Out Of Presidency, Trump Is Vulnerable To Lawsuits

Trump is the subject of 15 inquiries, criminal and civil, by nine federal, state and district agencies into his business and personal finances. These matters are not going away for the soon-to-be-former president

- Kim Sengupta

LONDON

In his testimony to Congress, following his investigation, Robert Mueller was asked by the Republican representative Ken Buck: “Could you charge the president with a crime after he let the office?” Mueller replied: “Yes.” Buck continued: “You believe that he committed – you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?” Again, the response was: “Yes.”

The special counsel’s report into whether Donald Trump was the Muscovian candidate for the White House concluded that Trump may have committed obstruction of justice on at least 10 occasions. But Mueller had decided that a 1973 Justice Department decision that a sitting president cannot be indicted meant that charging Trump with federal crime would be “unconstitutional”.

The 47-year-old ruling on presidential privilege has also protected Trump, to varying extents, from a number of investigations and lawsuits, including a year-long battle over his tax returns.

But with his impending departure from the White House, he is now quite vulnerable. He will soon have lost the safety of office and the service of his loyal attorney general, William Barr. Some prosecutors had become worried about taking on not only the president but his friends. After the prison sentence of Trump’s friend Roger Stone was cut by Barr, they expressed private concern to the media that the attorney general would not back them. That constraint has now gone.