Impeachment pressure building as lawmakers return to Capitol

WASHINGTON — Pressure to launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump is building on House Democrats who return this week following special counsel Robert Mueller’s declaration that he could not exonerate the president of obstructing the investigation.

Mueller’s public statement that he could not clear the president of obstruction, and could not level criminal charges against Trump due to Justice Department policy, has spurred new calls among Democrats for House impeachment hearings.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said “nothing is off the table.”

But she said Democrats would continue with congressional committee hearings to make a compelling case to the public, and to convince the Republican-led Senate, that impeachment is best for the country.

“Many constituents want to impeach the president. But we want to do what is right and what gets results,” Pelosi said, speaking in California last week.

The full House returns to the Capitol on Tuesday following a week-long Memorial Day recess.

House Democrats had been eyeing a possible floor vote as early as this week on a charge of contempt of Congress for Attorney General William Barr, who ignored a committee subpoena for documents related to Mueller’s report on the investigation.

But Pelosi has urged her caucus to wait on the vote on Barr. Other White House aides and presidential advisers have also ignored congressional subpoenas, raising the possibility that Democratic leaders will combine contempt charges into one vote later.

The House Judiciary Committee voted last month to find Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to produce documents underlying the special counsel’s investigative report about the president, his campaign, and ties to Russian meddling in the presidential election.

Trump also has ordered former White House counsel Don McGahn to ignore the Judiciary Committee’s subpoena to testify.

The Mueller report cites McGahn testimony that the president sought to obstruct the special counsel’s probe, in part by ordering McGahn to fire Mueller, an action he never carried out.

Divide among Democrats

Although Pelosi favors grouping contempt votes, she has been reluctant to move too fast on aggressive actions against the president and his administration until Democrats demonstrate to the public the need for investigations that could lead to impeachment proceedings.

Mueller fueled impeachment talk last week when he announced in a 10-minute news conference that he did not have the confidence to clear the president of obstruction charges, but lacked the policy to pursue the matter in the criminal justice system.

His statement differed from one from Barr, who told Congress there was insufficient evidence to bring charges on obstruction. Mueller said he was bound by Justice Department policy from bringing charges against a sitting president, and noted the constitutional authority of the legislative branch to continue.

Some Democratic presidential hopefuls interpreted Mueller’s comments as a green light for impeachment proceedings.

Pelosi downplayed the divide in her caucus to begin impeachment proceedings, noting that less than 40 Democrats were clamoring for hearings and legislation to begin the process.

Democrats hold a 235-197 majority in the House, with three vacancies. Only one House Republican, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., has called for impeachment hearings.

Nevada’s House Democrats, Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, have so far backed Pelosi’s approach, even as Judiciary Committee members and lawmakers in the party’s liberal wing have clamored for impeachment proceedings.

Titus is leading one of the House investigations into the president’s business dealings and ownership of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which is in the Old Post Office, a federal building that leases the building for the hotel to Trump and his family.

“Far from exonerating President Trump, Robert Mueller made it clear today that the Department of Justice policy prevented him from bringing criminal charges against the president,” Titus said last week.

“It is now up to Congress to ensure that no person is above the law,” she said.

Horsford said he read the special counsel report “and it is clear that obstruction of justice occurred by this White House.”

‘Not about politics’

Mueller also detailed the deliberate actions by Russian officials to affect the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in favor of Trump.

Horsford said Congress has a duty to conduct the necessary review. “This is not about politics.”

“This is about the interference of a foreign actor in our national elections and the alleged obstruction of a federal investigation,” he said.

Despite Mueller’s statements, Trump has insisted the special counsel investigation exonerated him of wrongdoing. The president said he had nothing to do with Russian help to get him elected.

And Trump accused Mueller of having a conflict of interest, serving as a special counsel after the president said he rejected him for another appointment in the administration.

As for calls for impeachment, Trump accused Democrats and the media of collusion to remove him from office.

Even if the House impeached the president, the effort would likely die in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber, have made clear that any impeachment actions taken by the House will end there.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, held a hearing at which Barr testified and praised the attorney general for producing a thorough overview of the special counsel investigation that found the president did not collude with the Russians.

After Mueller spoke last week, Graham said “as for me, the case is over.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.