Speaker 1: And now it's time for our daily Bloomberg lawb Brief,
Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news, brought to you by
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Speaker 1: dot org. Today, Bloomberg Lahos student Grosso discusses Special Investigator
Speaker 1: Robert Mueller exploring obstruction of justice charges against President Trump
Speaker 1: for interfering in the Russia investigation. She speaks with Fred tc,
Speaker 1: a partner at Ice Miller. Fred, after everything we've heard
Speaker 1: from James Coley and from the President himself in tweets
Speaker 1: and interviews, does this obstruction of justice investigation come as
Speaker 1: a surprise. No, under the current political climate, it doesn't
Speaker 1: come as a surprise in any way, shape or form. So,
Speaker 1: you know, the question is whether or not it's a
Speaker 1: legitimate criminal investigation of a of a of a serious crime,
Speaker 1: and that that's a different issue. Well, how would you
Speaker 1: determine that until he actually goes through with his investigation. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, let's assume for a minute that the conversation
Speaker 1: is what the conversation is, that's the obstruction, right, it
Speaker 1: was what was what President Trump said to Comy or
Speaker 1: or as as I understand now, they've expanded it to
Speaker 1: include the firing of Comey. The question is whether or
Speaker 1: not that was an attempt to corruptly and influence an investigation.
Speaker 1: And the irony of all this, which is when people
Speaker 1: kind of put down the politics, certain people have the
Speaker 1: right in government to make decisions about whether or not
Speaker 1: investigations should go forward. Look, look what happened last fall
Speaker 1: and which led to the bipartisan call for Comy's firing
Speaker 1: because he made a determination that Loretta Lynch either implicitly
Speaker 1: or explicitly decided not to move forward with an investigation. Well,
Speaker 1: that's no. That is her unfettered right as the attorney general,
Speaker 1: whether she's right or she's wrong to make that decision.
Speaker 1: That's not obstruction to just so the president could have
Speaker 1: stopped the investigation. Isn't it something different if you try
Speaker 1: to get someone else through some kind of coercion to
Speaker 1: try to stop the investigation. Well, that's a great question.
Speaker 1: Does the president if the president has the authority to
Speaker 1: stop an investigation, and you see, here's the wrinkle that
Speaker 1: you throw it under coercion. Okay, there's no need to
Speaker 1: engage in coercion if you have the authority to do something.
Speaker 1: So does the president have If the president has the
Speaker 1: right to stop an investigation, does does he have the
Speaker 1: ability to delegate that right to someone else to stop
Speaker 1: the investigation. That's that's a different question. And that is
Speaker 1: Fred tc, a partner at Ice Miller, speaking to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Law host in Gross So you can listen to Bloomberg
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Speaker 1: Booze Allen over how he built the government for consulting work.
Speaker 1: The company says it's cooperating that its own prov has
Speaker 1: not shown any significant deficiencies. Booz Allen gout nineties seven
Speaker 1: percent of its revenue from US government contracts in the
Speaker 1: last fiscal year. The company shares fell almost fourteen percent
Speaker 1: in after hours trading. And that is this morning's Bloomberg
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