Democratic presidential candidate Tim Ryan shied away Sunday from endorsing impeaching President Trump but urged Congress to start laying the groundwork for such proceedings.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Ohio congressman said the House needs to do its own investigation into obstruction of justice charges against Mr. Trump.
“There’s a process in place here,” Mr. Ryan said. “I trust Jerry Nadler.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, whose panel would oversee the start of impeachment proceedings, has subpoenaed the unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative report on Russian election interference and has called for Mr. Mueller to testify before Congress.
Other prominent Democrats, including firebrand progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, re planning to sign on to articles of impeachment.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another Democratic presidential candidate, joined that push over the weekend, calling it a “point of principle.”
“To ignore a president’s repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country, and it would suggest that both the current and future presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways,” the Massachusetts senator said in a statement.
Mr. Mueller’s 448-page report did not find evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russian agents, but intentionally left open the issue of obstruction of justice.
Mr. Mueller said that he declined reaching a conclusion on obstruction, in part, to ensure that he didn’t block Congress’ ability to impeach Mr. Trump.
Attorney General William Barr drew his own conclusion and said there wasn’t enough information to determine obstruction occurred.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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