House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers Monday that there are no plans to immediately open impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, rejecting calls from several Democrats to initiate steps to try to oust the president.
In a rare Monday night conference call, the California Democrat stressed that the near-term strategy in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report is to focus on investigating the president and seeing where the inquiries lead. Members of Pelosi’s leadership team reaffirmed her cautious approach, according to four officials on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
“We have to save our democracy. This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. It’s about saving our democracy,” Pelosi said.
But Pelosi’s message did not go over well with several Democrats, who argued that Congress has a duty to hold Trump to account with impeachment despite the political blowback Pelosi has long feared.
Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, argued that as someone with more than 25 years of experience in law enforcement, she thought the House had enough evidence to proceed.
“While I understand we need to see the full report and all supporting documents, I believe we have enough evidence now,” Demings said.
Mueller, in the 448-page redacted report released last week, identified 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by Trump but he did not find that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.
The report has divided Democrats, with several clamoring for impeachment, notably White House candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., while others argue such a step is futile with the GOP controlling the Senate. Several Democrats maintain that impeachment would embolden Trump and his Republican backers ahead of the 2020 election.
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Rachael Bade, Karoun Demirjian, Jacqueline Alemany ·
{Matzav.com}
(Tea Party PAC) – The President is clearly done with taking the Presidential harassment sitting down, and has gone on the offensive.
This week, President Donald Trump’s legal team is suing the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, Elijah Cummints (D-MD) to block a subpoena for financial records from an accounting firm used by the Trump organization.
The President’s attorneys wrote that the subpoena “lacks any legitimate legislative purpose, is an abuse of power, and is just another example of overreach by the president’s political opponents,” in the lawsuit, which was filed Monday with the US District Court in the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit goes on to accuse Cummings of also failing to consult with his Republican colleagues on the committee before he issued the subpoena, saying that he relied on the testimony of Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Cohen told lawmakers in a testimony before Congress in February that some of Trump’s financial statements had inaccuracies. Cohen had already plead guilty last year to lying to Congress in 2017 about a real estate deal involving the president of Moscow.
Rep. Cummings issued his subpoena earlier this month to the firm Mazars USA, an accountant for the president, and his real estate firm. Cummings also sent a letter to Mazars CEO Victor Wahba, demanding records for the panel’s probe into whether or not the president had misrepresented the value of certain of his assets.
“Mr. Cohen produced to the Committee financial statements from 2011, 2012, and 2013 that raise questions about the President’s representations of his financial affairs on these forms and on other disclosures, particularly relating to the President’s debts,” wrote Cummings. “Several of these documents appear to have been signed by your firm.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the ranking member of the committee, described the document request as “unprecedented abuse.”
“The Cohen hearing was a partisan stunt, not a good-faith effort to obtain accurate testimony from a reliable witness,” the Trump lawsuit continued. “Democrats are using their new control of congressional committees to investigate every aspect of President Trump’s personal finances, businesses, and even his family.”
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said of the lawsuit in a statement to NBC News that “We will not allow congressional presidential harassment to go unanswered.”
This lawsuit comes after the House Judiciary Committee began a broad investigation into the President, his administration, his campaign, and his personal businesses, famously sending document requests to 81 people and companies linked to Trump and his associates.
Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has said that his investigation will focus on possible obstruction of justice, corruption, and abuse of power.
The 81 entities on the receiving end of Nadler’s document requests touch every aspect of the President’s private and public life; his businesses, his campaign, and the committees that oversaw his transition to the White House.
There are also people among these names that are linked to the Russian interference with the 2016 election, including those involved with the infamous Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer in 2016.
In a letter to the White House, the committee requested information regarding former FBI Director James Comey’s notorious termination, communications with Justice Department officials, the Trump Tower meeting, and several other issues.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that the White House had received the letter, and that “the counsel’s office and relevant White House officials will review it and respond at the appropriate time.”
On the list are two of the President’s children, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as several of his current and former advisers, among them Steve Bannon. It also includes the Trump Foundation, which is currently being shut down after agreeing to a court-supervised process, as well as officials at the FBI and the Justice Department.
If only they would examine the Obama administration so carefully.
Then they’d turn up all the evidence of wrongdoing they could dream of!
Please, pretty please star impeachment proceedings. The more you morons keep attacking Trump the bigger the landslide he will win in 2020 and the bigger the Republican majorities will be in 2020. What a bunch of losers.