Statement: Reps. Meadows & Jordan Recklessly Pervert Impeachment Process to Play Irresponsible Partisan Political Games

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Representatives Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) in filing articles of impeachment yesterday against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are recklessly perverting the Constitution’s solemn impeachment process to play irresponsible partisan political games.

The effort to impeach Mr. Rosenstein is unprecedented, unwarranted, meritless, and a gross abuse of the impeachment process and of the offices Reps. Meadows and Jordan hold.

The impeachment process was only intended to be used by the framers in the rarest of circumstances. And that is the way Congress has approached it historically. Thus, in the 229-year history of the Constitution, there has never been an impeachment of an executive branch official at a sub-Cabinet level, such as the position held by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein.

The impeachment process was meant to be used only for “treason, bribery or other high crimes or misdemeanors”— the constitutional standard for impeachment. It was never intended to be used to settle differences between the Executive Branch and the Congress, no matter how strong the differences might be.

It is clear what Representatives Meadows and Jordan are up to.

This is one more effort by Representatives Meadows and Jordan to defend President Trump at all costs and with no regard for the facts and the truth by trying to undermine, discredit and if possible kill the Mueller investigation, which Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein oversees.

This is no time to abandon 229 years of American history and no time to abuse the solemn power of impeachment provided in the Constitution.

The efforts of Representatives Meadows and Jordan should be called out for what they are: an irresponsible, reckless and abusive attempt to damage the Mueller investigation and stop the American people from getting to the bottom of the illegal Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the role President Trump and his associates may have played in the Russian interference.

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