This is why Mueller is tiptoeing around whether Trump committed a crime

Robert Mueller speaks rests his case
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has carefully avoided saying whether he thinks President Trump committed criminal obstruction of justice but also pointedly underscored that he isn't exonerating him. Because a longstanding Justice Department policy says "a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he's in office," charging Trump "with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider," Mueller said Wednesday. At the same time, he added, "if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so." He did not say so.

This awkward dance of double-negatives has exasperated both Trump's supporters and critics, but Mueller and his team are also "frustrated by what they perceive as a lack of public understanding about this point — that Justice Department policy and fairness prohibit the special counsel from reaching a decision, even secretly, on whether the president committed a crime," The Washington Post reports.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.