Democrats push Trump probe schedule risking campaign clash
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[July 26, 2019]
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A day after former
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's high-profile testimony, House
Democrats vowed to push forward with an investigation of President
Donald Trump that could delay any move on impeachment into the 2020
election campaign season.
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee is expected to move its
obstruction investigation of the president into federal court this week
with a lawsuit to compel former White House Counsel Don McGahn to
testify and a separate legal request for access to the Mueller probe's
grand jury evidence.
McGahn is key to the committee's obstruction case against Trump, and
Democrats contend that obtaining a court order forcing McGahn to comply
would break what House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler called a
“logjam” of uncooperative witnesses created White House stonewalling.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday postponed a vote to
hold Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway in contempt for defying a
subpoena to appear at a hearing on allegations that she violated laws
limiting the political activity of federal employees.
The full House voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt last week for defying House
Oversight subpoenas related to the U.S. Census. Barr's Justice
Department declined to pursue criminal charges against the two
officials.
"We need to hear from a few more witnesses who are key characters in the
Mueller report," Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin said of the
investigation by the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over
impeachment.
But as Democratic members of the committee contemplate court action now
and fresh hearings later in the year, the clock for any move toward
impeachment appeared to be ticking down.
Lawmakers are due to leave Washington on Friday for a six-week break.
Legal action could tie Democrats up in court for months, during which
time Congress and the public are expected to pivot to the 2020 election
campaign.
TIME TO MOVE?
Democratic Representative John Garamendi told CNN that if lawmakers do
not move forward with starting impeachment proceedings now "the risk is
that we have abandoned our responsibility."
Nadler told House Democrats on Wednesday that committee chairs could
begin drafting articles of impeachment against Trump. But Politico
reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuffed the idea as premature.
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U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) holds a press event on
the first 200 days of the 116th Congress at the U.S. Capitol in
Washington, U.S., July 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert
Democrats had hoped Mueller's testimony on Wednesday would be a
watershed event capable of persuading the public to see Trump as a
lawless president and sparking a formal impeachment inquiry.
Mueller made it clear that he did not exonerate Trump of wrongdoing
and helped highlight possible evidence of obstruction in his
448-page report. But his testimony appeared to do little to change
opinions about Trump.
"The next step for us, after we had Mueller here ... (is)
essentially to put on the evidence of obstruction of justice, and
that means bringing in all the people who were subject, starting
with McGahn," said Representative Ted Deutch, a Judiciary Democrat.
McGahn, who was a star witness in Mueller's 448-page final report,
has refused to testify to Nadler's committee at the direction of the
White House.
Democrats view him as a central figure in their probe into whether
Trump tried to obstruct Mueller's inquiry. McGahn testified to
Mueller that Trump instructed him to have the special counsel
removed and to deny having been told to do so.
Testimony from McGahn to that effect at an open hearing could give
Democrats the evidence they need for an impeachment inquiry. McGahn
declined to testify earlier this year, after the White House
directed him not to cooperate with the committee.
Mueller's report on his 22-month investigation, released in
mid-April, found insufficient evidence to allege that the Trump
campaign conspired with Moscow in its effort to help Trump get
elected in 2016, although campaign officials met with Russians.
The report provided no view on whether Trump tried to obstruct
Mueller's inquiry. Both issues dominated the Wednesday hearings, in
which Mueller emphasized he had not exonerated Trump of obstruction
of justice, as the president has claimed, but sometimes struggled to
keep up with lawmakers' questions and gave occasionally halting
answers.
(Reporting by David Morgan; additional reporting by Richard Cowan
and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bill Trott)
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