The TIME for the impending impeachment of Donald Trump grows closer
From TIME;In response to:
Robert Mueller Told Congress They Can Prosecute the President. Now It Gets Ugly
Alana Abramson
Time•April 18, 2019
More than two years after Robert Mueller began investigating whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice, the special counsel offered the American people a sobering conclusion in his final report, released Thursday: The most powerful law enforcement officials in the country are not in a position to prosecute their boss, the President.
But Congress, Mueller said, is.
Despite witness testimony that Trump tried to get underlings to derail Mueller’s probe and lie under oath, Mueller and his team determined not to make a “traditional prosecutorial judgment” about whether the president violated the law that criminalizes obstruction of justice. That doesn’t mean Trump can do whatever he wants, though. “Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office,” Mueller wrote. That conclusion, he said, “accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.”
That Solomonic decision left some unsatisfied. For Trump opponents hoping for his ouster, Mueller’s apparent referral to Congress seemed like a punt. For Trump’s backers, it was a source of outrage. But at a moment when Americans see threats of government overreach on the left and the right, Mueller’s restraint has its merits. Rather than reaching to bring down a democratically elected president, Mueller has deferred directly to voters’ popularly elected officials on Capitol Hill.
Which is where things are likely to get ugly.
Democrats have heard Mueller’s message loud and clear. “Mueller makes a very powerful argument that the President can be found guilty of obstructing justice and he essentially puts the ball in the court of Congress,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, who sits on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, told TIME. The six Democratic chairs of the committees with the broadest oversight jurisdiction are also preparing for battle. “We are profoundly troubled by the astonishing efforts by President Trump identified in the report to obstruct the investigation, including his attempts to remove the Special Counsel and encourage witnesses to lie and to destroy or conceal evidence,” they wrote in a joint statement Thursday evening. “It must fall to Congress to assess the President’s improper, corrupt and immoral conduct in an effort to obstruct the investigation.”
Republicans for their part, are preparing to counter a new round of Democratic investigations with attacks of their own. Trump supporters are claiming Mueller’s refusal to prosecute Trump is vindication. “It seems nothing will stop Democrats in Congress from trying to get the President at all costs,” tweeted GOP Congressman Jim Jordan. Some Republicans say they want to launch their own probes into the origins of Mueller’s investigation. “We must take a hard look at how we got here and at the relevant issues that the Mueller report did not address,” wrote Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. “Were our premiere law enforcement and intelligence agencies co-opted by candidate Trump’s political opponents in an attempt to take him down? Did political bias or unverified claims taint decisions by senior agency officials?”
Just a few weeks ago, this renewed battle seemed unlikely. As Mueller’s probe wound to a close, and Attorney General William Barr declared the Special Counsel’s report had exonerated Trump, talk of taking Trump down was fading on Capitol Hill. Democrats were already inclined to dance around the issue of impeachment, taking pains to avoid moves that would be seen as overtly partisan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had dismissed the avenue just a month ago, declaring Trump’s “not worth it.”
Robert Mueller Told Congress They Can Prosecute the President. Now It Gets Ugly
Alana Abramson
Time•April 18, 2019
More than two years after Robert Mueller began investigating whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice, the special counsel offered the American people a sobering conclusion in his final report, released Thursday: The most powerful law enforcement officials in the country are not in a position to prosecute their boss, the President.
But Congress, Mueller said, is.
Despite witness testimony that Trump tried to get underlings to derail Mueller’s probe and lie under oath, Mueller and his team determined not to make a “traditional prosecutorial judgment” about whether the president violated the law that criminalizes obstruction of justice. That doesn’t mean Trump can do whatever he wants, though. “Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office,” Mueller wrote. That conclusion, he said, “accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.”
That Solomonic decision left some unsatisfied. For Trump opponents hoping for his ouster, Mueller’s apparent referral to Congress seemed like a punt. For Trump’s backers, it was a source of outrage. But at a moment when Americans see threats of government overreach on the left and the right, Mueller’s restraint has its merits. Rather than reaching to bring down a democratically elected president, Mueller has deferred directly to voters’ popularly elected officials on Capitol Hill.
Which is where things are likely to get ugly.
Democrats have heard Mueller’s message loud and clear. “Mueller makes a very powerful argument that the President can be found guilty of obstructing justice and he essentially puts the ball in the court of Congress,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, who sits on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, told TIME. The six Democratic chairs of the committees with the broadest oversight jurisdiction are also preparing for battle. “We are profoundly troubled by the astonishing efforts by President Trump identified in the report to obstruct the investigation, including his attempts to remove the Special Counsel and encourage witnesses to lie and to destroy or conceal evidence,” they wrote in a joint statement Thursday evening. “It must fall to Congress to assess the President’s improper, corrupt and immoral conduct in an effort to obstruct the investigation.”
Republicans for their part, are preparing to counter a new round of Democratic investigations with attacks of their own. Trump supporters are claiming Mueller’s refusal to prosecute Trump is vindication. “It seems nothing will stop Democrats in Congress from trying to get the President at all costs,” tweeted GOP Congressman Jim Jordan. Some Republicans say they want to launch their own probes into the origins of Mueller’s investigation. “We must take a hard look at how we got here and at the relevant issues that the Mueller report did not address,” wrote Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. “Were our premiere law enforcement and intelligence agencies co-opted by candidate Trump’s political opponents in an attempt to take him down? Did political bias or unverified claims taint decisions by senior agency officials?”
Just a few weeks ago, this renewed battle seemed unlikely. As Mueller’s probe wound to a close, and Attorney General William Barr declared the Special Counsel’s report had exonerated Trump, talk of taking Trump down was fading on Capitol Hill. Democrats were already inclined to dance around the issue of impeachment, taking pains to avoid moves that would be seen as overtly partisan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had dismissed the avenue just a month ago, declaring Trump’s “not worth it.”
(Continued in my first comment below)
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But Mueller’s apparently overt directive to Congress gave lawmakers newfound cover. In a move that is sure to activate the progressive wing of the party, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said after reading the report she would sign on to Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s impeachment resolution. “While I understand the political reality of the Senate + election considerations, upon reading this DoJ report, which explicitly names Congress in determining obstruction, I cannot see a reason for us to abdicate from our constitutionally mandated responsibility to investigate,” she wrote on Twitter. Other Democrats were more cautious. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said on April 18 that impeachment was just “one possibility” and said he would “follow the evidence where it leads.”
Part of the Democratic outrage was the result of Barr’s suggestion that Mueller had completely cleared the President. On March 24, Barr and his deputy Rod Rosenstein summarized Mueller’s report to say that Trump did not obstruct justice. But Democrats argue that Mueller declined to make such a judgement. “ made it sound as if was not up to the task and so he had to leave it to his boss,” said Raskin of the summary. “In fact assembled a huge inventory of misconduct with respect to obstruction but then said the Department of Justice has a number of policies that warn him away from making the ultimate legal judgement.”
Democrats’ next moves will be a series of rolling hearings and requests for documents. To start, they will call on both Barr and Mueller testify before Congress. Barr is slated to appear before the judiciary committees in both the Senate and House on May 1 and 2, respectively. Nadler has requested that Mueller appear before the judiciary committee by May 23. Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has also requested that Mueller testify. Barr said Wednesday that he would have no problem allowing that. Nadler, backed by House leadership, also announced he would enforce the subpoena he had authorized for the full report and its underlying evidence.
The day we realize that this crisis is bigger than what we "read", we might understand what is going on. Start with Kissinger saying.
It is the duty of Congress to do so.
Congress subpoenas full Mueller report, escalating battle with Trump’s Justice Department
The Independent
Chris Riotta,
23 hours ago
House Democrats issued a subpoena Friday for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian election interference, a day after Attorney General William Barr released a redacted version of the nearly 450-page document.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said in a statement he expects the Justice Department to comply by 1 May.
“It now falls to Congress to determine the full scope of that alleged misconduct and to decide what steps we must take going forward,” he said.
The subpoena has escalated a confrontation resulting between Congress and the Justice Department in the wake of the explosive report. Mr Barr, an appointee of Donald Trump, has been criticised for his handling of the report after the special counsel concluded its investigation, including his decision to hold a press conference defending the president hours before it was released to the public.
While the special counsel declined to prosecute Mr Trump on obstruction of justice, he did not exonerate the president, all but leaving the question to Congress.
Mr Mueller’s report provides fresh evidence of the president’s interference in the Russia investigation and challenges lawmakers to respond. The risks for both parties are clear if they duck the responsibility or prolong an inquiry that, rather than coming to a close, may be just beginning.
“My committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice,” Mr Nadler said in the statement.
But the committee’s top Republican, Doug Collins of Georgia, said the subpoena was “wildly overbroad” and that Mr Trump already declined to assert executive privilege in a move of “unprecedented openness.”
Mr Collins said Nadler was rushing the process for political gain.
“This is politically convenient,” Mr Collins said, allowing the chairman “to grandstand and rail against the attorney general for not cooperating on an impossible timeline.”
The attorney general sent Congress a redacted version of the report, blacking out several types of material, including classified information, material pertaining to ongoing investigations and grand jury evidence.
Mr Nadler said he is open to working with the department “to reach a reasonable accommodation for access to these materials, however I cannot accept any proposal which leaves most of Congress in the dark, as they grapple with their duties of legislation, oversight and constitutional accountability.”
The materials are due the day Mr Barr is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee and one day before the attorney general is set to appear before Mr Nadler’s committee. The chairmen also has summoned Mr Mueller to testify.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
If the congress is corrupt how can they protect the public a corrupt president or any other "politics"
The system needs to change.
The solution is to remove corrupt members,
and that is what the impeachment process is designed to do.
Furthermore is affirms the concept, that no one is above the law.
It makes corrupt individuals more hesitant to do corrupt actions,
as they realize, they may be next.
IMPEACH 45! IMPEACH 45!
I didn't refer to the Senate and House of Representatives as separate branches.
And for these purposes the only judicial action will be the Senate.
So, with regard to impeachment, my statement was accurate and more precise.
Neal Katyal: Mueller's Report Is 'The Beginning Of The End'
Neal Katyal, the man who wrote the rule on special counsel investigations, wants to point everyone's attention to footnote #1,091 of the Mueller report.