President Donald Trump can be indicted right now, a former top Republican prosecutor explained to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Thursday.
The host of "The Last Word" interviewed Bill Weld, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts who is currently challenging the sitting president for the 2020 GOP nomination.
Prior to his career in elected office, Weld was a top federal prosecutor.
In 1981, Weld was nominated by Ronald Reagan to be the United States Attorney for Massachusetts. After receiving positive media coverage for his anti-corruption court victories, in 1986 Reagan promoted Weld to head the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
At one point, Weld was Robert Mueller's boss.
"What was your reaction to Bob Mueller’s testimony yesterday?" O'Donnell asked.
"I think he confirmed what we all knew, that there is an overwhelming case of obstruction of justice in Volume II of the Mueller report," Weld replied.
He then explained how he would have handled the case differently than Mueller.
"Myself, if I had that case, I could have charged the president," Weld explained.
"These Office of Legal Counsel opinions that everyone is pointing to, they're not like a judicial opinion, they don't have the same force of law," he explained. "The Office of Legal Counsel Assistant Attorney General is the lawyer for the president and the lawyer for the Attorney General -- those are his or her only two clients. So it’s almost like citing a brief instead of a judicial opinion to cite that Office of Legal Counsel opinion that’s the basis for not indicting the president."
"I think you could have charged him and suspended and sealed the indictment so the statute of limitations would not run out," Weld concluded.
"And I would have, if I'd had to case," Weld added.
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