A House Democrat said Friday that if a new report is true that President Trump told Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, it could be grounds for Trump’s impeachment and removal from office.
“If this report is true that the president of the United States violated the law, if he told Michael Cohen to commit perjury then, certainly that’s going to go into the whole discussion we have about whether or not he, the president, should continue to be in office,” Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., told MSNBC Friday morning.
[Also read: The Atlantic cover story calls for Trump’s impeachment]
That was his response to a question about whether impeachment may now be on the horizon for Trump after a BuzzFeed report that said Trump instructed Cohen to lie about a possible business deal in Russia.
Trump has said multiple times that he was not in talks with Russia in 2015 or 2016 regarding any sort of business deal. But the report indicates that Trump asked Cohen to handle a Russia skyscraper deal and provide updates on its progression.
Deutch said the new report might not be the only impeachable offense against Trump, depending on the results of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. But Deutch also indicated that it will be partly up to Republicans whether Trump is removed from office.
“If it’s clear that he broke the law, will there be Republicans who are wiling to stand up for the Constitution and the oath of office that the president appears to have violated,” he said.
