Klobuchar on impeachment: ‘I’m the jury’

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) did not say whether she believed the House should move forward with impeaching President Trump, telling a CNN Town Hall audience on Monday that the Senate would act as the jury.  

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is non-committal on impeaching President Trump: “I’m not going to predispose things” #KlobucharTownHall https://t.co/UQwyP6fkHS pic.twitter.com/G66yFWmM24

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 22, 2019

“I believe that I am the jury here, so I’m not going to predispose things,” Klobuchar, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said when asked whether Trump should be impeached amid the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

“The impeachment proceedings are up to the House. They’re going to have to make that decision,” she said. 

{mosads}“I am in the Senate, I believe that we are the jury,” she said, adding that Trump should be held accountable for his actions described in the Mueller report.

Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) became the first Democratic 2020 contender to call for impeachment proceedings against Trump following the Mueller report’s release, citing a section in which the special counsel said that Congress has the authority to conduct obstruction of justice investigations. Mueller declined to reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice in his investigation.

Klobuchar on Monday called for Mueller to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, joining other Democrats and some Republicans. 

“We need to have hearings in both the House and the Senate, and not just with Attorney General [William] Barr, we need to bring Director Mueller before the Senate,” she continued. 

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to Mueller earlier this month, demanding that he testify before the committee before May 23.