House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said in an interview with CNN Thursday that “formal impeachment proceedings” are underway, prompting GOP Rep. Doug Collins to call him out for being off the mark.
“This is formal impeachment proceedings,” Nadler told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “We are investigating all the evidence, gathering the evidence. And we will [at the] conclusion of this — hopefully by the end of the year — vote articles of impeachment to the House floor. Or we won’t. That’s a decision that we’ll have to make. But that’s exactly the process we’re in right now.”
"This is formal impeachment proceedings."
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) August 8, 2019
Speaking with @ErinBurnett, House Judiciary Chairman @RepJerryNadler clarifies the debate of impeachment inquiry versus actual impeachment.https://t.co/dsiXkstqvp pic.twitter.com/UN1SunqjNV
Nadler's comments come after House Judiciary Democrats last month asked a federal court to provide the House with confidential grand jury material from former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The lawsuit said the panel was conducting its investigation to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment; Nadler said it was "in effect" an impeachment inquiry.
On Wednesday, the panel filed a lawsuit against former White House counsel Don McGahn. McGahn has defied the committee's subpoena for testimony regarding allegations that Trump obstructed justice in Mueller's investigation.
“The Judiciary Committee is now determining whether to recommend articles of impeachment against the president based on the obstructive conduct described by the special counsel,” the filing stated. Democrats wrote that McGahn is the committee’s “most important fact witness in its consideration of whether to recommend articles of impeachment.”
Nadler said Monday that his committee could decide whether to move forward with articles of impeachment against Trump by late fall, but warned that such a decision requires certain conditions. (The Hill)
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But Collins, the ranking member of the committee, said he’s either uninformed or misleading the public about what the committee is actually doing.
“Chairman Nadler is either uniformed about what a formal impeachment inquiry is or he is deliberately misleading the American public to score cheap political points,” he tweeted, posting video of the interview. “Which is it, Chairman?”
Chairman Nadler is either uniformed about what a formal impeachment inquiry is or he is deliberately misleading the American public to score cheap political points. Which is it, Chairman? #moveon https://t.co/OYa3euFPEz
— Rep. Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) August 9, 2019
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