Rep. Justin Amash couldn’t be further apart from the leaders of the House Freedom Caucus when it comes to President Trump.
The Michigan Republican on Monday repeated calls for impeachment proceedings against Trump based on the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller that indicate possible obstruction.
Amash’s position clashes with Republicans but in particular his fellow House Freedom Caucus members.
Leaders Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who founded the caucus, are among the staunchest defenders of Trump and the most frequent critics of the investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians.
Meadows on Thursday tweeted a line from the Mueller report in response to Democrats who read the document on the House floor.
“Let us know when they get to this part: ‘the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government,’” Meadows tweeted.
Amash couldn’t disagree more. An original member of the Freedom Caucus and one of the few libertarians in Congress, Amash began calling for Trump’s impeachment on May 18, when he tweeted, “Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment.”
Plenty of GOP backlash followed. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., denounced Amash’s comments, telling Fox New’s Maria Bartiromo, “He wants to have attention.” McCarthy pointed to Amash’s past opposition to top GOP initiatives while the party was in the majority.
“It’s really disturbing, because when you watch on the floor, you could have a bill with 400 votes all supporting it,” McCarthy said. “There will always be one opposed, and that will be Justin Amash.”
[Related: RNC chairwoman attacks GOP congressman Amash over Trump impeachment tweets]
Amash on Monday defended his position, arguing that Trump took steps to obstruct Mueller’s probe into whether his campaign colluded with Russia, which he said were impeachable offenses.
“People who say there were no underlying crimes and therefore the president could not have intended to illegally obstruct the investigation—and therefore cannot be impeached—are resting their argument on several falsehoods,” Amash said on Twitter, further outlining his case in a string of tweets.
Amash argued that Mueller’s 400-plus page report gave revealed “many crimes” committed by President Trump, some of which were not prosecuted.
“Obstruction of justice does not require the prosecution of an underlying crime, and there is a logical reason for that. Prosecutors might not charge a crime precisely *because* obstruction of justice denied them timely access to evidence that could lead to a prosecution,” Amash tweeted.
Amash has never aligned with the HFC when it comes to Trump. He endorsed Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a fellow libertarian, when Paul ran for president. Amash backed Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, when Paul dropped out of the race. He refused to endorse Trump even after he secured the GOP nomination and vowed not to vote for him in the general election.
The Freedom Caucus has largely aligned with Trump, and founders Meadows and Jordan have used their positions on the House Oversight Committee to seek answers about the origins of the investigation into the Trump campaign and whether the undercover surveillance of his campaign was warranted since it appeared to rely on the unproven and lurid contents of the Steele dossier.
Both are close allies of the president. Meadows has served as a conduit between the president and the GOP House and has helped to broker deals with Trump on healthcare and spending legislation.
