Nancy Pelosi will not rule out impeachment or indictment for Trump

'Oversight of government by the Congress is our responsibility,' says leading Democrat

Leading Democrat Nancy Pelosi has refused to rule out Donald Trump being either indicted or impeached while in office, warning the president will face a “different world” thanks to a new Congress.

Ms Pelosi is set to become speaker of the House of Representatives as the Democrats take over the majority in that chamber and described the topic of a potential presidential indictment as an “open discussion”.

The senior Democrat said it is possible that special counsel Robert Mueller could seek an indictment against the sitting president, despite Justice Department guidelines against such action. Mr Mueller is leading the federal investigation into Russian election meddling in the 2016 presidential election, possible collusion between Moscow and Trump campaign officials which has been inching closer to the White House in recent months.

“I do not think that that is conclusive,” Ms Pelosi told NBC’s Today show about the Justice Department guidance. “I think that that is an open discussion. I think that is an open discussion in terms of the law,” she added.

Mr Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly called the Mueller inquiry a “witch hunt”.

As for impeachment – something that a number of prominent Democrat supporters have called for – Ms Pelosi said that while she believed such action would not benefit the country, she would not dismiss it either.

“We have to wait and see what happens with the Mueller report,” Ms Pelsoi said. ”We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason. So we’ll just have to see how it comes”.

Whatever happens in terms of indictment or impeachment, Ms Pelosi said that Mr Trump should expect much more oversight of his administration now that Democrats will control one chamber of Congress.

Speaking to USA Today as part of a number of interviews ahead of the swearing-in of the new Congress, Ms Pelosi said this “different world” will come as shock to the president.

“He was used to serving with a Republican Congress, House and Senate that was a rubber stamp to him. That won’t be the case,” Ms Pelosi said. “Oversight of government by the Congress is our responsibility.”

Ms Pelosi and other Democrats have laid out a host of areas where they intend to conduct oversight or investigations. In the last few weeks top Democrats have said they plan to look into the president’s finances, his daughter Ivanka’s use of private email and his foreign policy decisions.

On the topic of impeachment, Ms Pelosi told USA Today that she would not seek to seek grounds for the move unless it’s “clearly bipartisan” and has Republican support.

The biggest issue for Congress to deal with is the partial government shutdown which has lasted nearly two weeks. It started on 22 December after Democrats refused to sanction $5bn in specific funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border that was one of his major campaign promises.

Democrats have offered $1.3bn in general border security funding, and will likely push through two separate spending bills to re-open the government through the House on Thursday. However, with Republicans having control of the Senate and Mr Trump also having to sign any legislation, there is a stalemate.

Mr Trump has blamed Democrats for the shutdown, with his latest tweets claiming it is related to the 2020 presidential election, which the president says Democrats “can’t win against him”.

However, Ms Pelosi has laid the blame for the stoppage at the door of the White House.

“This is the Trump shutdown, through and through. That’s why he has proudly taken, in his view, proudly taken ownership of it. There’s no escaping that for him,” Ms Pelosi told NBC. “That doesn’t mean we take any joy in the fact that there is a Trump shutdown. We want government to open.”

Straight after a remarkable televised stand-off with Mr Trump in the Oval Office over the budget ahead of the shutdown, Ms Pelosi met with House Democrats and reportedly dismissed Mr Trump’s wall as “a manhood thing”.

Ms Pelosi would not elaborate on what she meant when asked during her NBC interview, but said: “I wish that my members had not repeated that outside the room.”