White House lawyers are ‘consulting impeachment experts’

White House lawyers have started consulting experts on impeachment as murmurs of Donald Trump’s removal from office have grown louder in recent weeks, it has been reported.

Lawyers in the White House counsel’s office appear to be taking the distant possibility of impeachment seriously, having reached out to experts in the past week to gather more information, CNN reported.

While the gravity of the investigations into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia has escalated with the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel, impeachment remains a long shot, especially given the GOP control of both the House and Senate.

The White House issued a brief statement saying the reports were ‘not true’.

An attorney close to White House counsel Don McGahn also questioned the reports, saying it wasn’t something he would authorize.

Rep. Al Green, (D-TX), said on the House floor on Wednesday: ‘The President must be impeached.

But Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), urged Democrats to take a more restrained approach, saying: ‘No one ought to, in my view, rush to embrace the most extraordinary remedy that involves the removal of the president from office

He also warned that calls for impeachment could ‘be perceived as an effort to nullify the election by other means.’

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstsein wrote a letter on Wednesday tasking Mueller with investigating links ‘between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.’

The wide scope also includes ‘any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation’ – which would appear to include any efforts Trump may have made to interfere with the FBI’s investigation of National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.

‘I accept this responsibility and will discharge it to the best of my ability,’ Mueller said in a statement.

Lawyer Michael Cohen also visited the White House to discuss the possibility of hiring personal attorneys for Trump, CNN reported.

 Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached and acquitted. Impeachment remains a long shot with Trump, especially given the GOP control of both the House and Senate

And reports that a senior adviser was a ‘person of interest’  in a probe of possible collusion with Russia during last year’s election campaign emerged just as Trump jetted off to Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as president.

The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the matter, did not identify the senior Trump adviser except to say that the person of interest was close to Trump, a Republican who entered the White House four months ago.

U.S. law enforcement uses the term ‘a person of interest’ to mean someone who is part of a criminal investigation but not arrested or formally accused of a crime. The person may be cooperating or have information of use to investigators.

Source: White House lawyers are ‘consulting impeachment experts’ | Daily Mail Online