Judiciary Dem: House investigations must ‘start at the beginning’ before discussing impeachment

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Sunday that the House should prioritize thorough investigations of President Trump before any action to impeach him.

Jayapal, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that she had previously supported articles of impeachment against Trump because “Republicans refused to even allow us to have a discussion about the things that were out there.”

“Now that we’re in charge, we now have a responsibility to conduct the investigations and that’s what we’re doing,” she said. “I think people want to go to the end of the debate and I want to start at the beginning, something we were never allowed to do under Republican rule.” 

“I think people want to go to the end of the debate and I want to start at the beginning, something we were never allowed to do under Republican rule,” Democrat @RepJayapal says about impeachment. #CNNSOTU https://t.co/SlainVzQJr pic.twitter.com/2hwkWHbbdk

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 24, 2019

{mosads}Jayapal noted ongoing House investigations and requests for documents since Democrats took control of the chamber in January, including the Judiciary Committee’s request for documents from 81 individuals and organizations.

Jayapal added that any speculation about the final findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s just-concluded report was premature.

“To say there’s no collusion when we haven’t seen the report… I think is disingenuous,” she said. “We need to look at everything, not just the summary conclusions but everything underneath. Certainly there is precedent, thanks to the Republicans, of releasing even classified information.”

Attorney General William Barr is expected to send Mueller’s conclusions to top lawmakers on Capitol Hill as early as Sunday.