President Donald Trump's firing of James Comey as FBI director could be an "impeachable offense" Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. said.
Nadler's comments came during an interview on CNN's "New Day."
"If the president fired Comey because he asked for loyalty and hadn't gotten it, because he had asked him to ease off on the investigation of (Michael) Flynn — because in effect he was asking him to ease off the investigation of possible collusion by the Trump campaign with the Russians in subverting the election — that would be obstruction of justice, which is an impeachable offense," Nadler said.
The New York Times, citing a memo by the fired FBI chief, reported Trump had asked Comey to shut down the federal probe into one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn's connections with Russia.
Despite not taking action on the reported request from the president, Trump could still face an obstruction charge, Nadler maintained.
"Obstruction of justice does not have to be effective," he said. "It's an intent-based crime. We're not talking about a criminal thing here. We're talking about the process of obstruction of justice, and that would be a very serious thing to attribute to the president."
"It depends on what else we find out."
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