Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) declared Thursday that she will support a resolution demanding a new probe into whether President Trump should face impeachment following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“Mueller’s report is clear in pointing to Congress’ responsibility in investigating obstruction of justice by the President,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet. “It is our job as outlined in Article 1, Sec 2, Clause 5 of the US Constitution,” added the self-avowed Democratic Socialist. “As such, I’ll be signing onto @RashidaTlaib’s impeachment resolution.”
The lawmaker continued: “While I understand the political reality of the Senate + election considerations, upon reading this DoJ report, which explicitly names Congress in determining obstruction, I cannot see a reason for us to abdicate from our constitutionally mandated responsibility to investigate.”
The development comes after Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) unveiled a measure requesting the House Judiciary Committee to look into whether the president was guilty of any impeachable wrongdoing.
“The actions of President Trump before he was officially sworn in as President of United States is currently being investigated by the Southern District of New York and much of it is part of the completed report by independent investigator, Robert Mueller,” wrote Tlaib in a letter to her Democrat colleagues last month, urging that they sign on to her resolutions.
“However, the most dangerous threat to our democracy is President Trump’s actions since taking the oath of office,” the Michigan Democrat continued.
“Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgment,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash.
Attorney General William Barr on Thursday released a redacted version of the special counsel’s report, specifying there existed insufficient evidence of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. In a statement, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) announced he plans to subpoena the entire report along with the underlying materials. “Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct,” Nadler said in a statement. “Contrary to the Attorney General’s statement this morning that the White House ‘fully cooperated’ with the investigation, the report makes clear that the President refused to be interviewed by the Special Counsel and refused to provide written answers to follow-up questions and his associates destroyed evidence relevant to the Russia investigation.”