McGovern also followed up in a statement on Thursday , thanking Mueller for his service and calling on Congress exercise its power as a check on the executive branch.

“The next step is for the House Judiciary committee to open an inquiry to formally begin considering whether impeachment is warranted,” McGovern said Wednesday during an appearance on WGBH’s “The Scrum” podcast. “Quite frankly we’re beyond talking about this in terms of political implications. . .we have to do what’s right.”

Representative Jim McGovern is calling for the House Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment inquiry in the wake of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s televised statement on Wednesday highlighting the findings of his Russia report.


“As [Mueller] said in his report, Congress has the authority to prohibit a president’s corrupt use of authority to in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,” McGovern said in the statement.

Calls for impeachment have been growing as the Trump administration has refused to cooperate with congressional investigations, ignoring subpoenas related to his tax returns, the unredacted Mueller report, and testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn. It’s created a split among the House Democratic caucus, with some calling for impeachment and others, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, advocating a more cautious approach.

More Democrats came out in favor of impeachment Wednesday after Mueller gave a televised statement in which he reiterated that he had not cleared the president of wrongdoing on the issue of obstruction, and alluded to impeachment when he said spoke of a Justice Department policy that says Congress is responsible for holding a sitting president accountable.

McGovern has voted in favor of referring the question of impeachment to the Judiciary Committee in the past, but said Wednesday he has not “been out there screaming and yelling” to begin the process out of respect for colleagues who wanted to let existing committees proceed with their investigations.


“What’s becoming clear is the White House is obstructing even that,” he told WGBH Wednesday.

Christina Prignano can be reached at christina.prignano@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @cprignano.