Welcome to the Mueller Report Audio.

Section 2L.

Overeaching factual issues.

Although this report does not contain a traditional prosecution decision or declination decision,

the evidence supports several general conclusions relevant to analysis of the

facts concerning the President's course of conduct.

One, three features of this case render it atypical, compared to the heartland obstruction of

justice prosecutions brought by the Department of Justice.

First, the conduct involved actions by the President.

Some of the conduct did not implicate the President's constitutional authority and raises

garden variety obstruction of justice issues.

Other events we investigated, however, drew upon the President's Article 2 authority,

which raised constitutional issues that we address in Volume 2, Section 3B, Infra.

A factual analysis of that conduct would have to take into account, both that the President's acts were facially lawful, and that his position as head of the executive branch

provides him with unique and powerful means of influencing official proceedings,

subordinate officers, and potential witnesses.

Second, many obstruction cases involve the

attempted or actual cover-up of an underlying crime. Personal criminal conduct can furnish

strong evidence that the individual had an improper obstructive purpose, or that he contemplated

an effect on an official proceeding. But proof of such a crime is not an element of an obstruction offense.

Obstruction of justice can be motivated by a desire to protect non-criminal personal interests,

to protect against investigations where underlying criminal liability falls into a gray area,

...