A House Democrat asked on Wednesday how Democrats can impeach President Trump without obtaining the documents they seek.

During a House Judiciary hearing, lawmakers debated a resolution to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for not giving access to the full, unredacted report from special counsel Robert Mueller.

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., indicated the effort is all tied to impeaching Trump.

“How can we impeach without getting the documents?" he asked, adding that "the American people expect us" to gain access to the full Mueller report.

Johnson, who is chairman of a Judiciary subcommittee, has compared Trump to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Democrat Hank Johnson: “How can we impeach without getting the document? … Once we get it, our hearings can continue” toward impeachment.



They are spending all their time on presidential harassment instead of doing good things for the American people! pic.twitter.com/BCtGP12nzs — Official Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 8, 2019

The comments belie the view of most of the Democratic leadership, who sought to tamp down talk of impeachment in favor of focusing on investigating the president. Besides the Mueller report, Democrats are also seeking other documents related to Trump, including his tax returns.

Republicans have opposed effort by Democrats in the committee to gain access to the Mueller report and underlying documents, calling it a tacit scheme to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump.

"Democrats continue to accidentally reveal their motive behind all these subpoenas. It’s impeachment. This is politics weakly disguised as oversight," Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., tweeted in response to Johnson.

The House Judiciary Committee voted to cite Barr for contempt of Congress on Wednesday, but did so along party lines. Republicans voted against the contempt resolution, arguing Democrats are seeking to drag out the Mueller probe, which found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russians, but made no determination about whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation.

The vote came after the Trump administration asserted executive privilege on the materials from the unreleased Mueller investigation.