The post-Mueller report political landscape continues to take shape in dramatic fashion, with more and more Democrats on the side of impeaching President Donald Trump over what the document contains, including now House Judiciary Committee member Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.). Although Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team concluded there was no criminally prosecutable conspiracy between the Trump team and Russia, they did not conclude similarly about possible obstruction of justice. Quite simply, they declined to bring charges on that front at least in large part because of technical issues in charging a president of the United States, not because of a lack of clear guilt.
Cicilline discussed this fact this week on MSNBC, where he became one of the latest lawmakers in a growing list to suggest that it’s time to impeach Donald Trump. As he put it:
‘We know for a fact obstruction of justice is an impeachable offense. There’s no question about that. That is what’s set forth in the special counsel’s report. We have additional evidence to collect, but I think it’s quite clear that the president committed offenses which constitute impeachable offenses.’
As he indicates, Mueller’s report outlines a number of instances of obstruction of justice in which the president’s criminal intent ended up quite clear. Those situations include Trump’s directive to now former White House Counsel Don McGahn to get Mueller out — which he refused — and his concurrent effort to have former campaign manager Corey Lewandowksi carry a message to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit the scope of the Russia investigation to future election interference. Mueller explains that it’s pretty clear that the president wasn’t just operating on a technicality — rather, he was actively trying to conceal his and his team’s actions from authorities.
To say that allowing that behavior to operate unchecked could set a dangerous precedent would be an understatement. Quite simply, what if Trump was, in fact, guilty of a criminally prosecutable electoral conspiracy with a hostile foreign power and not just buried under mountains of evidence driven in large part by egomania? Trump, or another president, could get away with selling the United States out to the Russians — quite literally, considering at one point potential financial kickbacks via Trump Tower Moscow — and America might be none the wiser.
Although Americans — and more specifically, Democrats — will soon get the chance to kick Trump out of office via the 2020 presidential elections, they have the chance in the meantime to flatly condemn Trump’s behavior via impeachment — and the push that direction is growing. House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) admitted this week he “may very well” be ready to move forward with articles of impeachment.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and South Bend, Indiana’s Mayor Pete Buttigieg have said they believe Trump should be impeached — although the mayor only offered that he was “pretty sure” and punted the question to Congress.
A number of Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) are still resisting the idea.
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