Washington: A key Democratic lawmaker said Sunday that if new allegations against US Donald Trump ar<\/b>
\nWashington: A key Democratic lawmaker said Sunday that if new allegations against US Donald Trump are proven, they would amount to \u201can impeachable offense.\u201d
As the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler would play a central role should the new Congress, now with a Democratic majority in the House, move to open impeachment proceedings.
Asked on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d whether federal court filings Friday alleging that Trump directed his personal attorney to make illegal hush-money payments to two women constituted impeachable offenses, Nadler said \u201cThey would be,\u201d if proven.
But as he and other Democrats wrestle with the politically explosive question of how to respond to the investigations touching Trump and his inner circle \u2014 including the question of possible collusion with Russia before the 2016 election \u2014 they cautioned that much remains unknown.
\u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily launch an impeachment against the president because he committed an impeachable offense,\u201d Nadler said. The alleged offenses must be proven, and their gravity be found sufficient to act, he added.
\u2013 \u2018We have reached a new level\u2019 \u2013 Even if the House should take the exceedingly rare step of launching impeachment proceedings, Trump\u2019s Republicans control the Senate, where the final and decisive vote would take place.
A Senate Democrat, Chris Murphy, echoed Nadler in cautioning that \u201cit\u2019s important to get the full report from the special investigator,\u201d Robert Mueller.
But Murphy then emphasized the seriousness of the allegations leveled Friday by Mueller and separately by federal prosecutors in New York.
\u201cWe have reached a new level in the investigation,\u201d the Connecticut senator said on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d
\u201cThis is a president named as a co-conspirator \u2014 allegations he committed at least two felonies to try to manipulate the 2016 election.\u201d
\u201cI think you are beyond the stage that led to impeachment proceedings against President Clinton,\u201d he said, later adding, \u201cThe president stepped into the territory that ultimately led to President Nixon resigning.\u201d
Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 but acquitted by the Senate; Nixon resigned in 1974 as impeachment loomed.
\u2013 \u2018No way to spin this\u2019 \u2013 \u201cThis investigation is now starting to put the president in serious legal cross-hairs,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cHe should be worried. The whole country should be worried.\u201d
A prominent Republican senator, Marco Rubio, was more cautious, even while restating his support for the Mueller investigation.
Americans, Rubio said on ABC, need \u201call the facts and information\u201d before making judgments.
Still, he conceded that the legal filings and other reporting paint a dark picture, indicating several people in Trump\u2019s campaign team had contacts with Russia, despite the president\u2019s earlier denials.
\u201cThere\u2019s no way to spin this. This is not a positive development for the people involved,\u201d Rubio said.
Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, was cautious about the possibility of impeachment but suggested that Trump might face additional jeopardy.
\u201cThere\u2019s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office the Justice Department may indict him,\u201d he said on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation,\u201d alluding to the fact that many legal scholars do not believe a sitting president can be indicted.
\u201cHe may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time.\u201d<\/p>\n