Attorney General William Barr lied to the American people about Robert Mueller's reasoning for not making a criminal finding of obstruction of justice against Donald Trump. Barr suggested that Mueller did not consider the Justice Department's standard policy of not indicting a sitting president. In fact, Mueller did consult the department's Office of Legal Counsel opinion on the matter and he concluded that since the special counsel was, by regulation, an attorney of the Justice Department, he "accepted the OLC's legal conclusion." In other words, Mueller concluded that he was bound by the OLC's Watergate-era conclusion that a sitting president couldn't be indicted.

However, Mueller also concluded he couldn't clear Trump of obstructing justice based on the evidence they uncovered.

"If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state," Mueller wrote. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment."

But Mueller also concluded that Congress's proper function in this situation was to exercise its powers under our constitutional system of checks and balances to make sure that no person is above the law. "We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice," Mueller wrote.

Mueller also explained why this is constitutionally proper. “Congress can permissibly criminalize certain obstructive conduct by the President, such as suborning perjury, intimidating witnesses, or fabricating evidence, because those prohibitions raise no separation-of-powers questions."

Trump committed every one of those infractions—facts that will become increasingly obvious over the next several days as article after article teases out all of Trump’s obstructive conduct.