As special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation continues to close in on the president, frightened Trump loyalists in the House of Representatives are drafting articles of impeachment – against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
According to The Washington Post, “Conservative House allies of President Trump have drafted articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the ongoing special-counsel probe, setting up a possible GOP showdown over the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
More from the startling Post report:
The draft articles, which one of its authors called a “last resort,” would be unlikely to garner significant support in Congress. But it could serve as a provocative political weapon for conservatives in their standoff with Mueller and the Justice Department.
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Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus — led by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a Trump confidant — finalized the draft in recent days. It came after weeks of disputes with Rosenstein over the Justice Department’s response to congressional requests for documents about the decisions and behavior of federal law-enforcement officials working on the Russia investigation and other federal probes, including the investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s email server.
The move shows how terrified Republicans are
Republicans are no longer seeking to change the subject from Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference and Trump obstruction. They’ve accepted that they can’t do that.
What they can do – in their eyes, at least – is undermine the credibility of the investigation before it’s too late. The best way they feel they can achieve this goal is to go after Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller’s probe.
If they can somehow taint Rosenstein’s credibility – or even force him out of his position – they can use it to taint the entire investigation, no matter how damning the findings end up being.
Moves like this don’t just give Republicans the ability to disregard Robert Mueller’s eventual recommendations – which could be either impeachment or criminal charges – when all is said and done, but they also do severe long-term damage to American institutions.
Republicans have turned what should have been a bipartisan special counsel investigation into a political circus, and it’s pushing the United States ever closer to a constitutional crisis.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
