Congress Schiff says impeachment still possible even if Russia probe clears Trump

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said Wednesday that even if a report from special counsel Robert Mueller exonerates President Donald Trump, impeachment talk might remain on the table.

Schiff (D-Calif.), whose committee is still investigating the president’s ties to Russia during to the 2016 presidential election, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that if neither Mueller nor his panel find definitive evidence of collusion or obstruction of justice by Trump, he would consider that to be the end of the collusion inquiry, the most likely grounds for impeachment.


Still, he said, “there may be grounds for removal of office or there may be grounds for indictment after he leaves office that the Congress discovers.”

He pointed out that Mueller’s narrow mandate may have precluded the special counsel from investigating “whether the Russians were laundering money for the Trump Organization,” something Schiff said his committee is looking into.

“Our predominant concern on my committee is: Was this president, is this president compromised by a foreign power?” the California Democrat said.

He raised the Trump Tower Moscow project that the president has acknowledged continued through much of the 2016 campaign as one point of interest, calling it “one very graphic illustration that may or may not be criminal and would be … deeply deeply compromising.”

“The president was trying to negotiate the most lucrative business deal of his life during his presidential campaign, concealing it from the public, trying to get the Kremlin’s help and knowing that if he crossed [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, he would never get that money. Hundreds of millions of dollars,” Schiff argued. “And when it was discovered, his answer was, ‘Well, why should I miss out on those business opportunities?’”

Schiff also suggested that Trump, who faces dismal polling numbers heading into his reelection campaign, may take the same tack in 2020.

“It may still be the view of this president that if he’s not reelected, why should he miss out on that Trump Tower deal?” the congressman said. “And that may stay his hand when it comes to confronting Putin the way we need a president to do.”

Though Schiff indicated he plans to continue investigating the president for other potential wrongdoing if the Russia investigation ends quietly, he argued that “there is ample evidence of collusion” but noted “we have to wait” on Mueller to conclude his investigation to find out “whether that evidence amounts to beyond a reasonable doubt of criminal conspiracy.”

He also said Wednesday that he “wholly” concurs with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stance that lawmakers should not seek Trump’s impeachment without unambiguous evidence of wrongdoing, though he said making that determination when it comes to the Russia probe requires the Justice Department to share Mueller’s evidence with Congress.