In the News

Louisiana GOP U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, who met with President Donald Trump this week at the White House, said Democrats have "weaponized the oversight authority of Congress" in an effort to impeach the president.

Johnson, R-Benton, is a member of the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee that opened a wide-ranging investigation into the president this week, requesting documents from 81 "agencies, entities and individuals."

"They've weaponized the oversight authority of Congress," Johnson, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said in an interview with USA Today Network. "It's deeply troubling."

On Wednesday Johnson and his seven Republican Study Committee task force members met with the president for more than an hour in the Oval Office, leaving the meeting in lock step with Trump.

"Our priorities are one in the same — liberty, opportunity, security," Johnson tweeted after the meeting.

The 4th District congressman said he and the president spoke about the investigation "at length."

"He believes (the Democrats) are on a fishing expedition," Johnson said. "The president doesn't think it's justified or fair, and we don't either."

Johnson said the latest investigation into Trump and his administration is an attempt to "set the table" for impeachment.

"We knew from the beginning the Democrats' goal — impeach the president," Johnson said. "They're creating multiple investigations to make (Trump's) life miserable.

"To us this is a huge waste of time and resources because there are so many important things we need to work on and we're spending all of this time on a vendetta."

Johnson insisted he and his GOP colleagues won't shield the president if investigations yielded proof of wrongdoing and said he's anxious for special counsel Robert Mueller to conclude his investigation on possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"We've said all along we'll following the facts anywhere they lead," said Johnson, who believes Mueller's report should be made public. "Oversight is important, but it's not intended to forward political agendas.

"Once the Mueller report is submitted we'll see what facts really come out, but there's no smoking gun I've seen on collusion in the various status briefings I've attended as part of the committee," Johnson said.

But House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Trump "evaded accountability" when Republicans controlled the House during the first two years of his presidency.

"Over the last several years, President Trump has evaded accountability for his near-daily attacks on our basic legal, ethical, and constitutional rules and norms," Nadler said in a statement announcing the investigation "into the alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump, his associates, and members of his administration."

But Johnson said he anticipates the Mueller investigation to yield "much ado about nothing."

"I think (Nadler) and the Democrats realize that and it will be a great disappointment to those who want to take down the president," Johnson said.