Democrats digging but avoiding a word
WASHINGTON: A House chairman subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn yesterday as Democratic leaders moved to deepen their investigation of President Donald Trump while bottling up talk among their rank and file of impeaching him.
Judiciary chairman Jerrold Nadler was one of six committee leaders making their case on a conference call with other House Democrats that they were effectively investigating Trumprelated matters ranging from potential obstruction to his personal and business taxes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged divided Democrats to focus on factfinding rather than impeachment following the damning details of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
She made clear there was no Democratic disagreement that Trump ‘‘at a minimum, engaged in highly unethical and unscrupulous behaviour which does not bring honour to the office he holds’’. But she acknowledged the party’s officeholders had a range of views on how to proceed.
Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates weighed in, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren repeating her call for an impeachment vote.
Nadler and the other chairmen made clear they believed Trump did obstruct justice, according to people on the call.
‘‘The Special Counsel’s report, even in redacted form, outlines substantial evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction and other abuses,’’ Nadler said in a statement as the conference call got under way.
‘‘It now falls to Congress to determine for itself the full scope of the misconduct and to decide what steps to take in the exercise of our duties of oversight, legislation and constitutional accountability.’’
The subpoena announcement was one of several leadership moves aimed at calming a struggle among Democrats to speak with one voice about what to do in light of Mueller’s startling account of Trump’s repeated efforts to fire him, shut down his probe and get allies to lie.
McGahn would be a star witness for any obstruction case because he refused Trump’s demand to set Mueller’s firing in motion.
The subpoena angered Republicans but Trump himself insisted he was not worried.
His lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said impeachment proceedings would give him a political boost ahead of the 2020 election and paint him as a ‘‘victim’’ of Democratic overreach.
The former New York mayor told the New York Daily News he hoped Congress didn’t launch impeachment hearings, but the president would ultimately benefit if it happened.
‘‘They can do it if they want to,’’ he said of the Democrats.
‘‘Would it politically be the best thing that could happen to the president? Absolutely.’’