Two Democratic congressmen have introduced articles of impeachment in a long-shot bid to remove the U.S. President Donald Trump from office.
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Representatives Brad Sherman of California and Al Green of Texas allege in the House Resolution 438 that Trump obstructed justice by sacking the former FBI Director James Comey in a bid to derail investigations into allegations of Russian “meddling” in the 2016 presidential elections.
"Recent disclosures by Donald Trump Jr. indicate that Trump's campaign was eager to receive assistance from Russia,” Sherman said in a statement released Wednesday. “It now seems likely that the President had something to hide when he tried to curtail the investigation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and the wider Russian probe.”
The 11-term representative from Southern California's San Fernando Valley criticizes the U.S. President for firing Comey in response to his handling of the investigation into claims of collusion between the celebrity billionaire and Russian state actors.
While Trump has emphatically stated that “Russia is a ruse” and a distraction from the Democrats' inability to win the elections, he has also said in regard to Comey's firing, "When I decided to just do it, I said to myself – I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story."
The introduction of the articles comes a day after revelations that Donald Trump Jr. met the Russian defense attorney Natalya Veselnitskaya, who is allegedly linked to the Kremlin, in a bid to receive compromising information on Hillary Clinton.
The move has earned the president's eldest son widespread ire from liberal commentators, some have even verged on accusing him of “treason.”
Russian officials have denied the accusations of meddling, while the Trump administration has struggled to devise a coherent stance on the issue.
Sherman admits that the article is merely the “first step in a long road” requiring the support of fifty percent of the House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senate, both of which enjoy Republican majorities.
Democratic Party leaders will likely be hesitant to support Sherman and Green's move, which they see as ill-advised and potentially liable to inflame Trump's conservative base.
According to reports, Massachusetts Representative Michael Capuano denounced fellow Democrats who pushed for the impeachment, calling Sherman selfish and noting the unlikely possibility that such impeachment measures would succeed on a G.O.P.-controlled Capitol Hill.
The impeachment bid has almost no chance of proceeding past the House.