Jerry Nadler Gives Trump Friday Deadline; Impeachment to Include Russia Collusion

House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) wrote to President Donald Trump Friday, giving him until Friday, Dec. 6., to answer whether he and his lawyers would participate in the “impeachment inquiry.”

Nadler’s letter quotes the forthcoming report from the House Intelligence Committee, which will be written entirely by Democrats and which will recommend drafting articles of impeachment against the president. The report will state that there was “a months-long effort in which President Trump again sought foreign interference in our elections for his personal and political benefit at the expense of our national interest”; and that the president conducted “an unprecedented campaign of obstruction in an effort to prevent the Committees from obtaining documentary evidence and testimony.”

The word “again” suggests that the House Intelligence Committee will not limit its report to allegations that Trump invited Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election, but will also state that Trump sought Russian interference in the 2016 election — even though Special Counsel Robert Mueller found there to be no evidence of such collusion.

Fox News Poll: Maine Senate race is tight, with concerns about both candidates

House backs Massie’s push to release taxpayer-funded sexual harassment settlement records

California couple says moving company doubled their price and is now holding belongings ‘for ransom’: report

USPS worker arrested after alleged mass shooting threat against Texas Pride event, FBI says

Beloved Star, Outspoken Christian Kelsey Grammer Mulling Run for Office

JD Vance Explains How Leftist Motto Is ‘a Disgusting Butchering of the Nicene Creed’

Five countries in Latin America have elected pro-Trump governments since his election

Bar complaint accuses Biden-appointed district judge of dishonesty during DOJ tenure

Lawmakers press Eli Lilly for China drug trials tied to military-linked hospitals

Dems join Republicans to crush Tlaib’s war powers resolution in lopsided House vote

Trump Floats Plan to ‘Reverse Birthright Citizenship’ in Spite of the Supreme Court

MKUltra hearing turns into intense grilling of NIH researcher about the origins of COVID-19

NPR Retracts Bombshell Story About Supreme Court Justice Retiring

Shock poll: Talarico ties Paxton in Texas Senate race, threatening GOP stronghold

GOP infighting over Trump’s voter ID bill erupts as top senator calls strategy ‘fantasy’

Nadler added that Trump is being investigated for obstruction of justice, relating to actions described by Mueller in the second volume of his report, though Mueller did not recommend prosecution and Attorney General William Barr rejected obstruction charges against Trump on the merits.

The White House cooperated fully with Mueller and never exerted executive privilege over any witnesses or documents. It has resisted participating in the House “impeachment inquiry,” which it regards as illegitimate.

Nadler has invited the president and his counsel to call and question witnesses, in accordance with the House resolution authorizing the impeachment inquiry last month — though the president was not allowed to do so in the Intelligence Committee inquiry. However, Nadler and the Democratic majority on the committee can overrule requests for witnesses.

In addition, the House Rules Committee warned last month that Nadler would be allowed to limit the president’s ability to call witnesses if he does not provide witnesses and documents the committee wants.

Republicans criticized Nadler’s letter. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), who participated in the earlier round of closed-door hearings, said that Nadler’s letter proved that the president had previously been denied due process rights: