After the November midterms established that the Democrats would once again take control of the House, speculation over whether the new Congress would revisit articles of impeachment against Pres. Donald Trump was rampant. Many pundits presented cautionary tales based on the unsuccessful impeachment of Bill Clinton, which if anything empowered the nation’s forty-second president.
Then there was the matter of grounds for impeachment. In early December, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) asserted that Trump had committed an impeachable offense if he directed former attorney Michael Cohen to pay hush money during to women claiming to have had extramarital affairs with him. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) insisted that Trump need not have committed any crime at all to be impeached. With public opinion evenly split on the subject om impeachment, it seemed as though if Democrats were going to press forward with this pipe dream at all, it wouldn’t happen until more pressing matters, such as health care (the issue that helped changes leadership of the House), infrastructure, and DACA had been attended to.
Not so fast. On Thursday, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) reintroduced articles of impeachment against President Trump. According to the report, the measure is the same one he introduced in July 2017, claiming Trump obstructed justice in the Russia collusion witch hunt being conducted by Robert Mueller.
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“Unsurprisingly, Republican leadership did not hold hearings on the Articles of Impeachment, H.Res. 438. On January 2nd, the 115th Congress ended, thus terminating all legislation that had been introduced earlier and had not been enacted into law. Accordingly, it’s necessary and appropriate to reintroduce the Articles of Impeachment. I have not changed the text. I continue to believe that Obstruction of Justice is the clearest, simplest, and most provable high crime and misdemeanor committed by Donald J. Trump,” Sherman said.
According to ABC News:
Fellow Democrat Congressman Al Green of Texas co-sponsored the reintroduced articles of impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors.
The articles are based on Article 1, dealing with “Obstruction of Justice,” which was passed by the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote on July 27, 1974, regarding Richard M. Nixon, according to a press release from Sherman’s office.
The Los Angeles Times says Sherman’s articles of impeachment accuse the president of obstructing justice by firing former FBI Director James B. Comey, among other alleged “wrongdoing.”
“I understand that a majority of our Democratic Caucus will want to wait until Special Counsel Robert Mueller completes his report, which I would hope will be issued in the next two to three months,” Sherman said. According to one former prosecutor, that point may be debatable.
The Times said incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ruled out impeachment before the midterm elections, telling PBS that any effort to oust Trump would have to be bipartisan and “the evidence would have to be so conclusive.”…
Even if Democrats vote to impeach Trump, it’s unlikely a GOP-controlled Senate would vote to remove him from office.
But Sherman says he’s not worried, noting that he has plenty more articles to introduce. Who knows: aybe he’ll try to impeach the president for using Russian dressing.
We now know what the 116th Congress will be doing for the next two years. In addition to destroying the U.S. economy for an entire generation of Americans while stripping law-abiding gun owners of their right to keep and bear arms, Democrats will be busy enacting what amounts to a coup d’etat against a sitting president for the heinous “crime” of defeating Hillary Clinton.
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