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Top Democrats leave open option of Trump impeachment after Mueller report


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Top Democrats leave open option of Trump impeachment after Mueller report

By Sarah N. Lynch and Yasmeen Abutaleb

 

2019-04-21T142641Z_1_LYNXNPEF3K0GK_RTROPTP_4_USA-TRUMP.JPG

U.S. President Donald Trump walks to board Air Force One as they travel to Florida for Easter weekend, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Al Drago

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top congressional Democrats left the door open on Sunday to the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump, but said they would first need to complete their own investigations into whether he obstructed justice in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

 

Some party leaders have cautioned against impeachment just 18 months before the 2020 presidential election, although prominent liberals have demanded the start of proceedings to remove Trump from office since the release on Thursday of a redacted version of Mueller's report.

 

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, whose panel would spearhead any impeachment proceedings, said Democrats would press ahead with investigations of Trump in Congress and "see where the facts lead us.""Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable," Nadler said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

 

The redacted version of Mueller's long-awaited report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, the product of a 22-month-long investigation, outlined multiple instances where Trump tried to thwart the probe. While it stopped short of concluding Trump had committed a crime, it did not exonerate him.

 

Mueller also noted that Congress has the power to address whether Trump violated the law, and Democrats said it would be a matter of discussion in the coming weeks.

 

"That's going to be a very consequential decision and one I'm going to reserve judgement on until we have a chance to fully deliberate on it," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on "Fox News Sunday."

 

Democrats in the House of Representatives planned a conference call for Monday afternoon to discuss their next steps in response to the Mueller report. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote lawmakers last week to notify them of the call "to discuss this grave matter."

 

Nadler has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department to hand over the full, unredacted Mueller report and other relevant evidence by May 1, although the Justice Department called the request "premature and unnecessary."

 

Before drawing any conclusions, Nadler said Democrats would want to see those materials as well as hear from Mueller and Attorney General William Barr, who is scheduled to testify in early May. Nadler also said he would call former White House counsel Donald McGahn to testify.

 

Republicans have stood by Trump, and Speaker Pelosi has cautioned against an impeachment effort that would have no chance of success in the Republican-led Senate.

 

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren became the first major contender for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination to call for the start of impeachment, saying on Friday that "the severity of this misconduct" demanded it.

 

Julian Castro, former housing secretary under President Barack Obama and another 2020 contender, joined Warren in backing the launch of impeachment proceedings.

 

Democratic House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said on CBS television's "Face the Nation" that he could foresee possible impeachment proceedings against Trump, "but I'm not there yet."

 

He also said Congress needed to look at Trump's finances and gauge Mueller's intentions with his report. But even if Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic impeachment effort, Cummings said: "I think history would smile upon us for standing up for the Constitution."

 

Representative Tim Ryan, another Democratic presidential contender, said the party should wait until multiple ongoing investigations of Trump in Congress have had a chance to uncover more evidence.

 

"Let the process play itself out," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "I would just rather us take this next step: educate the American people, really get these details out, let the Judiciary Committee do its work."

 

Trump, who has repeatedly called the investigation a "witch hunt," has claimed vindication from Mueller's report. Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's lawyers, sought to undermine the credibility of Mueller's investigators on NBC's "Meet the Press."

 

"I don't think his people are fair," Giuliani said of Mueller's team. "I don't think that report is fair."

 

While Trump's team had indicated it would release a rebuttal to Mueller's report, Giuliani said that was not imminent although it would probably be released at some point.

 

"We planned to do it if we needed to. So far, we don't think we need to," he said on Fox News Sunday.

 

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Yasmeen Abutaleb; additional reporting by John Whitesides and Tim Ahmann; writing by John Whitesides; editing by Bill Berkrot and G Crosse)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-22

 

Posted
2 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

Lots of luck with the impeachment thing Dems. 

First you have to have grounds and you have none. 

MAGA! 

Impeachment is a political thing. I don't think they need "grounds".

They can impeach on anything, but it's up to the senate to reject anything based on rubbish.

Fair enough, as a really bad president could operate within the legal framework, and impeachment allows those bad actors to be removed from power.

So, Trump can be impeached for anything, but the senate will not support. Anyway, even if they did get rid of Trump, Pence will destroy them. They should be careful what they wish for.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

Lots of luck with the impeachment thing Dems. 

First you have to have grounds and you have none. 

MAGA! 

Ono I disagree lots of grounds but pragmaticly with the Republican senators so terrified the votes aren’t there and Donald’s failures are a rich bounty of reasons to run against him in a normal fashion rember he ran against a very unpopular woman and we all know misogyny is alive in this and other country’s 

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Posted
12 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I just read an article how many republicans, who are still in the senate now, voted to impeach Clinton. I wonder if those politicians will look at the same standards with Trump or if they think Clinton was guilty of obstruction of justice and Trump is not.

 

Even the most die hard republicans should be able to see that Trump is a disgrace to the position of the presidency and a nightmare to present them as the leader of the free word. If this is how you want to be represented then don't be surprised if nobody in the word wants to support you anymore.

in your biased narrow opinion of course

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

There is no point impeaching Trump in the House when Republicans in the Senate will not pass the impeachment.

 

Meanwhile the Mueller report reveals the existence of 14 on -going investigations amongst which are 12 previously unreported indictments.

 

The details of these are redacted, but the indictments are in process and will become public as arrests are

made.

 

Let the Republicans cling to their sinking Trump, cling real tight and don’t let go.

what indictments precisely are you referring to?

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Posted
4 minutes ago, elmrfudd said:

Democrats are in no way held to a "higher" standard, but the certainly do get away with a DOUBLE standard in the compliant media echo chamber

 

 

 

They are held to a higher standard by the populace, not the media. Which as Thainess pointed out, they set for themselves.

 

 

 

 

Posted
2 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

They are held to a higher standard by the populace, not the media.

 

The media machine sure is compliant in providing them cover though, especially lately, and especially since Trump got elected. Its always been about ratings and viewers and truth be damned but lately its almost laughable, and people see it. Its 90% 'opinion' and 'analysis' and 10% actual news and truth and apparently as long as you frame what you say as 'analysis' and 'possibly' you can say whatever ridiculous crap you want and its fine. 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Thainesss said:

 

The media machine sure is compliant in providing them cover though, especially lately, and especially since Trump got elected. Its always been about ratings and viewers and truth be damned but lately its almost laughable, and people see it. Its 90% 'opinion' and 'analysis' and 10% actual news and truth and apparently as long as you frame what you say as 'analysis' and 'possibly' you can say whatever ridiculous crap you want and its fine. 

You really shouldn't watch that crap. No one should. You can get a very clear sense of what's going on without ever watching a cable news program, or reading the Washington Post or The Wall StreetJournal or the NY Times. If something important enough happens, believe me, you'll hear about it.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Thainesss said:

 

Probably because Clinton actually committed perjury and actually obstructed justice, and Trump didn't. 

And in other news from Lala Land......

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Posted
1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

just read an article how many republicans, who are still in the senate now, voted to impeach Clinton. I wonder if those politicians will look at the same standards with Trump

 

Nope:

 

 

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Posted
45 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

 

They are held to a higher standard by the populace, not the media. Which as Thainess pointed out, they set for themselves.

 

 

 

 

there is nothing to show that in any way. except spin of course.

 

as soon as you make these kinds of assumptions of some "higher standard" 

than the other side you have completely lost any objectivity.

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