Democratic lawmakers — joined by a lone Republican — said Wednesday it was up to Congress to pursue the investigation into whether President Trump or his aides obstructed justice by trying to shut down the Russia probe.
“The ball is in our court, Congress,” tweeted Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, who is the only Republican in Congress to date to call for Trump to be impeached, after special counsel Robert Mueller resigned and essentially washed his hands of the matter — saying that his report speaks for itself.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler said Mueller’s remarks — which broke no new ground — still left open the question of whether Trump obstructed justice.
“He did not exonerate the President of the United States of obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice is a serious crime that strikes at the core of our justice system, and the Constitution points to Congress to take action to hold the President accountable,” Nadler said in a statement.
“It falls to Congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of President Trump — and we will do so. No one, not even the President of the United States, is above the law.”
Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, both Democratic presidential candidates, took it a step further, calling for impeachment hearings to begin.
“Robert Mueller’s statement makes it clear: Congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately,” Booker tweeted Wednesday.
Mueller noted that Justice Department policy precluded him from charging a sitting president with a crime.
But, he added, “the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting President of wrongdoing,” referring to Congress’ powers of impeachment.
“What Robert Mueller basically did was return an impeachment referral. Now it is up to Congress to hold this president accountable. We need to start impeachment proceedings. It’s our constitutional obligation,” said Harris.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while asserting that Congress would keep investigating, stopped short of using the “I” word.
“Special Counsel Mueller made clear that he did not exonerate the President. He stated that the decision not to indict stemmed directly from the Department of Justice’s policy that a sitting President cannot be indicted,” Pelosi said. “Despite Department of Justice policy to the contrary, no one is above the law — not even the President.
“The special counsel’s report revealed that the president’s campaign welcomed Russian interference in the election, and laid out 11 instances of the president’s obstruction of the investigation. The Congress holds sacred its constitutional responsibility to investigate and hold the president accountable for his abuse of power.”
Lindsey Graham, one of the president’s fiercest defenders, called for Congress to move on.
“Mr. Mueller has decided to move on and let the report speak for itself. Congress should follow his lead,” he said in a statement.
“As Mr. Mueller said today, the report speaks for itself. The report shows that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and any member or operative of the Russian government.”
