A former adviser to President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign said he believed special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation would provide the House with a "road map" for impeachment.
"I can't imagine that the special counsel is not going to release something that shows a road map for the House to investigate a conspiracy, to answer it as a political question," conservative activist and political consultant Sam Nunberg said in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday.
When asked by host Katy Tur to clarify his statement, Nunberg said he believed Mueller's investigation would lay the groundwork, making it possible for the House to bring articles of impeachment against the president. "Impeachment you mean?" Tur asked Nunberg.
"Correct—for articles of impeachment," the former campaign aide said. Nunberg went on to confirm that while the Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign might not bring criminal charges, the final report could provide a foundation for impeachment.
"I'm not saying that Mueller is going to say whether or not the president is going to be impeached. I don't think he can," Nunberg said.
The charge of high crimes and misdemeanors, which sets the grounds for most impeachments, does not have to be strictly criminal. Nunberg emphasized that Mueller's report could possibly lead to a political outcome: impeachment, which is decided by votes first in the House and then in the Senate.
In September 2018, Nunberg, who started working for Trump in 2014, testified before the grand jury investigating allegations of conspiracy between Trump campaign officials and Russia. Politico reported that while Nunberg had been pushed out of Trump's inner circle, he has remained in close communication with such figures as Steve Bannon and Roger Stone.
Nunberg hinted that the Mueller investigation's indictment of Stone and its inquiries on the "edges of the campaign," including of Bannon, were indicative of the importance of its findings.
Nunberg also told NBC that he thought Mueller would submit his report soon. He said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's repeated briefings on leaving the Justice Department made it likely that Mueller, who was appointed by Rosenstein in 2017, would look to submit his report before a successor was put in place. Trump has said he would nominate Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Rosen to replace Rosenstein.
President Donald Trump has continued to dismiss the Mueller investigation as a "witch hunt," regularly attacking Rosenstein. According to The Hill, the White House is preparing for the report to be submitted to the Department of Justice as early as next week.
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Callum Paton is a staff writer at Newsweek specializing in North Africa and the Middle East. He has worked freelance ... Read more
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