President Trump’s Ukraine phone call saga is here to stay. More stories on the matter are coming up every now and then. There was an interesting story in Election Law Blog on what might have been an attempt by the Justice Department to shield Trump from the political and legal ramifications that were creeping from the call.

According to the report,

Justice Department officials took less than a month to abandon an inquiry into President Trump’s communications with his Ukrainian counterpart about investigating former vice president Joe Biden — reigniting concerns among Democrats and legal observers that the law enforcement agency is serving as a shield for the commander in chief.

Just weeks after intelligence leaders asked the Justice Department and FBI to consider examining a summer phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the head of the department’s criminal division determined there was not sufficient cause even to launch an investigation, senior Justice Department officials said….

Even before the Justice Department’s decision was made public, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Democrats would conduct an impeachment inquiry into Trump — which need not find technical violations of campaign finance or bribery laws.

“It is still within Congress’s power to impeach and remove by viewing this as an abuse of power,” said Richard L. Hasen, a University of California at Irvine law professor specializing in election law. “Whether it’s a crime is secondary to the impeachment inquiry. It could be relevant if Trump is out of office and somebody wants to try to prosecute him.”…

Get the full story here.