CONTACT: Jordan Libowitz
202-408-5565 | [email protected]

The time has come for Congress to begin a formal impeachment inquiry as the president has foreclosed other options, according to a report released today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The report, the most systematic and comprehensive of its kind, lays out three categories of high crimes and misdemeanors apparently committed by the president, as well as explains why other avenues for oversight have been exhausted.

To call for a formal impeachment inquiry to begin is not to prejudge its outcome. It is to acknowledge that the preconditions for Congress to initiate that process have undoubtedly been met. It is also an acknowledgement that as a nation we have exhausted other options. Since his inauguration, President Trump has made clear that he will not hold himself accountable to the normal standards of ethical and responsible government. 

“This decision is one that CREW reaches with great reluctance. CREW’s call for an impeachment inquiry is grounded in the solemn realization that as a nation, we have exhausted other avenues to achieve executive branch accountability,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said. “None of what we have experienced over the last two and a half years was inevitable.”

President Trump’s apparent ethical and legal abuses must be scrutinized by Congress. From his repeated obstruction of the Mueller investigation to his conspiracy to defraud campaign finance law to his systematic acceptance of emoluments, President Trump has left no option but an impeachment inquiry.

“As a nonpartisan watchdog committed to rooting out unethical and irresponsible conduct by government officials, CREW would be abdicating its mission if we were to accept either President Trump’s conduct or his assault on accountability as the new normal,” Bookbinder said. “If Congress does not act, it sends a message to all future presidents that they can violate the Constitution with impunity.”

At the start of each Congress, members of the House of Representatives and Senate take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. We have arrived at the time for them to act on those words.