House Democrats are launching a very broad inquiry into Trump's abuses. It could be a preliminary step toward impeachment hearings.
By Greg Sargent Greg Sargent Opinion writer covering national politics Email Bio Follow Opinion writer March 4 at 9:56 AM Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, is set to demand documents from more than 60 people related to President Trump and his businesses. As Nadler puts it, this is necessary because Trump has been “directly implicated” in “various crimes,” including some allegedly committed while president.
Whether Democrats will ultimately go forward with an impeachment inquiry remains unknown. As detailed below, Democrats are imposing a misguided constraint on themselves in this regard. But you can view this step as functionally the first stage in the impeachment process. And it could take on a life of its own that makes it harder for Democrats to resist initiating that inquiry.
Mueller is examining Russian electoral interference and any related crimes he uncovers. By contrast, congressional Democrats will be focused — as per their institutional role — on learning as much as possible about Trump’s misconduct and abuses of power, and on informing the public about them. Nadler also said Trump’s decision to grant security clearance to son-in-law Jared Kushner over intelligence agency objections constitutes an “abuse of power.” Nadler added that Trump’s reimbursement of hush money payments — which we learned of from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s testimony — could constitute “sabotage” of a “fair election” and thus “an impeachable offense.”
“Congress brought key players to the public to talk about not only the break-in but all the other abuses of power in the Nixon White House,” historian Julian Zelizer, the co-author of the book “Fault Lines,” told me. In so doing, Zelizer noted, Congress “set that up” as the foundation for the official vote to launch formal impeachment hearings in 1974.
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