It is insisted, however, that the evil intent is to be found, not in the intent to violate the United States statute, but in the intent to commit an unlawful act, in the doing of which justice was in fact obstructed, and that, therefore, the intent to proceed in the obstruction of justice must be supplied by a fiction of law.
Nor does the report undermine Mr. Comey's credibility as a witness in the obstruction investigation.
The most important piece of evidence in the obstruction case against Trump is actually never mentioned in Comey's opening statement.
The Justice Department, meanwhile, has designated Samuel W. Buell, 32, as its trial lawyer in the obstruction of justice case against Andersen.
But that's not very likely; rather, it is in the obstruction of history, the deletion of America's past, intentional or not, where permanent damage is likely to occur.
F.B.I. investigations are proceedings, and a number of courts have found them to be so in the obstruction context, though the matter is not fully settled.
Schumer and Obama would both have more support on judicial nominations today had they not themselves engaged in the obstruction of judicial nominees in the past.
Included in the obstruction count is the allegation that Clemens lied when he said he did not know Mitchell wanted to talk to him.
Larry F. Stewart, the Secret Service ink expert who was accused of lying on the stand in the obstruction of justice trial of Martha Stewart, was acquitted yesterday of two charges of perjury.
