House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said impeachment proceedings could bolster congressional efforts to obtain information the Trump administration won’t release.
“It provides an additional tool,” the California Democrat told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “What we have been doing is we have been gradually escalating the tactics we need to use to get information for the American people. So we began by asking for voluntary cooperation, and that was not forthcoming. We followed with subpoenas, we followed with contempt. We may follow with inherent contempt, and we may have to follow with impeachment.”
The White House has refused to provide information Congress requested relating to President Trump’s tax returns and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The House Judiciary Committee voted earlier this month to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress after Trump asserted executive privilege over Mueller’s full report and the underlying evidence.
Schiff said last week the House was debating whether to enforce “inherent contempt,” a rarely used congressional power, to get Trump administration officials to comply with subpoenas. It would allow Congress to fine or jail those who ignore subpoenas.
If the House moves forward with impeachment proceedings, Schiff said, it will be because it had no other option to obtain the requested information.
“It’d be important to show the American people this was a decision made reluctantly. This was a decision forced upon us rather than something we have been eager to embrace,” said Schiff, a staunch Trump critic.
Some Democrats have already called for impeachment proceedings, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has put the brakes on those efforts.
Michigan Rep. Justin Amash on Saturday became the first Republican in Congress to say Trump had committed impeachable offenses.
