The truth I never see mentioned: Trump was obstructing the investigation of MANY underlying crimes.

[pnwmom]

In seeking to fire Mueller, he was obstructing the investigation of Flynn and his crimes; of Manafort and his crimes; of every other member of the Trump team who was implicated AND of the dozens of Russians who were indicted by Robert Mueller.

Trump was attempting to protect the Russians as much as he was trying to protect his campaign and administration staffers.

https://www.npr.org/2017/05/19/529171249/report-trump-told-russians-he-fired-nut-job-comey-because-of-investigation

President Trump told Russian officials last week that he had fired the "nut job" FBI Director James Comey to ease the pressure of the mounting investigation into his campaign's ties to Russia, according to a report from The New York Times.

"I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump told the Russian foreign minister and U.S. ambassador on May 10 during an Oval Office meeting, according to a transcript of the meeting read to The Times by a U.S. official. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."

[BigmanPigman]

1. One obstruction crime leads to others and they multiply like roaches

and hopefully will fall like dominoes when it all starts to unravel.

[TwilightZone]

2. "Trump was attempting to protect the Russians..."

I think everything he does is to protect himself and everything else is secondary and mostly just a by-product. Stopping all of the individual investigations would reduce the chances that any of them could be eventually linked to him.

[pnwmom]

3. I understand what you're saying. But Mueller said he was unable to establish Trump's crimes.

On the other hand, he did establish the crimes of Manafort, Flynn, the Russians, and others. And Trump also sought to obstruct the investigation of those crimes.

So it's obviously false to say that there were no underlying crimes that Trump sought to cover up.

[triron]

5. That's due to obstruction that Mueller did not establish Trump-Russia conspiracy.

Trump committed treason.

[TwilightZone]

7. It can't be treason, and I really wish people would stop saying that.

Treason involves a declared enemy. Russia is not a declared enemy. Treason also has a very narrow definition, which makes it very difficult to pin it on anyone.

"For one thing, “enemies” legally defined means a country on which the U.S. has declared war or is actively fighting. Modern-day Russia obviously doesn’t fall into either category. "

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-trump-treasonous-heres-the-legal-and-historical-answer-to-that-charge-2018-07-17

Try sedition. Wider scope, more applicable.

[TwilightZone]

6. My point was that by stopping the investigation of the underlying crimes...

Trump minimizes the chances that any of them will be linked to him. I don't think he was trying to stop the investigations to protect staffers or allies. I think he was primarily - perhaps, solely - trying to protect himself.

"Mueller said he was unable to establish Trump's crimes"

Yes and no. He pretty clearly delineated a case for obstruction of justice. He just didn't provide a solid conclusion on its viability, in part because he apparently didn't believe that Trump was indictable so it wasn't his responsibility to provide said conclusion.

It also remains to be seen if the dozen-plus cases he referred elsewhere result in Trump being implicated.

[pnwmom]

8. But it doesn't matter whether Trump was indictable to prove that

he did commit the crime of obstruction. As he said, he could be indicted after he left office.

[Ligyron]

4. That's an interesting take.

I believe you've got something there, good catch.

[Amyishere]

9. sedition works for me. Impeach him!