House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at Capitol Hill and said her position on impeachment wasn’t changed after former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before two House committees on Wednesday.
What We Know:
- Pelosi reiterated that the process of evaluating whether President Donald Trump’s conduct warrants impeachment “isn’t endless.” She then went on to explain that her decision to pursue an impeachment would be based on the House’s ongoing court fights to obtain Trump’s financial records and force Mueller’s witnesses to testify to Congress.
- “My position has always been: whatever decision we make in that regard would have to be done with our strongest possible hand, and we still have some outstanding matters in the courts. It’s about the Congress, the Constitution and the courts. And we are fighting the president in the courts,” she said. “I think if we [go] down that path, we should go in the strongest possible way.”
- Pelosi’s response comes after Mueller testified about his two-year investigation regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election, and possible ties to Trump’s campaign.
- During the hearing, Democrats focused on Mueller’s report relating to Trump’s actions that could be evidence of obstruction of justice as well as his associates’ connections to Russian agents. Republicans questioned why the investigation had begun in the first place.
- Pelosi rejected House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler’s push to open an impeachment inquiry. She believes the impeachment would create hostility within the caucus. Approximately 4 out of 10 House Democrats support Trump’s impeachment, according to an ABC News analysis.
Nadler said he is seeking to obtain Mueller’s grand jury material in order to further his panel’s investigation into Trump’s attempts to obstruct the probe.
