The investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller produced more than 400 pages that could easily serve as a guide for Donald Trump’s impeachment—even without seeing what’s under all those redactions. However, that doesn’t mean that what’s in the pages of the report is the limit of charges Trump could face.
Though Trump is anxious to claim that Mueller took a “thorough” look at his taxes and finances during the investigation, there’s no indication that’s really the case. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s instructions to the special counsel carved out a special authority to look at past financial activities by Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, but they included no such permission to look at anything concerning Trump’s personal or business activities before the campaign period. All that information that caused both Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to brag about how much business they were doing with Russia is still out there to be investigated, assuming someone can get to the information. And it’s worth noting that Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was given partial immunity by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for … something we still don’t know.
But no one has to go digging through files to find good cause why Trump should be impeached. The public actions Trump has taken just this week serve as more than adequate cause. The third article of impeachment against Richard Nixon explicitly addressed his refusal to obey congressional subpoenas. Every time Trump orders someone on his White House staff to ignore a subpoena, every time he tells the IRS to withhold his tax forms, every time he launches a lawsuit against Congress to prevent access to his financial information, Trump is providing the House with a ready-made cause to send him packing.
And as Politico reports, Trump’s anger and stated desire to “turn the tables” on the investigation is just another way he’s making it easier for those drafting up articles of impeachment to fill multiple pages. The Mueller report detailed ways in which Trump obstructed justice by withholding evidence, threatening witnesses, and stonewalling. Now Trump is repeating all those tactics and more to interfere with the congressional investigation.
And it’s just as much obstruction when Trump does it to Elijah Cummings as when he did it to Robert Mueller.
Robert Mueller may have felt constrained by the rules of the Department of Justice and his perception of the limits on a special counsel to strictly restrain himself from accusing Trump of a crime. That restraint has Trump claiming that he “won” the Mueller report.
But Cummings and other committee chairs in the House are under no such constraints. As Trump claims he’s not guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” he’s actively defying multiple congressional subpoenas. That itself a misdemeanor punishable by a year in federal prison.
Representatives may not be empowered to come after Trump with handcuffs. They are absolutely empowered to come after him with impeachment, and Trump is making it easy for them. Trump is moving to block the testimony of former security director Carl Kline, and DOJ official John Gore, and former White House attorney Don McGahn—call those counts one, two, and three. He’s causing the IRS to violate the law in refusing to turn over his returns (count four). But that’s far from all.
Trump’s attacks on the special counsel investigation, on potential witnesses like McGahn, and on members of Congress could all serve as the basis for charges of obstruction, witnesses tampering, and withholding information. Every single tweet that Trump has made attacking the investigation could end up supporting an existing count or forming the basis for a new count.
Trump isn’t just raising the odds that he will be impeached: His ongoing obstruction is leaving open few options but impeachment. And if he’s so anxious to have it, the House should get started right away.