Nadler: Trump 'richly deserves impeachment'

WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) said Sunday that President Donald Trump “richly deserves impeachment,” but he stopped short of saying when or if House Democrats would open an impeachment inquiry.

“My personal view is that he richly deserves impeachment,” Nadler told CNN “State of the Union” anchor Jake Tapper when asked for his personal opinion on the question of impeachment. “He [Trump] has done many impeachable offenses. He's violated the law six ways from Sunday. But that's not the question. The question is, can we develop enough evidence to put before the American people?”

Nadler’s appearance came days after special counsel Robert Mueller testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees to reaffirm the findings of his nearly two-year investigation into Russian election interference and alleged attempts by Trump to obstruct the investigation. Nadler said the hearings were an “inflection point,” because Mueller’s testimony “showed quite clearly that the report did not exonerate the president,” despite Trump’s assertions of being cleared of wrongdoing.

Mueller’s report stated that investigators did not establish evidence of a coordinated effort between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives to influence the 2016 presidential election, but Mueller, citing a decades-old Justice Department policy that bars the indictment of a sitting president, has repeatedly noted that investigators declined to issue a legal opinion on whether Trump violated obstruction of justice laws during 10 episodes of such alleged obstruction.

In the months since the Mueller report dropped, House Democrats have been split on proceeding with an impeachment inquiry against Trump. A small contingent of Democrats pushing for impeachment, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have argued that Mueller’s 448-page report laid out sufficient information about Trump’s alleged attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation to open an impeachment inquiry. But House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, have argued that Democrat-led congressional committees must continue to collect more evidence and build their own case for the American public before taking action.

“We now have to get further evidence and put it before the American people as we consider articles of impeachment in the committee,” said Nadler, who on Friday announced the Judiciary Committee had filed a federal lawsuit demanding the Justice Department turn over all documents related to Mueller’s 22-month probe.

Nadler, when asked if he believed House Democrats should act before the 2020 presidential elections or any other self-imposed deadline to decide on impeachment, said, “No.”

“We have to defend the Constitution against these kinds of unconstitutional and illegal deeds. And we have to make sure that a president who does that, pays a penalty, so ... that that kind of conduct is not normalized and legalized, in effect, for the next president,” Nadler said. “So, we have to do this [in] whatever time frame there is. And we're doing it now.”

Trump, tweeting on Sunday before heading out to his Northern Virginia golf club, took aim at House Democrats, saying: “The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!”