After taking control of the House, Democrats now have the power to investigate President Trump. Utah GOP Congressman Chris Stewart says he might be open to that.
“They’ve indicated that they want to investigate the president, and that’s their right,” Stewart said. “If they’ve got concerns, and if there’s actual evidence of wrongdoing there, I would support that.”
Stewart is a member of the high-profile House Intelligence Committee, which spent a year investigating possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.
But Stewart, who just won a fourth term representing Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, said he likely won’t support everything committee Democrats want to look into.
“Adam Schiff, the new chairman, God bless him, but he’s a very partisan person and he’s pretty clear about that,” Stewart said. “We’ll see what it’s like to work under the new majority on that committee.”
Last spring, committee Republicans, including Stewart, issued a report saying they found no evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Democrats on the committee disagreed, arguing Republicans on the committee failed to interview witnesses and issue subpoenas for key information. Now that they control the House, they have the power to do those things.
Earlier this week on CNN’s State of the Union, Schiff said he wants a more cooperative relationship with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“Over the last two years, frankly, our committee was working to conflict itself with the Special Counsel to make the Special Counsel’s work more difficult,” he said.
So far the Special Counsel’s investigation has led to charges against more than 30 American and Russian individuals. At least five people who worked for Trump have pleaded guilty to lying to Congress or federal investigators.
Stewart has repeatedly said he supports the Mueller probe.
Schiff said one of the first things he wants to do as committee chairman is offer up transcripts of previous witness interviews to Mueller. He hinted that Mueller might find some inconsistencies between those transcripts and his own interviews, which could result in perjury charges for witnesses Schiff refused to identify.
