Weld: ‘I would have pursued an indictment’ of Trump if I were attorney general

Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R), who has announced a primary challenge to President Trump, said Wednesday that he would have sought to indict Trump if he were in Attorney General William Barr’s place.

“AG Barr has erred in both his opinion that the President could not be indicted and in his clear attempt to frame a narrative that favors and protects the President,” Weld tweeted as Barr testified before the Senate Wednesday morning. “Given the evidence laid out by [special counsel Robert] Mueller, had I been in his place, I would have pursued an indictment of the President of the United States for obstruction of Justice.”

Given the evidence laid out by Mr. Mueller, had I been in his place, I would have pursued an indictment of the President of the United States for obstruction of Justice. #BarrHearing #Weld2020

— Gov. Bill Weld (@GovBillWeld) May 1, 2019

{mosads} The tweet came after Weld had issued a statement earlier on Wednesday saying Mueller’s report “clearly laid out the case for multiple occasions of obstruction of justice by the president.”

President Trump’s challenger @GovBillWeld issued a statement ahead of today’s #barrhearing writing: ‘AG Barr has erred in both his opinion that the President could not be indicted and in his clear attempt to frame a narrative that favors and protects the President.’ See below: pic.twitter.com/KBvatlSxCX

— Stephanie Ramirez (@RamirezReports) May 1, 2019

Barr last month issued a four-page summary of Mueller’s report days after the Department of Justice (DOJ) received it, making the determination not to pursue an obstruction of justice case against President Trump.

But Mueller wrote a letter to Barr objecting to how the attorney general had described the investigation’s conclusions, according to media reports on Tuesday.

The DOJ released a redacted version of the full report earlier this month, in which Mueller had laid out ten instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice, though the special counsel said it could not determine whether obstruction had taken place.

Weld, the Libertarian Party’s 2016 vice presidential nominee, has previously said Trump has “lost the capacity to govern” and suggested the country would be “much better off” if he were to resign and leave Vice President Pence as president.

Barr appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.