Six former South Florida federal prosecutors, including two who served as U.S. attorney, are among more than 400 nationally who signed a statement saying President Donald Trump would face an obstruction of justice charge were he not in office.

The former prosecutors, many of whom hold posts in Big Law as white-collar defenders, argued Special Counsel Robert Mueller III presented sufficient evidence to support an obstruction charge against Trump. The statement counters the opposite conclusion drawn by U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

“Each of us believes that the conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting president, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice,” the former prosecutors wrote in the letter posted on the site Medium.

The South Florida signatories are former U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Sloman of Stumphauzer Foslid Sloman Ross & Kolaya in Miami and Leon Kellner in Coral Gables; Norman Moscowitz and Jane Moscowitz of Moscowitz & Moscowitz in Coral Gables; Bruce Udolf in Fort Lauderdale; and Joseph McSorley in Palm Beach Gardens.

Other signers who served Democratic and Republican administrations, sometimes both, include Robert Weiner of Arnold & Porter, a former associate deputy attorney general; Geoffrey Graber, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and a former deputy associate attorney general; Lorin Reisner, a Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison partner who led the criminal division in the Southern District of New York; and Bradley Harsch, a special counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell and a former public-corruption prosecutor in New Jersey.

Mueller did not make a recommendation on obstruction of justice, but his report laid out nearly a dozen instances of alleged obstructive conduct. Mueller's report pointed to a Justice Department policy crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel stating the prosecution of a sitting president is out of bounds. Mueller's report did not exonerate Trump, and Mueller said he would say if he believed Trump had not committed a crime.

Barr and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, concluded Mueller's evidence did not amount to obstruction.

“Our determination was made without regard to, and is not based on, the constitutional considerations that surround the indictment and criminal prosecution of a sitting president,” Barr wrote in a March 24 letter to Congress. Defending the president, Barr later said at a news conference  that Trump was “frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency.”

Mueller presented evidence that Trump used his authority over others to try to “control and impede” the ongoing investigation of Russia interference in the 2016 election, according to the former prosecutors who signed onto the letter. That evidence included unsuccessfully pressuring then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his decision to recuse and the president's efforts to direct then-White House Counsel Donald McGahn to fire Mueller.

Attorney General Willam Barr.. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi

The statement by prosecutors said, “These are not matters of close professional judgment.” Defenses could be raised, the letter said, and “every accused person is presumed innocent and it is always the government's burden to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. But, to look at these facts and say that a prosecutor could not probably sustain a conviction for obstruction of justice  —  the standard set out in Principles of Federal Prosecution  —  runs counter to logic and our experience.”

Barr is facing pressure from House Democrats to release a full, unredacted copy of Mueller's report. The House Judiciary Committee is expected to move forward with a contempt vote Wednesday, potentially pushing the dispute to Washington's federal trial court.

Mueller, meanwhile, hasn't spoken about his work on the 448-page report. But a House Judiciary Committee member said Sunday that the committee was trying to arrange a time for Mueller to testify.

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