J.W. Verret, who served as deputy director of economic policy for the Donald Trump pre-transition team, said it is time to start impeachment proceedings.
Verret, a professor of law at George Mason University, made his comments in a column posted by The Atlantic. He worked on the Trump team from Aug.-Oct. 2016.
“I wanted to share my experience transitioning from Trump team member to pragmatist about Trump to advocate for his impeachment, because I think many other Republicans are starting a similar transition,” he said. “Politics is a team sport, and if you actively work within a political party, there is some expectation that you will follow orders and rally behind the leader, even when you disagree.
“There is a point, though, at which that expectation turns from a mix of loyalty and pragmatism into something more sinister, a blind devotion that serves to enable criminal conduct.”
He said the report by special counsel Robert Mueller was the tipping point for him.
“Depending on how you count, roughly a dozen separate instances of obstruction of justice are contained in the Mueller report,” he said. “The president dangled pardons in front of witnesses to encourage them to lie to the special counsel, and directly ordered people to lie to throw the special counsel off the scent.
“This elaborate pattern of obstruction may have successfully impeded the Mueller investigation from uncovering a conspiracy to commit more serious crimes. At a minimum, there’s enough here to get the impeachment process started.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.