Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said Sunday that she believed the evidence of obstruction of justice in special counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted final report would be sufficient to charge President Donald Trump criminally if he weren’t in office.
“I’ve been a prosecutor for nearly 30 years, and I can tell you I’ve personally prosecuted obstruction cases on far, far less evidence than this,” Yates told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell in an interview on “Meet the Press.”
“And, yes, I believe if he were not the President of the United States, he would likely be indicted on obstruction.”
Yates said that while not all evidence of obstruction cited in Mueller’s report carried the same legal significance, as Mueller himself acknowledged, “there are several incidents that he described to which special counsel Mueller really couldn’t point to any significant factual or legal defenses.”
Trump fired Yates days into his presidency after she refused to defend the first iteration of his travel ban executive border that barred entry to the United States for people from several Muslim-majority countries, among other measures.
Former Deputy AG Sally Yates: "I believe if he were not the President of the United States, he would likely be indicted on obstruction." pic.twitter.com/xvfSuvgbyD
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) April 28, 2019
