Bharara: Mueller report shows there’s ‘potential viable prosecution once Donald Trump leaves office’

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report shows there’s “potential” for President Trump to be prosecuted after he leaves office.

“The Mueller view, it seems to me, if you look at the document, is that they absolutely believe there is a potential viable prosecution once Donald Trump leaves office,” Bharara said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Mueller said in his report that he followed Justice Department guidelines that say a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, and added that a president “does not have immunity after he leaves office.”

{mosads}Bharara, who was fired by Trump in 2017, said Sunday on “State of the Union” that he doesn’t think “it could be more clear” that Trump could be charged with crimes after he leaves office.

“[Mueller] says in great particularity that, although you cannot prosecute a sitting president under the OLC [Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel] interpretation, we are nonetheless preserving evidence, while memories are fresh and documents are available, because a president, once he leaves office, can be charged with crimes committed while in office. I don’t think it could be more clear,” he said, paraphrasing Mueller’s report.

“Whether or not a prosecutor will seek to do it and whether or not there will be viable defenses, I don’t know. But the position of the Mueller team, to me, is clearly the case they think there’s future legal jeopardy,” Bharara added.