Yes, Trump committed crimes
As editor-in-chief of Lawfareblog.com, I spent a week analyzing every line in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, said Benjamin Wittes. It’s quite clear that “the president committed crimes”—quite a few of them. Trump told former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to pressure then–Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take control of the Mueller investigation and order the special counsel not to look at Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. This is a blatant obstruction of justice, “full stop.” Trump told White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, and later pressured him to write an official memo denying that the president had ever issued such an order. Again, clear obstruction. So was Trump’s successful attempt to silence Paul Manafort with hints of a pardon and praise for not “flipping.” But perhaps most disturbing of all is the way Trump and his campaign welcomed Russia’s attempts to damage Hillary Clinton and put Trump in the White House. These efforts— including more than 100 contacts with Russians and multiple lies to cover it all up—reveal that the Trump campaign was so unpatriotic, it was “willing to make common cause with an actual adversary power” to win an election. “That may not be a crime, but it is a very deep betrayal.”
