CNN’s Borger: Mueller Made It ‘Completely Clear’ He Would Have Indicted Trump If He Could

Wednesday on CNN, network chief political analyst Gloria Borger argued that special counsel Robert Mueller made it clear during his statement that he would have indicted President Donald Trump if he could have.

Borger said, “Robert Mueller’s a company man. And first, what he did was he said what he had said to the president’s attorneys privately, more than a year ago, which is, I’m not going to take on this long-standing Department of Justice policy, which says I can’t indict a sitting president and charging the president with a crime was never anything we could consider. Then he went to the next point, which was. Therefore, they didn’t do it. But if you read between the lines, he made it completely clear that if they could have done it, they would have done it, because they couldn’t clear him. ”

She continued, “So he was, he was, I think, telling everybody, look at what I’m saying. I couldn’t do it, because the law would not allow me to, but even if the law did not allow me to charge him, I still could not clear him, and I am telling you that and it was also interesting to me that they probably investigated whether a president could be charged, even if kept under seal. That’s something that we hadn’t really thought about before, but obviously, this team of lawyers looked into that and said, well, maybe we can’t charge him now, but we could keep it under seal and eventually when he leaves office, charge him. And the answer to that was also no so he was bound by policy, he works for the Department of Justice, he works for the attorney general, and this is how he proceeded.”

She added, “For the Congress, Wolf, to answer your question — and I think they’re going to take a look at this and say, OK, we really don’t have to read between the lines here anymore. This policy kept him from indicting. And remember, Mueller was criticized, you know, when you’re an attorney, you either indict or you don’t indict. You don’t give this middle ground. Well, most lawyers are not bound bit office of legal counsel opinion, which says you can indict somebody you’re looking into, and that is why he did it this way. So, I think he wanted to quash that criticism and let the Congress know, you know, I would have if I could have.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN