Face of Nation : Democrats in control of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee hope that Robert Mueller’s testimony on Wednesday will boost their wide-ranging investigation of President Donald Trump, but it is not entirely clear where that inquiry is headed. The panel, led by New York Representative Jerrold Nadler, has the power to start impeachment proceedings against Trump.
But Nadler is not among the 90 House of Representatives Democrats who have publicly said they favor initiating the impeachment process against the president.
Senior House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are trying to hold back impeachment demands within the party, fearing a voter backlash in the 2020 election campaigns. If the House were to impeach Trump, it would then be up to the Republican-controlled Senate to hold a trial and potentially remove him from office.
That constraint, barring a major upswing in voter support for impeachment, leaves the committee with several, smaller-bore initiatives to work on, which Nadler has outlined.
The Judiciary Committee is considering measures to protect special counsels, such as Mueller. He and his nearly two-year probe of Trump and Russian meddling in the 2016 election have been repeatedly attacked by Trump.
Mueller’s 448-page report on his probe, released in mid-April, described attempts by Trump to have Mueller removed and to redirect the investigation away from the 2016 Trump campaign.
Committee Democrats have proposed requiring candidates to refuse offers of help from foreign powers and to report any such offers to the FBI. Mueller discovered numerous contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, although Mueller concluded that there was insufficient evidence to show a conspiracy.
Russians offered the Trump campaign damaging information about his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Trump has since said that he would accept such foreign assistance in 2020. He initially said he would need to report such contacts to authorities, but later retracted the statement.
