Tlaib unveils resolution to investigate Trump impeachment

Freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) unveiled a resolution on Wednesday that would call on the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether President Trump committed impeachable offenses, despite a cool reception from most fellow Democrats.

 

Tlaib said she is introducing her resolution so that it “ensures we don’t have a lawless society that results in irreparable harm to the American people.” 

 

{mosads}”Doing nothing when we are seeing blatant disregard of the United States Constitution, to our ethical norms, is dangerous. No one, including the president of the United States, is above the law,” Tlaib said in a House floor speech.  

 

Tlaib drew headlines on her first day in office in January when she was filmed at an event with supporters saying that Democrats should “impeach the motherf—er,” in reference to Trump.

 

She began circulating a letter earlier this week to encourage colleagues to endorse her resolution, which calls on the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Trump is violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting foreign money through his businesses attempted to “defraud the United States” by directing his former lawyer Michael Cohen to make hush money payments to women alleging affairs with Trump; and whether the evidence from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation finds obstruction of justice.

 

“An investigation will take a look at all of these things, with the question on, are these impeachable offenses?” Tlaib said in her speech.  

Only Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) spoke in support of Tlaib’s resolution. 

Green first announced in February that he plans to force another House floor vote on impeachment, but hasn’t yet introduced articles of impeachment or offered a timeline. He renewed that pledge again on Wednesday.

“There will be another vote on impeachment in the House of Representatives. I will do it,” Green said in a House floor speech following Tlaib’s.

Green previously forced two procedural votes on his articles of impeachment in the last session of Congress, while Republicans controlled the House. Both of those votes drew the support of around 60 fellow Democrats.

Green’s past articles of impeachment stated that Trump has “sown discord among the people of the United States” and brought the presidency in “contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute,” including by proposing a ban on all Muslims traveling to the U.S. while running for president; saying there were “very fine people on both sides” clashing at a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.; and referring to African nations as “shithole” countries.

Green has indicated that will remain his focus for future articles of impeachment now that Democrats control the majority. 

Both Tlaib and Green are pressing forward with their impeachment efforts after the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election interference.

According to a four-page summary provided by Attorney General William Barr, Mueller did not find evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. 

Barr’s letter to Congress also said that Mueller’s report didn’t conclude whether Trump had obstructed justice, but it also did not exonerate him. Barr said he and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein concluded that the evidence developed during the investigation wasn’t enough to establish that Trump committed an obstruction of justice offense.

Green said Mueller’s findings weren’t pertinent to his arguments for impeaching Trump anyway.

“I will be going forward because what Mueller concluded has nothing to do with the position that I have,” Green told The Hill on Tuesday.

Green also met with billionaire activist and founder of Need to Impeach Tom Steyer on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. 

Steyer’s group has put forward several arguments to impeach Trump that don’t relate to Mueller’s investigation, including the hush money payments to women alleging affairs before the 2016 election and violations of the Emoluments Clause. 

Aside from Tlaib’s resolution, only one other Democrat to date has introduced articles of impeachment this year since Democrats began controlling the House.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) reintroduced his articles of impeachment on the first day of the new Congress in January. His measure argues that Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey as FBI director amid the investigation into Russia’s election interference. 

Green is the only co-sponsor of Sherman’s resolution.