House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) continued her slow walk toward impeachment on Tuesday when she accused President Donald Trump of committing obstruction of justice by blocking his staffers from testifying in Congress.
On Tuesday afternoon, the White House sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in response to his subpoena requiring former Trump adviser Hope Hicks to testify. The administration is blocking Hicks from testifying by arguing that she is “immune” from doing so.
Once again, Trump is defying a congressional subpoena, and his behavior is seriously pissing Pelosi off because when asked about Trump blocking Hicks from testifying, the House Speaker said that Trump is committing obstruction of justice, her strongest language yet signaling she is close to supporting an impeachment inquiry.
Just asked Nancy Pelosi about WH saying Hope Hicks should not answer questions about her time at the WH, and she said: “Obstruction of justice.” And she walked to the elevator.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 18, 2019
Previously, Pelosi has accused Trump of being engaged in a cover-up. This is the first time she has described Trump’s flouting of subpoenas as obstruction of justice, a high crime justifying impeachment.
Not only did Pelosi condemn Trump’s action, so did legal experts.
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti pointed out that there’s no such thing as immunity from testifying for senior advisers to the president.
It’s worth noting that no legal authority is provided for the preposterous claim that there is a “long-standing” principle that senior advisors are “absolutely immune” from testifying. https://t.co/3hcqOjB297
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) June 18, 2019
Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe agreed, observing that Trump and his team are just making things up.
Why blame the WH for failing to provide legal authority for its preposterous claim? There is none, after all. So what should we expect? That they make stuff up? So unfair! https://t.co/UHkMHR4hNY
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 18, 2019
Clearly, Trump is making sh*t up as he goes in order to justify violating congressional subpoenas. As usual, he will be taken to court and will lose because any judge worthy of their position will see right through this pathetic facade. But Pelosi’s two-word description of Trump’s action is moving her closer to pushing the impeachment button, and that would be disastrous for Trump as the nation will get to see all of the evidence against him in the impeachment hearings that are sure to be nationally televised for the world to see.
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