Lawyer and Georgia Innocence Project co-founder Page Pate says it hardly matters whether President Donald Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice “unless there is political will and an independent process in place to do something about it.” And Pate says there is neither the will nor the process necessary to proceed with charges against the president, whatever the legal justification may be. As an Innocence Project founder, Pate is familiar with the unfortunate notion that justice isn’t the default outcome of a clash — the process is still paramount. And in this case, the process won’t make Trump accountable.
Writing for CNN, Pate says that while it’s “hard not to imagine a jury finding an improper or corrupt purpose to these alleged comments about terminating the Flynn investigation,” the fate of Trump’s status as lawbreaker is really in Congress’s hands, not a jury’s. And it’s Pate’s opinion — one widely shared — that a Republican controlled Congress just won’t exert the political will necessary to pin Trump down on his alleged obstruction.
