House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said with complete certainty Sunday that President Trump obstructed justice, but he’s not ready to pursue impeachment proceedings just yet.
He was asked during an interview with CNN’s Jake Taper, “Do you think the president obstructed justice?”
“Yes, I do,” Nadler replied.
“It’s very clear that the president obstructed justice,” he added. “It’s very clear, 1,100 times he referred to the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt, he tried to — he fired — he tried to protect [former national security adviser Michael] Flynn from being investigated by the FBI. He fired [former FBI Director James] Comey in order to stop the Russian thing, as he told NBC News.”
Nadler also said Trump has intimidated witnesses in public, likely referring to the president’s tweets about Michael Cohen.
Asked if this meant Democrats were making a political decision in not pursuing impeachment right now, Nadler said the issue is Democrats don’t “have the evidence all sorted out.”
Nadler said on Monday his committee plans to send document requests to more than 60 different people and individuals from the Trump administration and the president’s inner circle to begin “investigations to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power.”
House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler: “Tomorrow we will be issuing document requests to over 60 different people and individuals from the White House, to the Department of Justice, Donald Trump Jr. … to begin investigations.”
Via ABC pic.twitter.com/Spa7U5Kewe— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 3, 2019
The chairman was also asked about a New York Times report last week that said Trump overruled his White House counsel and the intelligence agencies that wanted to deny a top-secret security clearance to Jared Kushner, the president’s adviser and son-in-law.
“Yes, I think it was an abuse of power. Look, the president has the right to do a lot of things but he can abuse his power in doing that,” he said.
