Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Monday said President Trump’s outside lawyer, John Dowd, has made a number of incorrect and “ludicrous” statements in the past.
Bharara’s comments come after Dowd said in an interview with Axios that the president can’t obstruct justice because “he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution’s Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case.”
“He’s the president’s defense lawyer and he has to say things in the press and in the media that defend the president,” Bharara, who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before he was ousted by the Trump administration in March, said during an interview with NPR.
He added he has a lot of experience with Dowd.
“He’s represented some high-profile people in cases before my office,” Bharara said.
{mosads}”He said then as he’s saying now a lot of incorrect, mistaken and on occasion ludicrous things, so I don’t put a lot of stock in it.”
Bharara, a frequent critic of the president, was pressed then on whether he believes the president can be charged with obstruction of justice.
He said it’s a “very high bar” and a “difficult thing.”
“But the mere fact that the president is the president doesn’t immunize him from an accusation of obstruction,” he said.
Dowd’s comments on obstruction of justice come after Trump in a tweet over the weekend appeared to reveal he knew former national security adviser Michael Flynn had lied to the FBI when he was fired.
The tweet spurred controversy, as legal experts suggested if Trump knew Flynn had lied to the FBI and then asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn, it could amount to obstruction of justice.
Trump in February said he fired Flynn because he lied to the vice president, but he didn’t say anything related to what the former national security adviser told the FBI.
Dowd also said the tweet sent out from the president’s Twitter account was his “mistake.” He said he drafted the tweet, according to Axios, but noted it didn’t “admit obstruction.”