Prosecutors for the first time link Trump to a federal crime of illegal payments to buy the silence of two women in the 2016 campaign.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 Top House Democrats on Sunday raised the prospect of impeachment or almost-certain prison time for President Donald Trump if it\u2019s proved that he directed illegal hush-money payments to women, adding to the legal pressure on the president over the Russia investigation and other scandals.
\u201cThere\u2019s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him, that he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time,\u201d said Rep. Adam Schiff, the incoming chairman of the House intelligence committee. \u201cThe bigger pardon question may come down the road as the next president has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump.\u201d
Rep. Jerry Nadler, the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, described the details in prosecutors\u2019 filings Friday in the case of Trump\u2019s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as evidence that Trump was \u201cat the center of a massive fraud.\u201d
\u201cThey would be impeachable offenses,\u201d Nadler said.
In the filings, prosecutors in New York for the first time link Trump to a federal crime of illegal payments to buy the silence of two women during the 2016 campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s office also laid out previously undisclosed contacts between Trump associates and Russian intermediaries and suggested the Kremlin aimed early on to influence Trump and his Republican campaign by playing to both his political and personal business interests.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has compared the investigations to a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d
Nadler, D-N.Y., said it was too early to say whether Congress would pursue impeachment proceedings based on the illegal payments alone because lawmakers would need to weigh the gravity of the offense to justify \u201coverturning\u201d the 2016 election. Nadler and other lawmakers said Sunday they would await additional details from Mueller\u2019s investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign to determine the extent of Trump\u2019s misconduct.
Regarding the illegal payments, \u201cwhether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question, but certainly they\u2019d 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,\u201d Nadler said.
Mueller has not said when he will complete a report of any findings, and it isn\u2019t clear that any such report would be made available to Congress. That would be up to the attorney general. Trump on Friday said he would nominate former Attorney General William Barr to the post to succeed Jeff Sessions.
Nadler indicated that Democrats, who will control the House in January, will step up their own investigations. He said Congress, the Justice Department and the special counsel need to dig deeper into the allegations, which include questions about whether Trump lied about his business arrangements with Russians and about possible obstruction of justice.
\u201cThe new Congress will not try to shield the president,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will try to get to the bottom of this, in order to serve the American people and to stop this massive conspiracy \u2014 this massive fraud on the American people.\u201d
Schiff, D-Calif., also stressed a need to wait \u201cuntil we see the full picture.\u201d He has previously indicated his panel would seek to look into the Trump family\u2019s business ties with Russia.
\u201cI think we also need to see this as a part of a broader pattern of potential misconduct by the president, and it\u2019s that broad pattern, I think, that will lead us to a conclusion about whether it rises to the level to warrant removal from office,\u201d Schiff said.
In the legal filings, the Justice Department stopped short of accusing Trump of directly committing a crime. But it said Trump told Cohen to make illegal payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom claimed to have had affairs with Trump more than a decade ago.
In separate filings, Mueller\u2019s team detail how Cohen spoke to a Russian who \u201cclaimed to be a \u2018trusted person\u2019 in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign \u2018political synergy\u2019 and \u2018synergy on a government level.\u2019\u201d Cohen said he never followed up on that meeting. Mueller\u2019s team also said former campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to them about his contacts with a Russian associate and Trump administration officials, including in 2018.
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California gears up for round 2 on controversial battle over more homes near transit\t Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida called the latest filings \u201crelevant\u201d in judging Trump\u2019s fitness for office but said lawmakers need more information to render judgment. He also warned the White House about considering a pardon for Manafort, saying such a step could trigger congressional debate about limiting a president\u2019s pardon powers.
Such a move would be \u201ca terrible mistake,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cPardons should be used judiciously. They\u2019re used for cases with extraordinary circumstances.\u201d
Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine and a member of the Senate intelligence committee, cautioned against a rush to impeachment, which he said citizens could interpret as \u201cpolitical revenge and a coup against the president.\u201d
\u201cThe best way to solve a problem like this, to me, is elections,\u201d King said. \u201cI\u2019m a conservative when it comes to impeachment. I think it\u2019s a last resort and only when the evidence is clear of a really substantial legal violation. We may get there, but we\u2019re not there now.\u201d
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut urged Mueller to \u201cshow his cards soon\u201d so that Congress can make a determination early next year on whether to act on impeachment.
\u201cLet\u2019s be clear: We have reached a new level in the investigation,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cIt\u2019s important for Congress to get all of the underlying facts and data and evidence that the special counsel has.\u201d
Nadler spoke on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union,\u201d Rubio was on CNN and ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week,\u201d and Schiff appeared on CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d Murphy spoke on ABC, and King was on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n