Nadler: ‘It may very well come to’ opening a formal impeachment inquiry

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that “it may very well come to” launching an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, depending on the findings of the House’s various investigations.

“We are going to go step by step. First, we’re investigating all the things we would investigate frankly in an impeachment inquiry. We are starting with the Mueller report, which shows, I think it shows ample evidence of multiple crimes of obstruction of justice and abuse of power,” Nadler told said on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

{mosads}Asked why the House would wait to launch an impeachment inquiry, Nadler told Blitzer, “Right now, there doesn’t appear to be the support for it,” although he demurred on whether he was referring to his caucus or the public. A recent CNN poll found outright impeachment is favored by 41 percent of respondents.

An impeachment inquiry is distinct from the impeachment process, and involves an investigation of potential “high crimes and misdemeanors” that form the basis of impeachment. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has consistently opposed impeachment.

Nadler added that support “may develop” but “right now, we have to get the facts out. we have to educate the American people, because after all, the American people have been lied to consistently by the president, by the attorney general, who have misrepresented what was in the Mueller report.”

He reiterated his call for the special counsel to testify about his findings before Congress. Mueller has said he does not wish to testify and said in a rare public statement last week that his report speaks for him, but Nadler speculated Mueller “may give new information without realizing it” in testifying before Congress. Nadler told Blitzer it “may come to” formally subpoenaing Mueller.

Nadler also affirmed that a full House vote on a contempt resolution for Attorney General William Barr would proceed as scheduled on June 11 unless “they give us a very good faith offer, which I can’t imagine they would do” to see Mueller’s full, unredacted report.