How would Trump even know if he was “guilty”? Of what? Obstruction of justice?  Could there possibly be a vaguer crime as applied to a president exercising his constitutional powers? It really is a replay of the indictment of Governor Perry who exercised his constitutional power to veto legislation bc the DA crossed him - yet the grand jury indicted him for abuse of power. We never got to find out what he did to lead to the indictment, thanks to some “home cooking” by the Texas appellate court which changed the law to protect him from trial, despite all my efforts to hold him accountable.

           Trump will not have that kind of protection, since the special counsel report will be public. But talking heads like Dershowitz insist there can be no obstruction, since Trump had the constitutional power to do what he did. Dershowitz is wrong, of course, since a corrupt exercise of those powers is at least an impeachable offense, if not an indictable one. But it is not an unreasonable position, and one I’m sure Trump believes is correct. So I suspect Trump genuinely believes he did nothing wrong.

        No one likes to be “under investigation,” and when you are a petty, insecure man like Trump that alone is reason to trash the investigator if not fire him. He trashes anyone who crosses him - from poor Rosie O’Donnell, to the beauty queen, to the Mexican judge etc.

as I have seen him on TV several times stating flatly that “Trump cannot be charged with  obstruction for firing Comey, which he had the constitutional authority to do.” He also has disagreed with critics who say it is a different ball game if Trump’s actions were  “corruptly” motivated. His op ed, which I thought I followed closely when I wrote the post, on this point is attached.

 
I happen to think he is “categorically wrong” on that point – and I have never seen him say otherwise.  Have you? Maybe he has changed his mind since June 8 and I owe him an apology, but I don’t think so.  

I think you are talking about a different point – Dershowitz does recognize that Trump may obstruct if he commits an independent crime.  No one would dispute that – the question is whether a corrupt intent alone makes the offense impeachable-   I say yes. AD does not address impeachment at least in the article I read but says  no as to a crime.

As to the Mueller report being not being made public, I think you are technically right about that and I was wrong the way I stated it.  He reports to the AG and his report is confidential. But the AG then has to report to the Senate and make disclosure of the findings if it is the public interest.  With respect to whether Trump obstructed justice or committed any other crime (no doubt counterintelligence stuff will be redacted), I can’t imagine how anyone could conclude that this is not in the public interest. If Trump is cleared of course, we will probably received mailed copies of the report. So I reiterate my belief that Trump will not get any obstruction finding swept under the rug, unlike Gov Perry.

snowflake assertion of russian collusion ??  no proof after 10+ months of investigation. now you jump to another issue?  again, no proof. you do nothing for the advancement of the country with your silly, but damaging assertions without proof.

Tough crowd. So it’s ok for AD to give his “no obstruction” opinion

on cable TV where millions watch without mentioning all the caveats, but you feel I should outline his complete position if I post on the P & R Board where I think I got “two reads” at the time I posted?

Fair enough, I’m not going to argue with a guy who wants to raise the standards on the P & R Board.

But you also say I can’t give an opinion that AD is wrong if the law is unsettled? Isn’t that going a bit too far?  

I think the Supreme Court was wrong when it said the Second Amendment gives an individual right to bear arms. Obviously I think the Texas appellate court was wrong when it bailed out Gov Perry from having to go to trial. In both cases we have settled law –much less unsettled - but I can’t opine the courts were wrong?