Update 1:23 p.m.: Meadows backed off his proposal to impeach Rosenstein later Thursday after several talks with House leadership. He said he would instead move to hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress if lawmakers do not get the documents they want from the Justice Department.
“I hope we can avoid impeachment and hopefully avoid contempt and get the documents, but certainly both those things are on the table and remain on the table to have more of a contempt process,” he said. “Both options remain there.”
House Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows and Representative Jim Jordan filed articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday.
Meadows later threatened to force a vote by introducing the Republican resolution as a “privileged motion,” which forces leadership’s hand and gives Congress two days to vote on it.
I just filed a resolution with @Jim_Jordan and several colleagues to impeach Rod Rosenstein. The DOJ has continued to hide information from Congress and repeatedly obstructed oversight–even defying multiple Congressional subpoenas.
We have had enough.
— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) July 25, 2018
“Certainly, we hope it doesn’t have to come to that,” the conservative North Carolina representative said on Fox News.
The impeachment documents make the case that Rosenstein has a conflict of interest with the Russia probe, headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, whom the deputy attorney general hired.
Meadows and Jordan are also frustrated along with other GOP lawmakers that Rosenstein has not provided them with all the documents they requested as they try to probe the Justice Department and FBI’s for bias during the 2016 election.
“We’re tired of the Justice Department giving us the finger and not giving us the information we are entitled to do, to do our constitutional duty,” Jordan said on Fox News. “More importantly, the American people are sick of it. That’s why we filed the resolution.”
“Quite frankly, it’s either we hold them in contempt or we get the documents or we impeach them,” Meadows said.
“Not only have subpoenas been ignored, but information has been hidden,” he continued. “Efforts have been stonewalled. . . . They may be able to ignore Congress, but they can’t ignore the American people.”
Also, along with fired FBI director James Comey, Rosenstein signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application for the year-long surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Critics have lambasted the application’s approval, saying it was based on the now-infamous Trump dossier, which was poorly sourced and not verified.
The eleven cosigners of the impeachment articles are all members of the conservative Freedom Caucus.