Americans 'deserve to know' if president as corrupt as people around him who pleaded guilty: Democrat

A key House Democrat on both the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees said Americans should know if President Trump is implicated in any way by the convictions and guilty pleas of some of his former associates.

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” Sunday, that in the wake of last week's fraud conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the guilty plea by the president's former longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, Trump should meet with special counsel Robert Mueller.

“The best thing this president, the best thing he can do is to just sit down with special counsel, come clean, and clear up these questions that exist," Swalwell said. "The American people deserve to know if the president is as corrupt as the people who have pled guilty around him.”

Swalwell is the only Democrat to serve on both the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, both of which have power to investigate the president, which the congressman said they will do if Democrats gain control of the House in the November midterm elections.

"The best thing we can do is promise the American people, if we are given the majority, that we will conduct the investigations the Republicans are unwilling to conduct," Swalwell said.

He said possible investigations would include Trump's "contact with the Russians, and including his tax returns, which the American people have not seen, but I promise a Democratic majority will ensure that they do see.”

Swalwell said Democrats would also probe whether the president violated campaign finance laws through alleged hush-money agreements that Michael Cohen made with two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, over their alleged affairs with Trump.

Stephanopoulos also asked about the possibility of a Democratic-led House pushing to impeach Trump. “If there were evidence to show that President Trump was involved, conspired with Michael Cohen for a campaign finance violation, would that be a high crime and misdemeanor?”

Swalwell responded, “Democrats should not lead with impeachment, George. I think we should lead with the core issues people care about, making sure that health care costs go down, that their paychecks go up, and that we scrub out corruption. But we shouldn't look the other way.”

Stephanopoulos pressed, saying, “I understand that you don't want to lead with impeachment as we head into the midterms, but if the president was part of a conspiracy to violate the campaign finance laws, in your view, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, is that a high crime and misdemeanor?”

“He's not above the law," Swalwell said of President Trump. "But I think that we don't have enough evidence yet … We don't want to be as reckless with the facts as he is. I think, thorough investigations, putting forth an impenetrable case to the American people, doing it in a bipartisan way, is the proper way to do this. But we're not there yet."