Giuliani Says Trump Didn't Obstruct Justice Because He Hasn't Broken Legs or Kidnapped Anyone's Kids

by Tommy Christopher | Jan 20th, 2019, 11:52 am

President Donald Trump‘s attorney Rudy Giuliani swung for the fences when he tried to set the bar for obstruction of justice at threatening to kidnap children or break various bones in the lower extremities in order to coerce a government official into dropping an investigation.

On Sunday morning’s edition of Meet the Press, anchor Chuck Todd asked Giuliani about attorney general nominee Bill Barr‘s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, during which Barr testified that a president would be guilty of obstruction of justice if he or she ordered someone to commit perjury.

“Mr. Barr, who during his confirmation hearing to be attorney general, explicitly stated that a sitting president could obstruct justice,” Todd said, adding “That’s been in dispute with analysis from your legal team. You have heard Mr. Barr’s claim that, yes, a sitting president can obstruct justice. Do you accept his definition of that or do you still disagree?”

“No, no, I agree, but I don’t phrase it quite that way, that he can obstruct justice,” Giuliani said. “A president firing somebody who works for him, if he does no other corrupt act other than just fire him, it can’t obstruct justice because that’s what article 2 of the Constitution gives to him solely.” But then Giuliani added that “if, for example, a president said, leave office or I’m going to, you know, have your kids kidnapped or I’m going to break your legs — I prosecute a lot of obstruction cases.”

“I’ll give you an example,” Giuliani continued. “When the president said, ‘Please go easy on Flynn,’ I know of no obstruction case that begins with the word please. It goes something like this, ‘If you don’t go easy on Flynn, I’ll break your kneecaps.”

But the federal obstruction of justice statute does not, in fact, require an act like the ones Giuliani describes, although it does include them as examples of obstruction. It simply requires that anyone who “endeavors to influence, intimidate, or impede” the administration of justice does so “corruptly,” or “by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication.”

video
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/giuliani-says-trump-didnt-obstruct-justice-because-he-hasnt-broken-legs-or-kidnapped-anyones-kids/