Most political analysts predict that after the House sends articles of impeachment to the Senate, the Senate will fail to convict President Trump of any wrongdoing and the impeachment effort will fail. Which should be the end of the story — but not quite.
Apparently, the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee is still planning to continue their impeachment investigation even after the House votes to impeach the president. On December 16, House General Counsel Douglas N. Letter filed a brief on behalf of the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit applying for an order to release “certain grand jury materials” — specifically, an unredacted version of the Mueller report. Democrats previously obtained a court order compelling the Justice Department to turn over grand-jury materials from the Mueller report. However, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House lawyers overseeing legal cases against Trump opposed the inclusion of an article of impeachment against Trump based on the findings of Mueller’s investigation.
However, not all House Democrats were satisfied. Although the impeachment is scheduled to go ahead without including elements of the Mueller report, they still hope to resurrect more impeachment charges, after — as most people believe — the current charges die in the Senate. The brief filed by Letter asserts that Congress “cannot fairly and diligently carry out this responsibility” without access to the material that Mueller used in drafting his report.
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In the filing, Letter argued that the House’s demand for grand jury materials connected to Mueller’s investigation are still urgent, and not only because such evidence might become relevant to the Senate’s impeachment trial next month. It goes on to say that even apart from the Senate impeachment trial, the Judiciary Committee intends to continue its impeachment investigation arising from the Mueller probe on its own merit.
The brief states:
Because this Court effectively stayed the decision below pending appeal, the Committee voted to refer Articles of Impeachment to the House without the benefit of the grand-jury material to which it was entitled. Those Articles underscore the Committee’s urgent need for the withheld material. As the Committee recently explained, should the Committee obtain the withheld material, “it would be utilized, among other purposes, in a Senate trial on these articles of impeachment, if any.”… And the Committee “has continued and will continue [its impeachment] investigations consistent with its own prior statements respecting their importance and purposes.” Id. The withheld material could inform those investigations as well.
Obviously, a number of House Democrats are not satisfied with the current articles of impeachment. They know the case being presented is weak and will fail. So they want to continue the process indefinitely.
“A president can be impeached more than once,” Representative Al Green (D-Texas) said recently. “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.”
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Warren Mass has served The New American since its launch in 1985 in several capacities, including marketing, editing, and writing. Since retiring from the staff several years ago, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine. Warren writes from Texas and can be reached at [email protected].
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