Why Democrats dropped push to add Mueller evidence in articles of impeachment
Why Democrats dropped push to add Mueller evidence in articles of impeachment
House Democrats engaged in a vigorous debate behind-the-scenes about whether to charge President Trump with obstruction of justice as part of an article of impeachment, but ultimately decided that doing so would become a more difficult message to sell and could cost votes on the floor, according to multiple Democratic sources involved in the discussions.
At a closed-door meeting Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team debated about adding an article of impeachment on obstruction of justice related to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, but it was recognized in the room that they would lose some Democratic votes. The idea was broached of even seeing that article of impeachment voted down, but there was little support for going that route, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
"The leadership made the calculation that less is more," said a senior Democratic aide. "And getting into a confusing investigation that we didn't do ourselves would lose impact."
Several Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee pushed hard to include the language, arguing that not charging Trump with obstruction of justice would excuse Trump's allegedly illegal behavior.
But a source familiar with the matter said that Democrats didn't want to jeopardize the overall impeachment effort, and House Judiciary Committee Democrats ultimately got behind the decision to allude to the Mueller allegations into the articles as part of a reference to a pattern of Trump’s behavior.
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