Shortly after the news broke that the FBI raided the offices of Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, the president became unglued on live television, calling the ongoing investigation a witch hunt, attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions and suggesting he may just fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
As legal and political analyst Seth Abramson pointed out shortly after Trump’s lash-out, it’s hard not to view the president’s remarks on Monday as anything other than an admission of obstruction of justice.
BREAKING: How is this NOT a televised confession of Obstruction of Justice by a U.S. president?
“It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time. I’ve wanted to keep it down.”
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“I’ve wanted to keep it down”? WHAT?
This happened this hour.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) April 9, 2018
2/ This was said in the context of Trump saying (again) that AG Jeff Sessions would not have been appointed if Trump had known he wasn’t going to oversee the Russia probe in the way Trump approved of, which, he was saying, was any way that would “keep [the investigation] down.”
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) April 9, 2018
3/ And yes, Trump *did* just describe the execution of a valid federal search warrant as a break-in (“They just broke in…”)
When are Republicans going to jump off this sinking ship?
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) April 9, 2018
Trump is helping Robert Mueller build the obstruction case
As Abramson laid out in his tweets, Trump essentially admitted that he’s been trying to undermine the Russia investigation in his post-FBI raid remarks on Monday. He’s basically helping Robert Mueller prepare his forthcoming obstruction of justice report.
But even without today’s unglued remarks from the President of the United States, the obstruction case was already strong – from firing James Comey and Andrew McCabe to attacking his own attorney general to threatening to remove Robert Mueller from special counsel, and so on.
There’s no telling what Trump will do or say next. But one thing we know for sure is, like today’s dumpster fire comments, it will only hurt his case.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
