House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced on Thursday that his committee has launched “formal impeachment proceedings” against President Donald Trump.

Nadler’s move seems to be in defiance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who dismissed talk of moving forward following disastrous testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller.

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Nadler, in fact, states he “wasn’t waiting” for Pelosi’s blessing.

“This is formal impeachment proceedings,” Nadler announced.

“We are investigating all the evidence, we’re gathering the evidence and we will at the conclusion of this, hopefully by the end of the year, vote to — vote articles of impeachment to the House floor or we won’t.”

“That’s a decision that we’ll have to make.”

Impeachment, he added, is “exactly the process we’re in right now.”

It takes a special kind of stupid, in our view, to advance impeachment hearings after the Mueller report cleared the president of collusion and obstruction, and a subsequent hearing, according to universal reviews, made the case even weaker.

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The Mueller hearing was considered “a disaster for the Democrats” and a devastating blow to the special counsel’s own reputation by pundits on both sides of the political aisle.

In its aftermath, Pelosi had to apply the brakes on any impeachment talks.

The speaker, who once said she preferred jail time for Trump over impeachment, insisted they could not move forward until Democrats had a stronger argument.

They’re molding any impeachment argument to whatever ancillary comments they can find in the Mueller report.

Stronger arguments are for the little people.

A memo sent to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in late July features the word “obstruction” 18 times in a request for “materials to further [the committee’s] ongoing investigation and assessment of whether to recommend articles of impeachment.”

Nadler, in a closed-door meeting with Pelosi last month, vowed to use articles of impeachment already filed by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) as a framework.

In them, Sherman accused Trump of violating “his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of president of the United States” and having “prevented, obstructed and impeded the administration of justice during a federal investigation.”

Following Mueller’s investigation, Attorney General William Barr summarized the report and indicated there was no collusion and no obstruction.

“There are articles of impeachment introduced a number of months ago and referred to the committee,” Nadler explained in an interview with CNN. “As the investigation proceeds, we may want to draft our own articles of impeachment that may more closely fit the evidence.”

In other words, they’re molding any impeachment argument to whatever ancillary comments they can find in the Mueller report. They’re doctoring a case for impeachment.

As Bill Maher said to the Democrats months ago, at this point “it just looks like you’re stalking him.”

This piece originally appeared in The Political Insider and is used by permission.

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