A week after Congress disposed of a monthslong effort to remove President Trump from office, Democrats are ramping up new investigations into his administration.
The House Judiciary Committee, run by former impeachment manager Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, summoned Attorney General William Barr to testify in front of the panel. Democrats want Barr to explain whether a tweet from the president influenced a decision to shorten the sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Nadler has more questions for Barr, who he suggested in a letter last week was using the Justice Department as a tool to benefit the president politically.
Democrats are suspicious of comments Barr made last week confirming that the Justice Department is receiving information from Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, that could be politically damaging to Joe Biden, the former vice president who is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“In your tenure as Attorney General, you have engaged in a pattern of conduct in legal matters relating to the President that raises significant concerns for this Committee,” Nadler wrote to Barr. “In the past week alone, you have taken steps that raise grave questions about your leadership of the Department of Justice.”
Some Democrats are open to the idea of impeaching Trump a second time, a move that has no precedent.
“You know, we’re not going to take our options off the table,” Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN last week. “We don’t wake up in the morning wanting to impeach him. We want to work with him on prescription drugs, [firearm] background checks, and infrastructure. But we’re not going to let him just torch this democracy because he thinks that he’s been let off once and we’re not going to do something about it.”
Democrats believe the Senate’s party-line acquittal of Trump on Feb. 6 served to embolden the president to abuse the power of his office.
They were outraged at Trump’s decision last week to remove Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. Both men testified against him in private and public hearings during the House impeachment investigation, and Democrats viewed their removal as a form of punishment.
Sondland provided Democrats with the pivotal evidence for their impeachment, telling lawmakers there was a “quid pro quo” demand by Trump for Ukraine to investigate allegations against Democrats, including Biden, in exchange for a meeting and phone call with the president.
Last week, the Trump administration withdrew the nomination of Jessie Liu, who had been selected for a top position at the Treasury Department. Liu’s name was pulled due to her oversight in the U.S. attorney’s office overseeing the prosecution of Stone, which Trump has called unfair.
On Thursday, Trump used Twitter to cajole New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, to stop the litany of lawsuits filed against him by the state.
“I’m seeing Governor Cuomo today at The White House,” Trump tweeted. “He must understand that National Security far exceeds politics. New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harassment, start cleaning itself up, and lowering taxes. Build relationships, but don’t bring Fredo!”
Nadler, spotting the tweet, sent a response on Twitter: “This is what another quid pro quo by the President of the United States looks like.”
Democratic leaders last week denied they are edging toward a new impeachment investigation.
Trump’s approval rating climbed after the conclusion of the impeachment effort, which had consumed Congress for months.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters that Trump’s tweet about Stone’s sentence and whether it influenced the Justice Department “should be investigated.”
She praised the case made to the Senate by the House impeachment managers earlier this month and the vote by all Democrats to convict and remove him from office on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges.
“But, that doesn’t mean that we’re going to spend all of our time going after every lie that the administration’s henchmen make to Congress,” Pelosi said.
