Edmonton Journal

Top Democrats discuss impeachmen­t of Trump

Aim to step up probes as they wait for Mueller

- Hope Yen

WASHINGTON •TopHouse Democrats on Sunday raised the prospect of impeachmen­t or almost-certain prison time for President Donald Trump if it’s 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.

“There’s 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,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, the incoming chairman of the House intelligen­ce committee. “The bigger pardon question may come down the road as the next president has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, described the details in prosecutor­s’ filings Friday in the case of Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as evidence that Trump was “at the centre of a massive fraud.”

“They would be impeachabl­e offences,” 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’s 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 “witch hunt.”

Nadler 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 offence to justify “overturnin­g” the 2016 election. Nadler and other lawmakers said Sunday they would await additional details from Mueller’s investigat­ion into Russian election interferen­ce and possible coordinati­on with the Trump campaign to determine the extent of Trump’s misconduct.

Regarding the illegal payments, “whether they are important enough to justify an impeachmen­t is a different question, but certainly they’d be impeachabl­e offences because even though they were committed before the president became president, they were committed in the service of fraudulent­ly obtaining the office,” Nadler said.

Mueller has not said when he will complete a report of any findings, and it isn’t 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.

“The new Congress will not try to shield the president,” he said. “We will try to get to the bottom of this, in order to serve the American people and to stop this massive conspiracy — this massive fraud on the American people.”

Schiff also stressed a need to wait “until we see the full picture.” He has previously indicated his panel would seek to look into the Trump family’s business ties with Russia.

“I think we also need to see this as a part of a broader pattern of potential misconduct by the president, and it’s that broad pattern, I think, that will lead us to a conclusion about whether it rises to the level to warrant removal from office,” 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’s team details how Cohen spoke to a Russian who “claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ’synergy on a government level.’ ” Cohen said he never followed up on that meeting. Mueller’s 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.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida called the latest filings “relevant” in judging Trump’s 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’s pardon powers.

Such a move would be “a terrible mistake,” Rubio said. “Pardons should be used judiciousl­y. They’re used for cases with extraordin­ary circumstan­ces.”

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 “political revenge and a coup against the president.”

 ?? JIM WATSON / AFP / GETTY IMAGES ?? U.S. President Donald Trump, pictured at the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelph­ia, Pa., on Saturday, is facing further scrutiny as Democrats prepare to control the House of Representa­tives in January.
JIM WATSON / AFP / GETTY IMAGES U.S. President Donald Trump, pictured at the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelph­ia, Pa., on Saturday, is facing further scrutiny as Democrats prepare to control the House of Representa­tives in January.

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