Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said Sunday that President Donald Trump is alleged to have engaged in “impeachable” offenses, but noted that “whether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question.”
In an interview with Nadler, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked whether, if accusations recently filed in the Southern District of New York are true, they would be considered impeachable for Trump.
“They would be impeachable offenses,” Nadler responded. “Whether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is different question. But certainly they’d be impeachable offenses, because even though they were committed before the President became President, they were committed in the service of fraudulently obtaining the office.”
Nadler said existing indictments and charging statements related to people in Trump’s orbit portrayed “a much broader conspiracy against the American people.”
Tapper pressed, asking what the difference was between an impeachable offense and an impeachable offense “important enough to actually begin proceedings of impeachment?”
“It’s not necessarily a difference, it’s simply two different considerations,” Nadler said. “You don’t necessarily launch an impeachment against the President because he committed an impeachable offense.”
“There are several things you have to look at: One, were there impeachable offenses committed? How many, et cetera? And secondly, how important were they? Do they rise to the gravity where you should undertake an impeachment?”
Watch below:
Nadler: "You don’t necessarily launch an impeachment against the President because he committed an impeachable offense.” pic.twitter.com/OUC2HcBpWD
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) December 9, 2018
As clear as fog.
What is the specific gravity of a blow job?
And third, would the Senate vote to convict?
What is the ground speed velocity of a blow job?
This is the political analogue of prosecutorial discretion. In the case of impeachment, another consideration (which he does not mention) is that even if you think that Trump’s offenses warrant his removal from office, you may judge that it is not worth pressing forward with the impeachment process if the prospects for conviction and removal are slim, as will be the case unless a substantial number of Republican Senators appear open to voting for his removal.