By David Montanaro | Fox News
Former Watergate Assistant Special Prosecutor Jon Sale said Thursday that Robert Mueller’s investigation is “totally different” from what unfolded during Watergate.
He said the main difference is that the burglary of the Watergate building was a clear “underlying crime” in 1972 and led to obstruction of justice charges against then-President Richard Nixon.
“So there was something to cover up. Here, there is no underlying crime,” he said on “Fox & Friends,” arguing Democrats are “overreacting” by issuing numerous subpoenas, while public opinion remains split on the issue.
“The ballot box is going to decide whether Trump continues or doesn’t continue.”
Sale pointed to Mueller’s statement that those who were indicted in the Russia probe “are innocent until proven guilty,” though he questioned why the same standard did not seem to apply to President Trump.
“The president was not indicted. Why has he not enjoyed the presumption of innocence with the public and with the media?” he argued, asking why Trump has gotten no “apology” for the two-year-long saga
In a rare public statement Wednesday, Mueller emphasized that the investigation “did not determine whether the president did commit a crime.”
Mueller explained longstanding Justice Department policy, which states that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime.
“Charging the president with a crime was not an option we could consider,” Mueller explained, adding that “it would be unfair to accuse someone of a crime when there could be no court resolution of the charge.”
“The Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse the president of wrongdoing,” he continued, echoing his report that states that Congress: “may apply obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.”
Sale emphasized that prosecutors “do not exonerate” people, instead they either “charge or don’t charge.”David Montanaro is an editor with Fox News.
