WASHINGTON — Rep. Justin Amash (I-Grand Rapids) has backed impeaching President Donald Trump for months now. Even after leaving the GOP, Amash is still pushing for impeachment proceedings.
Just after midnight on Saturday, Amash responded to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's suggestion to introduce legislation to indict a sitting president.
In an interview with NPR's All Things Considered, Pelosi presented the idea for new legislation.
"I do think that we will have to pass some laws that will have clarity for future presidents. [A] president should be indicted, if he's committed a wrongdoing – any president. There is nothing any place that says the president should not be indicted," Pelosi said.
The Speaker of the House also suggested current protocol stops the Justice Department from pursuing charges, and that should be changed.
Amash tweeted his response to this statement from Pelosi.
"Congress doesn’t need this legislation to hold a president accountable, and it’s not even good policy to allow a sitting president to be indicted," he said "Moreover, the Constitution already provides a remedy: It’s called impeachment."
The U.S. Constitution says impeachment can be enacted against a president who breaks the law. It says in Article II that a president "shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Amash was the first member of the Republican party to call for Trump to be impeached. Shortly after that, the congressman announced he was leaving the GOP and he became an independent.
However, since then, his position on impeaching the president has remained consistent. After reading the Mueller report, it is Amash's belief that Trump engaged in impeachable conduct.
“Robert Mueller very clearly identifies and analyzes a number of instances—several instances—of obstruction of justice,” the congressman said at a town hall in May, which he believes is grounds for impeachment.
Since then, Amash has urged Pelosi, as the Speaker of the House, to proceed with an impeachment inquiry.
"If [Pelosi] believes that President Trump impeachable offenses, and if she believes as she said that he should be in prison—she said that—then I think it’s insane not to move forward with impeachment," Amash told 13 ON YOUR SIDE in July.
Amash also suggested in his tweet that he is "available" to be Speaker of the House to help with impeachment.
Impeachment proceedings start with an investigation in Congress, then the House of Representatives votes on the articles of impeachment. If those pass, the impeached official is tried by the U.S. Senate. If convicted, the official is removed from office.
The New York Times has compiled a list of lawmakers who support an impeachment inquiry. Currently, 130 democrats and one independent back impeachment; no republicans do.
A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll from this week shows that only 37 percent of voters support impeachment proceedings.
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