House Judiciary Chairman: Calls For Barr's Impeachment Are 'Waste Of Time'
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that calls from his Democratic colleagues to impeach Attorney General William Barr are a “waste of time” because Senate Republicans would not remove him no matter what.
Barr has come under fire in recent days regarding the firing of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, whose office was investigating associates of President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the Justice Department announced that Berman was stepping down from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Berman said he was doing no such thing in a statement released later that night. The next day, Barr notified Berman that Trump had fired him.
Nadler announced Saturday that his committee would immediately open an investigation into Berman’s ouster. But he said Sunday that calls for Barr’s impeachment, including from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), were futile.
“I don’t think calls for his impeachment are premature any more than calls for the president’s impeachment were premature,” Nadler said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Nadler added: “But they are a waste of time at this point because we know that we have a corrupt Republican majority in the Senate, which will not consider an impeachment no matter what the evidence and no matter what the facts.”
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler says calls for the impeachment of AG Bill Barr are “a waste of time at this point because we know that we have a corrupt Republican majority in the Senate which will not consider an impeachment no matter what the evidence” #CNNSOTUpic.twitter.com/9GACiXIvDO
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) June 21, 2020
Asked if he was calling all 51 Senate Republicans who voted to acquit Trump during the impeachment trial corrupt, Nadler said yes.
Nadler has suggested Barr was attempting to hamper ongoing investigations into Trump’s conduct by the Southern District of New...