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DeFazio Now Open To Impeachment Inquiry Against President Trump

Reversing course from a few months ago, Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio now says he favors possible impeachment proceedings against President Trump. 

Three months ago, DeFazio sided with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in saying voting Trump out of office was the better option over impeachment.

Now DeFazio says he’d hoped Special Counsel Robert Mueller would have been “more forthcoming” before Congress last Wednesday on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.  The House Democrat says it’s time for the Judiciary Committee to open up a formal impeachment inquiry.

“It’s essentially like a grand jury process," DeFazio tells KLCC.  "There are some who feel this would give us better standing in the courts, I hope it does.

"Because that’s really the only recourse we have to get the witnesses we need, we have to subpoena them or hold them in contempt to get the evidence we need since we’re being stonewalled by Trump.”

President Trump and his allies have called the probe a “witch hunt” and say any impeachment proceedings will hurt Democrats in 2020.

Copyright 2019, KLCC.

Brian Bull joined the KLCC News Team in June 2016. In his 25+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (19 regional), the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.
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