Hours after a majority of her House Democrats came out in support of opening an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that “no one is above the law” and that Trump “will be held accountable.”
In a statement, Pelosi, D-Calif., stuck to her existing position on impeachment: that her caucus should focus their attention on ongoing congressional investigations and legal battles.
But the speaker also referred to the 10 examples of Trump possibly having obstructed justice that were outlined in former special counsel Robert Mueller's report and said the president's “more recent attempts to prevent us from finding the facts” represented “further evidence” of obstruction.
“To protect our democracy and our Constitution, Democrats in the Congress continue to legislate, investigate and litigate,” Pelosi said, before laying out in detail the status of the House’s investigations into Trump and his administration.
“We owe it to our children to ensure that no present or future president can dishonor the oath of office without being held accountable,” Pelosi said in the statement.
“In America, no one is above the law," she continued. "The President will be held accountable."
For months, Pelosi has cautioned against advancing with impeachment, saying the time was not yet right and that Democrats should wait until their hand was the "strongest" possible before going down that path.
Her latest statement on the issue came shortly after Rep. Salud Carbajal of California announced he supported moving forward with an impeachment inquiry — putting into the majority the number of House Democrats who favor doing so.
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Many House Democrats have come out in favor of launching impeachment proceedings following Mueller's testimony on Capitol Hill last week about the findings of his two-year investigation into Russia and Trump. Rep. Justin Amash, a Michigan independent who recently left the Republican Party, has also called for impeachment.
