Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) threatened Thursday to file a lawsuit against President Obama over his controversial recess appointments to “hold him in compliance and accountable to the Constitution.”
On Fox Business with Neil Cavuto, Johnson said that starting Friday he would begin talking with constitutional lawyers to investigate if Obama overstepped his authority in making four recess appointments when the Senate was meeting in pro forma sessions.
Johnson resisted repeated attempts from Cavuto to specifically call for Obama’s impeachment, or call the appointments an impeachable offense, saying only that he would investigate legal action.
“If that’s the legal term for it, then that’s what it’s called,” Johnson responded when Cavuto explained that holding the president accountable for a constitutional violation would be “bringing impeachable offenses.”
At issue, according to Johnson, is an overreach of power by President Obama because the Dodd-Frank law authorizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requires that a confirmed director be in place to set up the agency.
“Dodd-Frank made it very clear that to set it up it must have Senate approval. And the president cannot just arbitrarily change the rules or decide on his own the Senate’s definition of when it’s in session and when it’s not in session,” Johnson said.
