(CNN) New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler said Sunday that if President Donald Trump is found to have violated campaign finance laws with hush payments, it "might very well be an impeachable offense."

"Well, it may be an impeachable offense if it goes to the question of the President procuring his office through corrupt means," Nadler, the expected incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." "And that could be impeachable."

"You'd have to see ... how good the proof of that is, and secondly, what else there is, because the fact that an impeachable offense is committed, has been committed, does not mean necessarily there ought to be an impeachment."

Nadler said it "depends on whether the situation is serious enough that it makes sense to do an impeachment to defend the ... system of government and the system of democracy."

Earlier in the interview, he said that Democrats are "far from" impeachment proceedings.

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