Julian Castro renews call for president's impeachment after ex-prosecutors claim Trump obstructed justice

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Mueller testimony before House Judiciary Committee tentatively set for mid-May; reaction from former DOJ official John Yoo.

NEWMARKET, N.H. – 2020 presidential candidate Julian Castro once again urged the House of Representatives on Monday to move forward with impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

Castro, a Democrat who served as mayor of San Antonio, Texas, before joining then-President Obama's administration as Housing and Urban Development secretary, made his case hours after the release of a statement by hundreds of former federal prosecutors claiming Special Counsel Robert Mueller would have recommended indicting Trump for obstruction of justice if Trump weren’t president.

“The fact that you'd have almost 400 former federal prosecutors say that anybody else would have been charged with several felony counts for obstruction of justice, that says something,” Castro told Fox News on Monday.

HUNDREDS OF EX-FEDERAL PROSECUTORS CLAIM TRUMP WOULD HAVE BEEN INDICTED IN HE WASN'T PRESIDENT

“I called several weeks ago now for impeachment proceedings to begin because it’s clear that this president obstructed justice,” he emphasized. “Congress needs to act. They should act.”

Attorney General William Barr didn’t push for obstruction charges against the president after Mueller submitted his report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller didn’t recommend obstruction charges against Trump, but also didn’t exonerate him.

Barr stood by his decision not to pursue obstruction charges during a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week. Barr cancelled an apperance to testify in front of a House Judiciary hearing.

Castro spotlighted that “the question is – is this president above the law? I believe the answer to that is no, and that’s why impeachment is warranted.”

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Castro was interviewed by Fox News during a campaign stop in Newmarket, New Hampshire. It was the candidate’s fourth trip to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state since he launched his White House bid this past January.

Last month, after the release of a redacted version of Mueller's report, Castro became the first presidential hopeful to call for the Democrat-controlled House to launch impeachment proceedings against the president. He was followed soon after by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Fox News' Alex Pappas contributed to this report.