SPECIAL counsel Robert Mueller’s team has informed U.S. President Donald Trump’s the legal team that it would follow Justice Department guidance and not seek an indictment against Trump, according the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

“They can’t indict. At least they acknowledged that to us after some battling. They acknowledged that to us,” Giuliani told CNN on Wednesday. “All they get to do is write a report.”

Analysts say that the conclusion is likely based on longstanding guidelines by the Justice Department, but not about any assessment of the evidence the special counsel’s team has found.

The precedent that federal prosecutors cannot indict a sitting president is laid out in a 1999 Justice Department memo, but it has never been tested in court.

An absence of an indictment would not necessarily mean that Trump is in the clear. Mueller could submit a report making referrals or recommendations to the House of Representatives, which could decide what to do about the report and whether to pursue articles of impeachment.

During his interview with CNN, Giuliani also said that he will use the Mueller probe’s one-year mark to rachet up pressure on the investigation.

(Xinhua)