Former federal prosecutor Jospeh Moreno said Thursday that Democrats have no hope of impeaching President Trump in light of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress this week.
“I will make two predictions: One, the impeachment dream is dead,” Moreno told Hill.TV. “He will not be impeached, and if he is, it will be by a bare Democrat majority and he will not be removed in the Senate.”
“He will also not be prosecuted after he is president — whether that’s in 2021 or 2025, it’s not going to happen,” he continued.
Mueller confirmed during his testimony on Wednesday that his probe didn’t exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice and told lawmakers a president could be indicted after he leaves office.
But Moreno maintained that “there was no underlying crime to obstruct and no actual obstruction actually took place.”
Dozens of House Democrats have called for impeachment proceedings in wake of the release of Mueller’s report earlier this year, and a few more joined those calls in the days leading up to Mueller’s testimony.
Mueller on Wednesday gave a marathon testimony in front of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on his report’s findings.
The former special counsel remained within the scope of his 400-plus page report and his testimony doesn’t appear to have sparked any new momentum for impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said during a press conference after Mueller’s testimony that Democratic leaders would only move forward on impeachment proceedings if they had a strong hand.
“My position has always been [that] whatever decision we make in that regard would have to be done with our strongest possible hand, and we still have some outstanding matters in the courts,” she said.
Trump and Republicans, meanwhile, heralded the hearing as a victory.
“This was a very big day for our country,” Trump told reporters at the White House after Mueller’s testimony. “This was a very big day for the Republican Party … could say it was a very big day for me.”
—Tess Bonn
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