Morning, Attorney General Bill Barr said he “personally felt” Special Counsel Robert Mueller “could’ve reached a decision” on whether President Trump obstructed justice. “The opinion says you cannot indict a president while he is in office, but he could’ve reached a decision as to whether it was criminal activity,” Barr added. “But he had his reasons for not doing it, which he explained and I am not going to, you know, argue about those reasons.” On Wednesday, Mueller said in a rare public statement that he could not determine whether Trump broke the law as Justice Department policy forbids charging a sitting president with a crime. During the CBS interview, Barr also brushed off accusations that he’s shielded Trump, stating that the criticism “goes with the territory of being attorney general in a hyper-partisan period of time.”