CNN legal analyst Paul Callan said on Saturday that President Donald Trump may or may not have obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey, but that if “bumbling stupidity” was a crime, Trump would already be indicted by a grand jury.
Callan joined anchor Ana Cabrera Saturday evening to discuss U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)’s contention that there is a “very strong case” to be made that Pres. Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice for firing Comey during the investigation into whether or not Trump and his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to say the 2016 election.
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“Trump’s version of the ‘tapes’ tweet is going to be, ‘I’m just warning this person that he better not tell lies about me,'” Callan said. “I think that’s what the president is trying to imply.”
He went on, “I think the president could be indicted for bumbling stupidity for the way he’s handling the firing of the FBI director, but I don’t think there’s enough to charge a crime at this point. Of course, he’s immune to criminal charges while he’s president of the United States. The only way the president can be processed criminally is by the filing of the Articles of Impeachment, and then after impeachment he can be prosecuted criminally.”
“That’s the way it works,” he said. “And I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Watch the video, embedded below:
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Prosectors in Frankfurt have dropped their investigation into two Deutsche Bank employees who were accused of aiding tax evasion schemes in the Virgin Islands, due to "lack of suspicion." The institution has instead been fined for compliance lapses.
“With the closure of these proceedings it is clear that the prosecutors have not found any instances of criminal misconduct on the part of Deutsche Bank employees following the raid of our Frankfurt office in November 2018,” Deutsche Bank spokesman Joerg Eigendorf said in a statement.
“The investigation that has now been closed due to lack of sufficient suspicion had a heavy impact on Deutsche Bank last year,” he added. “It is true that the bank had weaknesses in its control environment in the past. We identified these weaknesses and we have addressed them in a disciplined manner.”
Two North Carolina towns are canceling their annual Christmas celebration parades "amid fears of violence due to Confederate groups’ participation in the events," The Daily Beast reports.
Citing a “potential for violence,” for the first time in over 70 years the town of Wake Forest, North Carolina says it will have no Christmas parade. Garner, NC, has also canceled its Christmas parade.
The Daily Beast cites "reports that Garner had plans to include a float sponsored by a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans but said social-media posts led town officials to believe 'the event could be targeted for disruption.'"
Moving to the global front pages is a company called Fraud Guarantee. Its co-owners, Ukrainian and U.S. nationals, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, have held many meetings at the Washington, D.C. Trump Hotel with Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York city and the real-life version of Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter.