Justin Amash Doubles Down on Call for Trump’s Impeachment Amid GOP Backlash
Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) earned the enmity of his fellow Republicans over the weekend with a long tweet thread announcing that after reading the Mueller report closely, he now supports impeaching President Trump.
After 48 hours of being attacked on Twitter by the president and on Fox Business by the leader of his caucus, Kevin McCarthy, among others, Amash on Monday posted another thread pushing back:
People who say there were no underlying crimes and therefore the president could not have intended to illegally obstruct the investigation—and therefore cannot be impeached—are resting their argument on several falsehoods:
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 20, 2019
1. They say there were no underlying crimes.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 20, 2019
In fact, there were many crimes revealed by the investigation, some of which were charged, and some of which were not but are nonetheless described in Mueller’s report.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 20, 2019
2. They say obstruction of justice requires an underlying crime.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 20, 2019
In fact, obstruction of justice does not require the prosecution of an underlying crime, and there is a logical reason for that. Prosecutors might not charge a crime precisely *because* obstruction of justice denied them timely access to evidence that could lead to a prosecution.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 20, 2019
The thread can be read in its entirety here.
Amash’s references to “people” and “they” could be aimed entirely at President Trump, who on Sunday said there was “NO COLLUSION” and that there could not have been any obstruction because there was no underlying crime.
Amash is a libertarian who has long been one of the few Republicans willing to break ranks with the Republican party line. So far, he’s out on his own limb from the rest of his caucus on the issue of Trump’s crimes as well.
