Should have done it sooner...

Nadler: Judiciary panel could recommend articles of impeachment by late fall

By KYLE CHENEY

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said Monday that his panel could recommend articles of impeachment by late fall, sketching a rough timeline for potential efforts to remove President Donald Trump just days after a majority of House Democrats signaled their willingness to support an impeachment inquiry.

"If we decide to report articles of impeachment, we could get to that late in the fall, in the latter part of the year," Nadler said on MSNBC.

Nadler is petitioning a federal judge to get lawmakers access to grand jury evidence collected by former special counsel Robert Mueller, and his committee is preparing to sue former White House counsel Don McGahn to compel his testimony in the committee's ongoing investigation into potential abuses of power by Trump.

"I think that we will probably get court decisions by the end of October, maybe shortly thereafter. We'll have hearings in September and October with people we don't -- witnesses who are not dependent on the court proceedings," Nadler said.

But that's an ambitious timeframe for a committee that has so far been nearly totally stymied in its effort to force Mueller's central witnesses to provide information to Congress. McGahn, his deputy Annie Donaldson and former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks have all refused to testify about the events that they freely discussed with Mueller, forming the basis of Mueller's damaging evidence of Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation of his campaign's numerous contacts with Russians.

Democrats say they need to speak to these witnesses to build their own body of evidence as they consider measures -- including impeachment -- to hold Trump accountable for the actions described in Mueller's report. But even with court victories, appeals and other legal processes and delays could stretch the process out for months or years, entangling legal efforts with the 2020 presidential campaign. Nadler emphasized during his MSNBC interview that his committee's efforts should continue irrespective of the political calendar.

But others on the committee have viewed the start of the presidential primaries as an unofficial deadline for potential impeachment. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued to resist calls for a formal impeachment inquiry and argued that methodical investigations and legal action is the proper course for now.

Pelosi emphasized her position Friday even as Democrats agitating for an impeachment inquiry eclipsed half of the voting members of her caucus. About 120 Democrats have said publicly that they would vote to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump. Nadler, of late, has argued that such a vote would be unnecessary because his committee is already engaged in an "impeachment investigation," but Republicans have rejected that position and argued only a formal vote can launch proceedings.

That determination is now in the hands of Beryl Howell, the chief judge of Washington’s federal district court, who is weighing Democrats' petition to access Mueller's grand jury information. In their filing, committee Democrats argued that they should be treated as actively investigating impeachment, given that the House referred articles of impeachment to the panel in January and the fact that they've repeatedly referenced the prospect of recommending articles over the course of their investigations.