Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., bolstered his call for Donald Trump’s impeachment Monday with a new Twitter thread rebutting arguments made by the president’s supporters.

A libertarian who was elected to Congress in the tea party wave of 2010, Amash ticked off four main criticisms of his view that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report showed Trump “engaged in impeachable conduct,” followed by his own response.

Justin Amash

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@justinamash

People who say there were no underlying crimes and therefore the president could not have intended to illegally obstruct the investigation—and therefore cannot be impeached—are resting their argument on several falsehoods:

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2:00 AM – May 21, 2019

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“1. They say there were no underlying crimes.

In fact, there were many crimes revealed by the investigation, some of which were charged, and some of which were not but are nonetheless described in Mueller’s report.”

To date, Mueller’s investigation has yielded 199 criminal counts and 37 people and entities charged. Seven people have pleaded guilty; five people have been sentenced to prison.

“2. They say obstruction of justice requires an underlying crime.

In fact, obstruction of justice does not require the prosecution of an underlying crime, and there is a logical reason for that. Prosecutors might not charge a crime precisely because obstruction of justice denied them timely access to evidence that could lead to a prosecution.

If an underlying crime were required, then prosecutors could charge obstruction of justice only if it were unsuccessful in completely obstructing the investigation. This would make no sense.”

On Sunday, Trump made the assertion himself that it is impossible to obstruct justice without the existence of an underlying crime.

Donald J. Trump

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@realDonaldTrump

· May 19, 2019

Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy. If he actually read the biased Mueller Report, “composed” by 18 Angry Dems who hated Trump,….

Donald J. Trump

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@realDonaldTrump

….he would see that it was nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION…Anyway, how do you Obstruct when there is no crime and, in fact, the crimes were committed by the other side? Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands!

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9:55 PM – May 19, 2019

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In part, this is why Attorney General William Barr’s verdict on the obstruction question has been front and center for those claiming that Mueller’s report exonerated the president.

A letter written in early May and signed by more than 400 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department employees, however, concluded that if Trump were not president, he would have been charged with obstruction of justice based on Mueller’s findings. Read more

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