DOJ releases a Mueller-era memo to Barr on the decision to not prosecute Trump

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/ [login to see] /memo-barr-trump-mueller-doj
The Justice Department on Wednesday released a memo from 2019 laying out the case for not prosecuting former President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice in connection with then-special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

The nine-page memo dated March 24, 2019 was written by two senior Trump Justice Department officials: Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O'Callaghan.

They conclude that none of Trump's actions documented in the Mueller report— his firing of FBI director James Comey; his directing the top White House lawyer to fire Mueller; his exhorting witnesses not to flip — should be viewed as obstruction.

"We conclude that the evidence described in Volume II of the Report is not, in our judgment, sufficient to support a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that the President violated the obstruction-of-justice statutes," the memo says. "In addition, we believe that certain of the conduct examined by the Special Counsel could not, as a matter of law, support an obstruction charge under the circumstances."

The watchdog group Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued under the Freedom of Information Act for the memo to be made public. The Justice Department long fought its release, arguing that the memo was part of the department's internal deliberative process.