Democrats have been talking about impeaching President Trump since before he was inaugurated. They didn’t really need an excuse, they just needed a majority in the House of Representatives. Once they won that majority last November, impeachment was a foregone conclusion, Nancy Pelosi’s crocodile tears notwithstanding. They thought the Russia collusion hoax would be their rationale, but when that collapsed, they scarcely missed a beat, transitioning seamlessly to the Ukraine hoax.
Now the impeachment drive will fizzle in the Senate–another long-foregone conclusion–but that doesn’t mean it is over. In a recent filing in the D.C. Court of Appeals, the Democrats’ lawyer told the Court that demands for Russia-related documents are still relevant:
“In a filing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, House General Counsel Douglas Letter argued that the House’s demands for grand jury materials connected to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation were still urgent because such evidence might become relevant to the Senate’s expected impeachment trial next month,” Politico reported. “But Letter went further to note that even apart from the Senate trial, the House Judiciary Committee intends to continue its impeachment investigation arising from the Mueller probe on its own merit.”
So the Democrats may try to resurrect the Russia hoax in the House of Representatives, producing thereby their own version of history. The best defense against the Durham report, they likely believe, is a good offense.
Democrat Al Green notoriously has said:
A president can be impeached more than once. So, we can do this, we can move forward with what we have on the table currently, we can take this before the Senate and we can still investigate other issues and when the president has committed additional offenses, and my suspicion is that he will, we can take those before the Senate.
There is no limit on the number of times the Senate can vote to convict or not a president, no limit to the number of times the House can vote to impeach or not a president. So, my belief is that the speaker will probably say we’re going to move forward with what we have now, but we’re not going to end investigations and that there may be possible opportunities to do other things at a later time.
The Democrats’ latest court filing suggests that Green is not an outlier, and that House Democrats fully intend to continue yammering about impeachment, perhaps all the way through President Trump’s second term. I suspect that only focus groups or plummeting poll numbers will be able to deter them.
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