House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) were not on the same page about how many “high crimes and misdemeanors” to charge President Trump with, Politico reported.
Pelosi, as well as House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) and several members of the Democratic caucus and House lawyers, wanted to keep the articles of impeachment laser focused on the Ukraine pressure scheme. But Nadler, alongside House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), tried to make the case during a recent meeting for the inclusion of obstruction of justice, a conclusion laid out in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Pelosi has reportedly long held the belief that Democrats should keep its focus narrow and not muddy up a process that’s already been criticized by the right. Over the weekend, the decision to exclude the Mueller findings was made final, according to Politico, leading to the articles announcement the world witnessed on Tuesday morning.
Democrats plan to rely heavily on evidence Mueller presented in his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election in a report that will be included with the articles of impeachment during the Judiciary Committee vote this week. The plan is to use Mueller findings to illustrate obstruction and abuse of power as patterns Trump has followed throughout his presidency.
Dems claim the impeachment must proceed despite the lack of documents and testimony tied up in courts, pleading the lack of time to wait on court rulings. Yet I seem to remember they frittered away several months after taking over the House before finally getting to work in a serious fashion regarding the myriad crimes committed by Trumpco. Maybe if they had approached all of this with a pronounced sense of urgency from day one after taking over the chamber they wouldn’t be in this jam.
Lets see what happens with the financial records pending Friday
Spanky might lose it completely
He’ll try and fire the Supreme Court for not protecting him
Jam today, nah
Fritters should be sprinkled lightly with cinnamon sugar…
I don’t recall any sprinkles in Congress. Let me check my diary…
Pelosi probably knows now that the Democrats lost the public opinion messaging war about the Mueller Report.
The Mueller Report was issued March 23d. Congress still as not seen it.
I was watching Chris Matthews last night and he mentioned that in the past, multiple articles of impeachment were produced as an attempt to provide cover for opposing party members to vote against some and for others (because you only need 1 to pass). The panel commented that in the new Trump GOP there’s not going to be cross voting, it will be go down strict party lines so there’s no point in trying to give House GOPers an opportunity to vote against 3 articles and for 1 as a CYA.
I never thought about it that way