absolve the president, couldn t find that he didn t commit a crime was not his function. bill: the question is why? watergate, iran-contra, ken starr operating under different rules they all left behind conclusions or direction. why no conclusions or definitive direction from mueller? you would have to ask mr. mueller that. i think that it was pretty plain that the evidence didn t justify it but he didn t want to say that. so he said that he could not clearly find that he didn t commit a crime. that s not a prosecutor s job. occasionally it happens an occupational hazard in wash that somebody confronts a situation that he rules that limit his function and it seems that s what happened here. bill: you said it s an occupational hazard a lot of big problems in washington sometimes you come across a really big problem that you think is more important than
house democrats to start moving forward reaching a fever pitch at this hour as president trump unloads on the former special counsel. welcome to a brand-new hour of america s newsroom, i m sandra smith. bill: are you all right? sandra: good. how are you doing? bill: i m good. it s thursday. i m bill hemmer. good morning at home. the special counsel suggesting any move against the president is up to congress that set off a reaction in the nation s capital when this went down. after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. nothing is off the table. but we do want to make such a compelling case, such an iron-clad case that even the republican senate, which at the time seems to be not an objective jury, will be content of the path that we have to take as a country. the bad news for democrats bob mueller is clearly wrong on every level with regard to
that we have to take as a country. special counsel robert mueller made clear he and his team did not exonerate president trump or charge him with a crime of obstruction saying he was constrained. without naming congress or impeachment he said the regulations allowed his team to gather evidence for any future action. underlongstanding department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. that is unconstitutional. even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that, too, is prohibited. the special counsel s office is part of the department of justice and by regulation it was bound by that department policy. charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider. attorney general william barr recently testified the
option we could consider. bill: in all of that is already under dispute. put that in english as to how we can understand the difference between what both men are describing. bill barr is sticking within the law. if there is not sufficient evidence to charge somebody, then that person doesn t get charged and that s the end of it. then you don t say that a crime was probably committed, a crime may have been committed. you say that there will be no charges. that s what the attorney general did. the special counsel on the other hand went out of his way to suggest that well, maybe a crime was committed but we couldn t find enough. why was it your job to try to find enough? bill: the debate continues. appreciate your input today. judge michael mccasey, the former attorney general. sandra: john ratcliffe will be here. hogan gidley from the white house joins us top of the hour.
runs about a minute long and then you can tell us what this means legally. there was no evidence of the trump campaign collusion with the russian government s hacking. there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense. if we had had confidence take the president ceerl did fought xit a crime, we would have said so. we did not however make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. special counsel mueller stated three times to us in that meeting in response to our questioning that he emphatically was not saying that but for the olc opinion he would have found obstruction. under longstanding department policy a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. charging the president with a crime was therefore not an