House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler denied he’s battling with Speaker Nancy Pelosi over whether to launch impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
“I don’t know that there are real divisions with the speaker,” Nadler said Friday, speaking to reporters in the Capitol.
The New York Democrat has privately urged Pelosi to allow him to launch formal impeachment proceedings against President Trump. He has argued Trump is denying material and witness testimony his panel is seeking and that Congress can only obtain it through impeachment.
But Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the House does not have enough evidence to impeach and is steering the probe to the courts where lawmakers are working to win access to the material, with some success so far.
[Read: 100 House Democrats now support impeachment]
Nadler, rather than disagreeing with Pelosi, repeated her argument Friday that the House must first build a solid case for impeachment.
“If our committee is going to recommend articles of impeachment to the House, we must make the strongest possible case to both our colleagues and to the public,” Nadler said. “With that, we are in total agreement.”
Nadler announced Friday he is advancing his investigation of the president with a new court filing that will seek redacted grand jury material from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russians. The court application will argued on behalf of House Democrats that the material is needed in order to allow the House to determine whether to impeach the president.
Democrats labeled their move an “impeachment investigation.”
