WASHINGTON: Top congressional Democrats left the door open on Sunday to pursue the impeachment of US 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.
Democratic Party leaders have cautioned against impeachment just 18 months before the 2020 presidential election, although prominent liberals have called for the start of proceedings to remove Trump from office since the release on Thursday of Mueller’s report.
US House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler, whose panel would spearhead any impeachment proceedings, said Democrats would press ahead with probes of Trump in Congress and “see where the facts lead us”.
“Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable,” Nadler told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Mueller’s report stopped short of concluding Trump had committed a crime, but it did not exonerate him either.
Mueller 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.
With Republicans standing by Trump, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has cautioned against an impeachment effort that would have no chance of success in the Republican-led Senate.
Democratic House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Congress needed to look at Trump’s finances and gauge Mueller’s intentions with his report. (Reuters)
