Booker calls for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings

Democratic presidential hopeful Cory Booker on Wednesday joined other Democrats in calling for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

The New Jersey senator endorsed the idea of impeachment shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller addressed the findings of his two-year probe for the first time Wednesday.

{mosads}”Robert Mueller’s statement makes it clear: Congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately,” Booker tweeted.

“This Administration has continued to stonewall Congress’s oversight. Beginning impeachment proceedings is the only path forward,” he added.

Robert Mueller’s statement makes it clear: Congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately.

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) May 29, 2019

Robert Mueller’s statement makes it clear: Congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately.

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) May 29, 2019

This Administration has continued to stonewall Congress’s oversight. Beginning impeachment proceedings is the only path forward.

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) May 29, 2019

Booker weighed in shortly after Mueller held a press conference saying existing Justice Department guidelines prevented him from considering an indictment for Trump.

Mueller reiterated Wednesday that his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible obstruction of justice did not exonerate the president.

“After that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said.

Booker joins a number of other 2020 White House rivals who have called for impeachment in the wake of Mueller’s 448-page report released earlier this year.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and Miramar, Fla., Mayor Wayne Messam have all come out in support of impeaching Trump. Several other candidates have deferred to the House about whether impeachment proceedings should begin without weighing in on the prospect one way or the other.

Mueller ultimately found insufficient evidence to charge Trump with conspiring with Moscow to interfere in the 2016 elections but declined to make a prosecutorial decision in his report about whether to the president obstructed subsequent investigations into the interference, outlining 10 “episodes” of behavior that was possibly obstructive.

Calls for impeachment from House Democrats grew after Mueller’s report was released in April. They have reached a near fever pitch in recent weeks as the White House fights off subpoenas from several committees for documents and testimony from a slew of current and former administration officials.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top members of House leadership have so far been able to keep the impeachment push at bay, saying instead that Democrats should stay the course of investigating the White House and that any impeachment attempt would be quashed in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Updated at 12:15 p.m.