As the Mueller investigation draws to a close, perhaps not living up to Democrats’ expectations, the House of Representatives is starting an even bigger investigation of President Trump.
Led by New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the investigation will go over some of the same ground as the Mueller investigation, but also scrutinize Trump’s real estate business. The emphasis will be not so much collusion with the Russians but “abuses of power,” “corruption,” and “obstruction of justice.”
Rep. Nadler has already formally requested documents from 60 individuals and offices, including Trump’s family members, the Justice Department, the White House, and Trump’s business records.
Now the Mueller investigation has been accused of being biased, but the special prosecutor has to work under certain legal processes and constraints. But the Nadler investigation is quite open about its bias and its agenda.
Listen to what Rep. Nadler says about the purpose of his committee’s investigation. From the Associated Press:
“We are going to initiate investigations into abuses of power, into corruption and into obstruction of justice,” Nadler said. “We will do everything we can to get that evidence.”
Asked if he believed Trump obstructed justice, Nadler said, “Yes, I do.”
Nadler isn’t calling the inquiry an impeachment investigation but said House Democrats, now in the majority, are simply doing “our job to protect the rule of law” after Republicans during the first two years of Trump’s term were “shielding the president from any proper accountability.”
“We will do everything we can” to get evidence of abuses of power, corruption, and obstruction of justice? Does that sound like an objective inquiry? And here Rep. Nadler says that he already believes that Trump committed the crime, the existence of which the committee is supposedly trying to determine. The findings of the committee sound like they are already determined, though the hearings have not yet commenced.
Elsewhere, Rep. Nadler, when asked if he was aiming at impeaching the president, said the following:
“We do not now have the evidence sorted out and everything to do an impeachment. Before you impeach somebody you have to persuade the American public that it ought to happen. You have to persuade enough of the opposition party voters, the Trump voters.”
So the purpose of the investigation is not to determine whether or not “high crimes or misdemeanors” worthy of impeachment took place. That they did so seems to be taken for granted. Rather, the purpose is “to persuade the American public that it ought to happen.”
By the chairman’s own admission, this investigation will be a show trial, defined as a proceeding in which the guilt of the accused has already been determined.
Any impeachment proceedings in Congress, by the way,
would be led by the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; namely, Rep. Nadler.
Photo: Rep. Jerry Nadler, U.S. House Office of Photography [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
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