The Justice Department on Wednesday released a once- secret memo that recommended against charging then- President Donald Trump with obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
The release of the 9-page memo sheds new light on one of the most controversial moments of the Trump presidency: whether he should face a federal indictment for trying to stop the investigation.
A pair of top Trump-appointed Justice Department officials relied on a more than 400 page report from the special counsel team to prepare their memo. The first volume was about the inquiry into Russia's interference and the second was about whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation.
The evidence is not enough to support a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that the President violated the obstruction-of-justice statutes, according to a memo written by top Justice Department officials. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is tasked with weighing some of the thorniest legal questions faced by the Executive Branch.
According to the OLC memo, the special counsel's report did not identify actions on Trump's part that constituted obstruction of justice because they were not related to a pending case.
There is no precedent for an obstruction case on the same facts, according to the memo.
The president is not the only public official who could be subject to an investigation.
The OLC believes that the special counsel's team did not find enough evidence to charge anyone associated with the Trump campaign with conspiring with the Russians.
The memo said that the evidence does not show a crime or criminal conspiracy involving Trump.
A 448-page report summing up the findings of the investigation was issued by the team.
There are at least 10 instances in which Trump may have tried to obstruct justice in the course of the inquiry. The special counsel refused to make a traditional prosecutorial judgement, citing a 1973 Justice Department policy that said against indicting a sitting president.
The special counsel's decision was not influenced by the longstanding department policy according to Barr when he held a news conference shortly before the report was made public. He said that the evidence was not conclusive enough to prompt the determination.
The nature of the lack of evidence was not cited as a reason for not making a decision on obstruction of justice. It was against the law to charge a sitting president.
If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President did not commit obstruction of justice, we would do so. We are unable to reach that judgement based on the facts and legal standards.
The release of the DOJ memo was the culmination of a years-long court fight in which a watchdog group pressed for a copy of the official Justice Department guidance underlying the decision not to charge Trump with obstruction.
A federal appeals court panel ordered the memo's release last week, siding with a trial judge who had previously ruled that the document should be made public.
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, in a unanimous decision, rejected the Justice Department's arguments that the memo was protected from public release by the so-called deliberative process privilege, which shields details about government decisionmaking from public disclosure.
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