Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Tuesday suggested that President Trump would have been indicted for obstruction of justice as a result of special counsel’s Robert Mueller’s probe if he weren’t in the White House.
“I think there’s enough there that any other person who had engaged in those acts would certainly have been indicted,” Clinton said while speaking at the Time 100 Summit, citing the “the rule in the Justice Department that you can’t indict a sitting president.”
“The whole matter of obstruction was very directly sent to the Congress,” Clinton added. “And if you read that part of the report, it could not be clearer.”
Clinton’s comments mark the first time she’s weighed in on Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference, which the Justice Department released last week.
{mosads}Mueller did not uncover evidence to conclude that the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow. But the 400-plus-page report noted that Mueller could not “conclusively determine” that no criminal conduct occurred in regard to obstruction of justice.
It also added that Congress has authority to conduct its own probe into the obstruction of justice matter.
“With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,” Mueller wrote.
Multiple 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Kamala Harris (Calif.), responded to the report’s findings by calling for impeachment proceedings.
When asked about impeaching Trump, Clinton said that it should “be something undertaken in a really serious, diligent way, based on evidence.” But she added that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is “right to be cautious” about taking steps toward impeachment.