Donald Trump's reckless tweeting may be foolish, but it isn't obstruction of justice
Jonathan Turley, Opinion columnist
Published 5:08 p.m. ET Aug. 1, 2018 | Updated 10:07 p.m. ET Aug. 1, 2018
President Trump’s inflammatory tweets are costly for his administration. But they shouldn't be used as the basis for a criminal allegation.
Even for a morning Trump tweet, the blast on Wednesday had the feel of a command rather than a comment: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now.â€
It is the “right now†that gave the presidential tweet a sense of urgency for some and desperation for others. For a man who warned people not to expect “Perry Mason" moments from his confronting dictator Vladimir Putin over Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, President Donald Trump seems to tweet them daily like some guy jumping spontaneously up in a courtroom and yelling, “It’s not me!â€
The ill-advised tweet was immediately held up by Trump’s opponents as clear evidence of obstruction of justice in, again, pressuring Sessions to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, declared soon after the tweet: "The President of the United States just called on his Attorney General to put an end to an investigation in which the President, his family and campaign may be implicated. This is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight.â€
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/08/01/donald-trump-tweets-jeff-sessions-not-obstruction-justice-column/881960002/