A federal judge on Friday rejected claims that the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump is illegitimate as she ordered the Justice Department to give a House committee secret grand jury material collected in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
That material could help the House Judiciary Committee substantiate “potentially impeachable conduct” by Trump, said Chief Judge Beryl Howell of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in her ruling.
Howell brushed aside arguments made by Trump’s supporters that the impeachment inquiry is illegitimate because the House has not held a formal vote authorizing such a probe.
“Even in cases of presidential impeachment, a House resolution has never, in fact, been required to begin an impeachment inquiry,” the judge wrote.
She wrote that the White House’s refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry made it even more important to give the House panel the grand jury materials that it was seeking.
“Congress’s need to access grand jury material relevant to potential impeachable conduct by a President is heightened when the Executive Branch willfully obstructs channels for accessing other relevant evidence,” Howell said.
Earlier in October, White House counsel Pat Cipollone sent House leaders a letter that called the impeachment probe “baseless, unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic process.”
Howell gave the Justice Department until next Wednesday to send to the Judiciary Committee the material sought, which is information collected by the grand jury that is referenced in or underlying the Mueller Report.
President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed the need for additional help in countering Democrats' impeachment efforts despite pleas from outside advisers for a more coordinated response from the White House.
In a comment reminiscent of his "I alone can fix it" declaration in accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, Trump told reporters gathered on the White House South Lawn that he will be the one leading the fight when it comes to responding to impeachment.
"Here's the thing. I don't have teams, everyone's talking about teams," Trump said. "I'm the team. I did nothing wrong."
