House Judiciary chair: We have begun 'formal impeachment proceedings'

Congress is already in the midst of impeachment proceedings, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN Thursday night.

“This is formal impeachment proceedings,” Nadler declared when asked. “We are investigating all the evidence, we’re gathering the evidence and we will, at the conclusion of this, hopefully by the end of the year, vote articles of impeachment to the house floor or we won’t.”

The acknowledgment that impeachment proceedings are ongoing is the latest incremental step by Nadler in the constitutional process to remove a sitting president from office.

Earlier in the interview, Nadler reiterated the evidence Congress learned from both special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Trump’s malfeasance as well as Mueller’s testimony before Congress.

“The hearing that we had gave the lie to three things the president and the attorney general were saying,” Nadler explained. “They were saying the Mueller report exonerated the president, that it showed no collusion, and no obstruction.”

“To the contrary all three statements are false,” he added. The report and Mueller’s testimony did not exonerate Trump, it showed evidence that the Trump campaign welcomed help from Russia, and it laid out numerous instances of Trump obstructing justice.

On Wednesday, Nadler fulfilled his promise to go to court to force Trump’s former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress. McGahn was served a subpoena to appear, but he ignored it at the urging of the White House. The language in the lawsuit to force McGahn to testify gives further evidence that Nadler is on the road to impeachment.

“McGahn is the Judiciary Committee’s most important fact witness in its consideration of whether to recommend articles of impeachment and its related investigation of misconduct by the president, including acts of obstruction of justice described in the special counsel’s report,” the court filing says.

A majority of House Democrats support opening an impeachment inquiry, and Nadler is saying that he is already starting one.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.