A5
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019
Waterfront: ‘There
are so many variables’
Continued from Page A1
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Special counsel Robert Mueller speaks at the Department of Justice.
Mueller: Russia report
did not exonerate Trump
By ERIC TUCKER,
MICHAEL BALSAMO
and CHAD DAY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Spe-
cial counsel Robert Muel-
ler said Wednesday that
charging President Donald
Trump with a crime was “not
an option” because of fed-
eral rules, but he used his fi rst
public remarks on the Rus-
sia investigation to emphasize
that he did not exonerate the
president.
“If we had had confi dence
that the president clearly
did not commit a crime, we
would have said so,” Mueller
declared.
The special counsel’s
remarks stood as a pointed
rebuttal to Trump’s repeated
claims that he was cleared and
that the two-year inquiry was
merely a “witch hunt.” They
also marked a counter to crit-
icism, including by Attorney
General William Barr, that
Mueller should have reached
a determination on whether
the president illegally tried to
obstruct the probe by taking
actions such as fi ring his FBI
director.
Mueller made clear that
his team never considered
indicting Trump because the
Justice Department prohib-
its the prosecution of a sitting
president.
“Charging the president
with a crime was therefore
not an option we could con-
sider,” Mueller said. He said
he believed such an action
would be unconstitutional.
Mueller did not use the
word ‘impeachment,” but
said it was the job of Con-
gress — not the criminal jus-
tice system — to hold the
president accountable for any
wrongdoing.
The special counsel’s
statement largely echoed the
central points of his 448-page
report, which was released last
month with some redactions.
But his remarks, just under 10
minutes long and delivered
from a Justice Department
podium, were extraordinary
given that he had never before
discussed or characterized his
fi ndings and had stayed mute
during two years of feverish
public speculation.
Mueller, a former FBI
director, said Wednesday that
his work was complete and he
was resigning to return to pri-
vate life.
His remarks underscored
the unsettled resolution,
and revelations of behind-
the-scenes discontent, that
accompanied the end of his
investigation. His refusal to
reach a conclusion on crim-
inal obstruction opened the
door for Barr to clear the pres-
ident, who in turn has cited
the attorney general’s fi nding
as proof of his innocence.
‘IF WE HAD HAD
CONFIDENCE
THAT THE
PRESIDENT
CLEARLY DID
NOT COMMIT
A CRIME, WE
WOULD HAVE
SAID SO.’
Special counsel
Robert Mueller
Trump, given notice Tues-
day evening that Mueller
would speak the next morn-
ing, watched on television.
For weeks, he had been ner-
vous about the possibility
about the special counsel tes-
tifying before Congress, wor-
ried about the visual power of
such a public appearance.
Shortly after Mueller con-
cluded, the president who has
repeatedly and falsely claimed
that the report cleared him of
obstruction of justice, tweeted
a subdued yet still somewhat
inaccurate reaction: “Noth-
ing changes from the Muel-
ler Report. There was insuffi -
cient evidence and therefore,
in our Country, a person is
innocent. The case is closed!
Thank you”
While claiming victory, the
tone of the president’s tweet
was a far cry from the refrain
of “total exoneration” that has
dominated his declarations.
Mueller has privately
vented to Barr about the attor-
ney general’s handling of the
report, while Barr has pub-
licly said he was taken aback
by the special counsel’s deci-
sion to neither exonerate nor
incriminate the president.
Under pressure to testify
before Congress, Mueller did
not rule it out. But he seemed
to warn lawmakers that they
would not be pulling more
detail out of him. His report is
his testimony, he said.
“So beyond what I have
said here today and what
is contained in our written
work,” Mueller said, “I do not
believe it is appropriate for
me to speak further about the
investigation or to comment
on the actions of the Justice
Department or Congress.”
Mueller’s comments, one
month after the public release
of his report on Russian efforts
to help Trump defeat Demo-
crat Hillary Clinton, appeared
intended to both justify the
legitimacy of his investiga-
tion against complaints by the
president and to explain his
decision to not reach a con-
clusion on whether Trump
had obstructed justice in the
probe.
He described wide-rang-
ing and criminal Russian
efforts to interfere in the elec-
tion, including by hacking
and spreading disinformation
— interference that Trump
has said Putin rejected to his
face in an “extremely strong
and powerful” denial.
And Mueller called the
question of later obstruc-
tion by Trump and his cam-
paign a matter of “paramount
importance.”
Mueller said the absence
of a conclusion on obstruc-
tion should not be mistaken
for exoneration.
A Justice Department legal
opinion “says the Constitu-
tion requires a process other
than the criminal justice sys-
tem to formally accuse a sit-
Port: Faces more than $20M in maintenance
Continued from Page A1
Port staff estimates
$480,000 is spent each year
maintaining Pier 1, where
the Coast Guard periodi-
cally orders ships in need of
repair. The $300 fee was cal-
culated based on the cost of
maintaining the pier divided
by an average of 1,500 ships
per year passing upriver.
The fee would be the
largest single increase in
revenue next year for a Port
strapped for cash, suffer-
ing a loss of log export rev-
enue during a protracted
trade war between the U.S.
and China and facing more
than $20 million in deferred
maintenance.
Michael Haglund, a mar-
itime attorney contracted by
the Port to research the fee,
has couched its legitimacy
in a previous U.S. Supreme
Court case in which the Ala-
bama State Docks Commis-
sion was allowed to charge
passing ships near Mobile a
fee for policing.
Haglund estimates an
appeal of the Port’s fee all
the way to the Supreme
Court would cost $75,000,
said Jim Knight, the Port’s
executive director, at a
recent budget hearing.
The Port would be also
allowed to recoup the legal
costs from shippers through
higher fees, Knight said.
The steamship operators’
governing board recently
invited Knight to a meet-
ing at the law offi ces of
Schwabe Williamson &
Wyatt in Portland to begin
discussions on an alternative
to the fee. The association
asked him to postpone the
fee until alternative sources
of revenue could be found,
but Knight said he countered
with imposing the fee until a
viable alternative arose .
“There could be an action
taken against the Port, but
the (association’s) board
of directors seems hesitant
to want to take that step,”
Knight said.
John Lansing, chairman
of the Port’s budget commit-
tee, disagreed with Knight’s
assessment.
“The conversations I’ve
had with director Mickel-
son seem to not quite coex-
ist with what you’re saying
right now,” Lansing said at
the budget hearing. “I think
our attorney’s going to be
going up against Schwabe
Williamson & Wyatt, and
we’re going to get our heads
handed to us.”
ting president of wrong-
doing,” Mueller said. That
would shift the next move,
if any, to Congress, and the
Democratic chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee,
which would investigate fur-
ther or begin any impeach-
ment effort, commented
quickly.
New York Rep. Jerrold
Nadler said it falls to Congress
to respond to the “crimes, lies
and other wrongdoing of Pres-
ident Trump — and we will
do so.” House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi has so far discouraged
members of her caucus from
demanding
impeachment,
believing it would only help
Trump win re-election and
arguing that Democrats need
to follow a methodical, step
by step approach to investi-
gating the president. But she
hasn’t ruled it out.
“So to me the issue is
not necessarily height,” he
said.
City staff will need to
fi gure out how to apply
Moore’s idea to the mix of
lots found in Bridge Vista,
but said there is prece-
dent for this approach else-
where in city codes.
Moore had been against
restricting new build-
ing height in Bridge Vista
to 28 feet. The concept
was popular among peo-
ple concerned about large
hotel proposals and pre-
serving river access and
views, but Moore said he
saw little support for the
idea in the city’s existing
codes.
All of the planning
commissioners were inter-
ested in plan districts, a
concept requested by the
Port of Astoria and rep-
resentatives of Astoria
Warehousing in April. The
waterfront property own-
ers have urged for more
fl exibility within Bridge
Vista . They believe a plan
district, which delineates
particular areas within
Bridge Vista and requires a
separate master plan, could
provide more options for
future development.
Between them, the Port
and Astoria Warehous-
ing control the proper-
ties where substantial new
development would most
likely occur .
On Tuesday, planning
commissioners differed in
their opinions on whether
the plan districts would
be able to construct taller
buildings than what would
be allowed in the rest of
Bridge Vista.
In a presentation to the
Planning Commission, Jim
Knight, the Port’s exec-
utive director , discussed
the need for a community
vision ahead of any master
plan for a plan district.
He did not drill into
specifi cs of what he hoped
could be developed at indi-
vidual properties or why
less stringent codes were
necessary for future devel-
opment at the Port . Instead,
he focused on the possibil-
ity of creating large open
spaces and holding more
events on the waterfront.
Price told Knight she
needed to “address the ele-
phant in the room.” Open
spaces and waterfront
access are all things the
Port could undertake now,
she said. Also, she asked,
referencing the Port’s dire
fi nancial circumstances,
given the internal turmoil
and other issues, when the
agency would get around
to a master plan for the
type of community ameni-
ties highlighted in Knight’s
presentation?
The Port would take it
one step at a time, Knight
responded.
The city is in the mid-
dle of developing a vision
for the Uniontown neigh-
borhood. The Port is wrap-
ping up work on a fi ve-
year strategic plan.
“There are so many
variables and such import-
ant decisions to make that a
vision for what this would
look like in the future is far
more important than con-
testing individual building
codes,” Knight said out-
side of the meeting.
People who attended
the meeting also ques-
tioned what will happen
at the Port or properties
included in the plan dis-
tricts that may be in the
hands of other developers.
Chris Farrar, of Astoria,
a county planning commis-
sioner, said he liked what
Knight showed the group.
“I just really question if
that will happen,” he said.
Staff will present the
Planning Commission with
draft codes for the plan dis-
tricts and the amendments
to Bridge Vista at a meet-
ing in June.
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