PeterS wrote:
How did it clear Trump? Explain how he was exonerated...
According to US Legal, exoneration refers to a court order that discharges a person from liability.
In criminal context the term exonerate refers to a state where a person convicted of a crime is later proved to be innocent.According to University of California Irvine Newkirk Center for Science & Society, University of Michigan Law School & Michigan State University College of Law,
an exoneration occurs when a person who has been convicted of a crime is officially cleared based on new evidence of innocence.A person has been exonerated if he or she was convicted of a crime and, following a post-conviction re-examination of the evidence in the case, was either: (1) declared to be factually innocent by a government official or agency with the authority to make that declaration; or (2) relieved of all the consequences of the criminal conviction by a government official or body with the authority to take that action.
According to Black's Law Dictionary, to exonerate someone is to remove the stain of being called out for blame, liability, or punishment.
It is more that just freeing an accused person of the responsibility for a criminal or otherwise illegal or wrongful act. It is publicly stating that the accused should never have been accused in the first place.Under our American system of justice, a person ACCUSED of a crime is innocent until proven guilty by trial in a court of law, and the burden of proof is upon the ACCUSER. (See "absolve" and "acquit")
Under our American system of justice, following an investigation in which the investigating agency feels sufficient evidence justifies prosecution, the investigating agency must submit an indictment of the ACCUSED to a grand jury or to the proper court. At this point, the investigating agency's job is over.
Under our American system of justice, a grand jury will convene to determine if the evidence is in fact sufficient to prosecute, or the proper court will convene to try the case.
Put simply,
Donald Trump was ACCUSED of the crime of obstruction of justice.
The investigating agency did not find sufficient evidence to justify issuing an indictment.
Therefore, no grand jury was convened to review the evidence, and no court was convened to prosecute.
Therefore, since Donald Trump WAS NOT convicted of the charges, and since to "exonerate" is publicly stating that the accused should never have been accused in the first place, under its legal definition "exoneration" does not apply in this case.
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