House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday he isn’t supporting a resolution put forward by a group of conservative lawmakers to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because his actions don’t merit it.
Ryan, R-Wis., cited several reasons for disagreeing with the measure, which Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and ten others introduced Wednesday night.
“Do I support the impeachment of Rod Rosenstein? No I do not,” Ryan told reporters. “I don’t think we should be cavalier with this process. I don’t think this rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Meadows and others are at odds with Rosenstein over documents Congress is seeking relating to the Department of Justice probes into Hillary Clinton’s private email server as well as the investigation into alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. Rosenstein is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Ryan partly disagrees with Meadows, who has argued the DOJ is not complying adequately with document requests.
“We’ve gotten a great deal of compliance on the documents but we do not have full compliance,” Ryan said. “And we do expect to get that.”
Ryan said under the rules governing the impeachment process, if the House were to approve of the resolution, it would sideline the GOP agenda by requiring the Senate to then act on the resolution.
“If we were to pass it in the House then what it would do is tie the Senate into knots,” Ryan said. “It would derail or largely delay our agenda.”
Ryan said appropriations and infrastructure legislation and even the timely confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh would be jeopardized.
Conservatives who introduced the resolution “know how I feel about this,” Ryan said.
After today, the House will not be in a formal business session until Sept. 4. Lawmakers left town without voting on the resolution.
During a Fox News interview Wednesday evening, Meadows threatened to go around Ryan to impeach Rosenstein, pointing to the possible use of a privileged motion.