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campaign with "official documents and information that would incriminate" Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic candidate for President.
According to the indictment, by June 7, 2017, news outlets were reporting that the Deputy Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, could corroborate James Comey's allegation that the President had asked for Comey's loyalty before firing him. As part of the cover-up, the indictment alleges, on July 26, 2017, the President called upon the Attorney General to fire McCabe.
On December 21, 2017, McCabe testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the President had in fact asked Comey for his loyalty before firing him. Six days later, in retaliation, the President tweeted that McCabe was "racing the clock to retire with full benefits," and implying by use of a question mark, that it was uncertain whether McCabe had "90 days to go?!!!"
On March 16, 2018, McCabe was dismissed, depriving him of his pension. According to the indictment, the President directed McCabe to be fired with the intent to threaten and retaliate against him, the FBI, and the Office of the Special Counsel, "or to impede their respective abilities to assist or carry out the work of the FBI, DOJ, the Office of the Special Counsel, the Congressional Intelligence Committees, and the grand jury."
Together with its narrative of Presidential behavior with, it contends, the certain intention of subverting ongoing investigations, the Mueller office is also ready to argue its right and obligation to charge a sitting president with a criminal violation.
It is the outline of this argument that White House sources say both prompted Rudy Giuliani to scoff at the idea of indictment and, several weeks later, for the President and his lawyer to make sweeping claims about Presidential authority.
It is a coming battle of absolutist positions.
The Special Counsel, according to reports from both the investigation and from the White House, has spelled out an argument—one that appears to be at odds with Department of Justice standing policy that precludes charging a sitting president with a crime—that nothing in the Constitution or in an statute suggests a status with regard to criminal prosecution for the President different from any other federal office. Nor is there any statute or case law that finds that impeachment has to come before an indictment. The Mueller team

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