Top Democrat: Mueller Report's Potential Obstruction Claims Impeachable 'If Proven'

Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he believes special counsel Robert Mueller’s report contains information that could be grounds for impeachment against President Donald Trump “if proven.”

“If proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes,” Nadler told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable. ... We’re going to see where the facts lead us.”

Asked earlier if his committee had opened an impeachment inquiry, Nadler told host Chuck Todd that he didn’t think so.

“We may get to that. We may not,” Nadler said. “As I’ve said before, it is our job to go through all the evidence, all the information we can get.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, called on the House to start impeachment proceedings against Trump following the public release of a redacted version of the Mueller report.

In his report, Mueller outlined an extensive pattern of unethical behavior to apparently obstruct an ongoing law enforcement investigation, though stopped short of calling Trump a criminal.

“The Mueller report lays out facts showing that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help Donald Trump and Donald Trump welcomed that help,” Warren tweeted Tuesday. “Once elected, Donald Trump obstructed the investigation into that attack.”

She’s the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to call for impeachment, and the most high-profile Democrat to do so.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), drawing ire from some members of her own party, has repeatedly stated that she would not pursue impeachment unless there was overwhelming support from both sides of the aisle.

“Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country,” Pelosi told The Washington Post last month.

Other top Democrats have been reluctant to call for impeachment as well.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Democrats “may” pursue impeachment in the wake of the Mueller report’s release if that’s determined to be “the best thing for the country.”

“Look, I think Liz Warren makes an important point, and that is that the level of evidence in the Mueller report is serious and damning,” Schiff told ABC’s “This Week.”

“In a normal circumstance, [this] would be without question within the realm of impeachable offenses,” he continued. “We are unfortunately in an environment today with the GOP leadership ... are willing to carry the president’s water no matter how corrupt or unethical or dishonest the president’s conduct may be.”

• This article originally appeared on HuffPost.