Pelosi asks House to proceed with articles of impeachment

Our live coverage of the impeachment inquiry has ended for the day. Read up on the latest news below.

Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley says his testimony yesterday against impeaching President Trump has led to a barrage of threats against him.

Turley, a law professor with nearly 30 years of teaching experience under his belt at George Washington University, was one of four scholars called before the House Judiciary Committee to provide insight into the complicated and rare constitutional maneuvering.

Turley was called by the committee’s Republicans. The other three witnesses — all called by the committee’s Democrats — spoke out in favor of Trump’s impeachment while Turley, who was also an expert witness during Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings, leaned on his previous testimony in the 1990s to explain his opposition to it.

“Before I finished my testimony, my home and office were inundated with threatening messages and demands that I be fired from George Washington University for arguing that, while a case for impeachment can be made, it has not been made on this record,” Turley wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in The Hill.

What Turley said Wednesday: During his testimony, Turley consistently pointed to his worries about the speed and scope of the impeachment inquiry, saying, “Fast and narrow is not a good recipe.” He also argued that the record against Trump is “one of the thinnest records ever to go forward on impeachment” and that it “has left doubts in the minds of people” about what happened.

Rudy Giuliani’s phone calls with a number that House investigators say is associated with the Office of Management and Budget, may have simply been calls to and from the White House, according to information obtained by CNN. 

CNN has learned that the number the House Intelligence Committee’s report said was “associated” with the OMB is a number that could go to multiple officials within the White House complex including the White House itself.

The new details cast doubt on whether Giuliani was talking to the OMB in the spring, a critical time in which the ousted US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was facing a barrage of now-discredited rumors that she wasn’t loyal enough to the President. The calls, which occurred in April 2019, were well before any known action by the White House to hold Ukrainian military aid raising questions as to whether there were discussions earlier than previously know. The OMB designation appears again, according to the report, in calls with Giuliani on Aug. 8 when US military aid to Ukraine had already been held back. 

The House Intelligence Committee’s report makes clear that “Giuliani had three phone calls with a number associated with OMB” on April 23. And the report detailed that in August Giuliani had a call with a number associated with OMB for 13 minutes.

“The Committees were unable to identify the official associated with the phone number. In the mid-afternoon, someone using a telephone number associated with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) called Mr. Giuliani, and the call lasted for nearly 13 minutes. Mr. Giuliani called the OMB number and the White House Situation Room several more times that evening, but each time connected for only a few seconds or not at all,” the report stated.

After the House Intelligence Committee published their report, one senior committee official told CNN that a number that had been associated with the OMB in the report had been “based on public directories,” but that they are “continuing to investigate these call records as part of our ongoing work, including to assess whether that number, associated with OMB landlines, may also indicate calls received from elsewhere within the White House.”

“The White House does not contest that these calls with Giuliani originated within the White House, thereby confirming that Giuliani was in fact in frequent contact with individuals within the White House at key points during the scheme. For his part, Mr. Giuliani has now confirmed speaking to Mick Mulvaney, who continues to serve as both the head of OMB and Acting Chief is Staff in the White House,” the House Intelligence Committee official said in a statement. 

After the call logs emerged Tuesday in the intelligence committee’s report, questions arose about why Giuliani was speaking with someone at OMB.  

A spokesperson for OMB told CNN that no one from the agency was ever in contact with Giuliani.

One possibility was that the phone was connected to acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who still held his position at OMB. A White House official told CNN on Wednesday that Mulvaney and Giuliani had not discussed Ukraine and Mulvaney’s call records never showed he spoke to the President’s personal attorney by phone on the dates listed in the report.

Giuliani also said he wasn’t involved in withholding the aid to Ukraine and that he never discussed the issue on any call to OMB.

“(I) don’t remember calling OMB and not about military aid never knew anything about it,” he told CNN via text on Wednesday.

The call log still reveals Giuliani was in regular contact with the White House at a time that House intelligence investigators say was critical to the withholding of US military aid.  

Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from Texas, discussed the next steps in the impeachment process on CNN’s “The Lead” this afternoon, calling President Trump a “corrupt executive.”

“The issue with Ukraine and the urgency behind it and the reason, the very reason why our framers, our constitutional framers, included impeachment in the Constitution is because if you have a corrupt executive who is willing to maintain power by corrupting our election, there’s an urgency there. If we were to wait — we have already seen that the President has done everything possible to prevent us from getting access to all of the documents, all of the witnesses that we need to,” Escobar said.

There’s no turning back now.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi instructed her House colleagues to draft articles of impeachment in an announcement today. So what will those articles look like? Will obstruction of justice related to the Mueller investigation play a role?

Pelosi also had a heated exchange with a reporter about whether or not she hates President Trump during her weekly news conference today. “I pray for the President all the time,” she told the reporter. “So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that.”

In today’s episode of “The Daily DC: Impeachment Watch” podcast: CNN political director David Chalian previews the consequential days ahead with CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and CNN legal analyst Michael Zeldin.

Listen to the podcast here.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, one of two Democrats to vote against formalizing the impeachment inquiry, said he plans to vote against all the articles of impeachment “unless there’s something that I haven’t seen, haven’t heard before.” 

He warned Democrats to “be careful what you wish for” and he added that impeachment “is tearing the nation apart. … And I want to bring people together.”

Van Drew said he would have preferred a censure vote so they could “move on.” 

Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the other Democrat who also opposed the inquiry, was also asked if he’d vote to impeach.

“I don’t have an idea what they’re doing,” Peterson said.

If you’re just tuning in, here are the key developments today in House impeachment inquiry into President Trump:

Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement today to bring forward articles of impeachment was a “significant milestone.”

 “Well, it’s obviously a significant milestone, where the decision has been made to bring forward articles before the committee,” Schiff said. “And obviously we’ll be having a lot of discussions between now and then about what those articles ought to look like.”

Schiff would not comment on what those articles might contain or if Democrats should include charges related to the Mueller investigation.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced today that she’s asked the House to move forward with articles of impeachment against President Trump.

Here’s what we know will happen next:

After that timing, it gets a little unclear, but here’s a general sense of how the impeachment process will work:

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham released a statement today criticizing Speaker Pelosi’s decision to move forward with articles of impeachment.

Grisham said that Pelosi’s announcement “moves this Country toward the most partisan and illegitimate subversion of the Constitution in our history.”

Read the full statement below:

Reacting to Speaker of House House Nancy Pelosi’s announcement today that Democrats will proceed with articles of impeachment against President Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham said: “So much for being prayerful and thoughtful.”

Graham continued:

“I think it’s a bad day for the country. I think this whole thing is a joke. Mueller, I trusted — I don’t trust Schiff, I don’t trust Nadler to find the truth and the Speaker said it should be bipartisan it should be prayerful it should be thoughtful. So, what happened?”

Graham added he doesn’t plan to subpoena House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff’s phone records, saying “ No, I don’t have any desire to subpoena Adam Schiff’s phone records, we’re not going to do that,” adding “I wouldn’t want my phone records subpoenaed.”

Asked if Schiff crossed a line subpoenaing phone records, he said, “I think what he’s doing is setting a very bad precedent.”

“Now, none of us are above the law so if you had a special counsel or a grand jury…you would be subject like every other citizen, but you can invoke defenses of being a member of Congress, you’ll have a certain status there. But when we start looking into each other’s phone records and who we talk to that gets to be chaos and I will have no part of it”

Graham was also asked about Rudy Giuliani being in Ukraine, responding “I don’t know what he’s doing. I don’t know who he’s meeting with and if he can find something, he certainly can share it with us.”

President Trump asked the Supreme Court today to block a subpoena for his financial documents, arguing that the House exceeded its authority when it ordered Trump’s long time accounting firm to turn over his personal records.

The justices have already put a temporary freeze on the subpoena while they consider in the coming days and weeks whether to take up the appeal from the President’s personal lawyers.

What this means: The fate of Trump’s attempts — on multiple fronts — to shield his financial records, is now squarely before the highest court in the land. 

The justices have already announced they will meet behind closed doors on Dec. 13 to discuss a similar petition concerning a New York grand jury subpoena for Trump’s tax returns. In addition, Trump’s lawyers are likely to appeal a separate case they lost concerning a subpoena to Deutsche Bank for similar documents. Until the court acts one way or another the documents will not be released. 

The request to the Supreme Court comes just after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House was proceeding with articles of impeachment.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said today that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has “weakened” the country after announcing Democrats will proceed with articles of impeachment. 

He reiterated Republican complaints about the impeachment inquiry process and said he expects some Democrats to oppose articles of impeachment, as two Democrats opposed the inquiry procedures resolution. He dodged several questions about the President’s conduct and about White House officials defying subpoenas.

CNN asked if it is ever appropriate for a president to ask a foreign country to investigate a domestic political rival. McCarthy dodged the question.

“The President asked a country to participate in a case that happened in 2016. That’s 100% legal,” said McCarthy, before going off on a tangent and attacking Democrats. CNN tried to follow up specifically on the Bidens, but McCarthy ended the presser and left the room without answering.

President Trump has two public appearances today — but it’s unclear if he will address impeachment.

Earlier today, he urged the House to impeach him “fast” in a tweet. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called for the House to proceed with articles of impeachment in a press conference this morning.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was just asked about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s assertion that she doesn’t hate President Trump.

First some background: Moments ago, when asked if she hates Trump, Pelosi forcefully pushed back. “I don’t hate anybody,” she said, before saying impeachment is “about the Constitution of the United States.”

McCarthy said he’ll take Pelosi “at her word,” but said if she listened to what Jonathan Turley, the GOP witness at yesterday’s hearing, said, she would not have called for articles of impeachment. Turley, a law professor, argued that the inquiry against Trump is too fast and too narrow.

“I’ll take the Speaker at her word, but if she paused for a moment, if she looked at just the facts, she would not have made that determination,” McCarthy said. “If she paused and she actually listened to the hearing yesterday — on what a Democrat who did not vote for the president, who has studied the constitution, who at any time has been a witness for Democrats or Republicans based upon his own ability as a scholar — that this is the weakest, thinnest impeachment in the history of America, that there is no bribery, no extortion, no obstruction of justice and no abuse of power.”

He was again asked: “So you don’t accept what she said just now?”

“I think I have a hard time believing it,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted today that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is rushing a partisan impeachment process.

Here’s his tweet:

President Donald Trump criticized Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Twitter shortly after the Speaker rebuked claims of bias against the President.

He said that he doesn’t believe Pelosi’s comments that she “prays for the President.”

The President added Pelosi should “help the homeless” in her district. He also seemingly referenced “USMCA”, the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, which he and Pelosi have clashed over before.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the “nation is weaker” because Democrats have put impeachment ahead of “all the other things that the American people want.”

“This is the day that Alexander Hamilton feared and warned would come,” he said at a news conference. “This is the day the nation is weaker because they surly cannot put their animosity or their fear of losing an election in the future in front of all the other things that the American people want.”

“They don’t even have a budget,” he added.

Congress passed stopgap legislation, known as a continuing resolution, last month to avert a government shutdown, but it only extends funding through Dec. 20. They lawmakers do not act before then, the government will shut down.

Remember: Moments ago, at her weekly news conference, Pelosi said the impeachment inquiry is about the Constitution, not politics.

As Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was walking away from the microphone at her weekly press conference, a reporter asked her: “Do you hate the President, Mrs. Speaker?”

Pelosi stopped and said: “I don’t hate anybody.” 

She then walked back to the microphone, and said that while she believes Trump is a “coward,” that’s only about his political positions.

“I think this president is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence. I think that he is cruel when he doesn’t deal with helping our Dreamers, of which we are very proud of. I think he is in denial about the climate crisis. However that’s about the election,” she said.

She continued: “This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the President’s violation of his oath of office. And as a Catholic, I resent your using the word ‘hate’ in a sentence that addresses me. I don’t hate anyone.”

“So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that,” she said before walking off the podium.

Watch the moment:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was just asked if she’s concerned that some congressional Democrats could face a backlash if they vote for articles of impeachment.

Every member of the House will face reelection next year.

Pelosi said the impeachment inquiry against President Trump has “absolutely nothing to do with politics” — instead it’s about “the oath of office we take to protect and defend the Constitution.”

So, she said, she’s “not concerned.”

Here’s her full answer:

“This has absolutely nothing to do with politics. It isn’t about politics, partisanship, Democrats and Republicans. That’s totally insignificant. It’s about the Constitution of the United States, the oath of office we take to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. It’s about the President not honoring his oath of office. So no, I’m not concerned.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked about the ongoing fight over Trump’s financial documents that the House has subpoenaed as part of its investigation.

She said the President’s actions of “bumping them up in court” — or continuing to appeal to a higher court — “is an obstruction of justice.”

She added that the House is “winning” these cases — indeed this week a federal appeals court in New York ruled that Trump needs to turn over his records from Deutsche Band and Capital One.

On House Democrats’ decision to push forward and not wait for a final judicial decision in several of the cases, Pelosi said, “We’re not going to be accomplices to his obstruction of justice.”

Pelosi noted that these cases may wind up in front of the Supreme Court.

“So we’re waiting to see if the [Supreme Court] will even take up something that is so in defiance of their precedent that says yes, Congress has the right to subpoena and oversight over the executive branch.”

The House Judiciary committee has just announced that on Monday, they will have a hearing at 9 a.m. ET.

The hearing is “to receive presentations from counsels to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and House Judiciary Committee.” Lawyers for the Democrats and the Republicans will present, according to the announcement.

Speaker of the House is holding her weekly news conference, where she’ll answer reporters’ questions.

Earlier today, she announced that she has asked the House to proceed with articles of impeachment against President Trump.

Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement today that the House is moving forward with articles of impeachment was “completely unsurprising.”

Asked about whether the President and his allies should start participating in the inquiry, Perry said, “Here’s what I think: everybody should be participating and that means the White House should be participating.”

He continued, “What we should be getting after is the truth, and the facts, all of them, not just some of them.”

Perry, who is on the Foreign Affairs committee, said he still believes Trump did nothing wrong.

Meanwhile, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, told CNN that Pelosi couldn’t just “sit on this evidence. She had to do what she did this morning.”

Norton added: “History would hold this House responsible if we let that go.”

After her speech this morning, Speaker Pelosi met with a small group of House Democrats in the basement of the Capitol and discussed the necessity of moving forward.

She was greeted with enthusiasm and no dissent, according to attendees.

CNN was also told that the House Judiciary Democrats have been asked to stay in town this weekend to prep for a possible hearing next week.

President Trump continued to attack the impeachment process on Twitter this morning.

Moments ago, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would move forward with articles of impeachment. The President said that impeachment will “be used routinely to attack future Presidents” — which is not “what our Founders had in mind.”

He reiterated his claim that his phone calls with Ukraine were “perfect,” and added “We will win!”

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway spoke with reporters at the White House this morning following an appearance on Fox News.

Conway called witnesses at yesterday’s House Judiciary impeachment hearing “a bunch of biased professors who aren’t fact witnesses.”

She criticized one Democratic witness, Professor Pamela Karlan, as someone who “looks her nose down on people I grew up with,” mocking her three degrees from Yale (“Yay!”) and said that “in the comfort of her ivory tower” she was “unimpeachably unimpressive.”

The White House, Conway said, is “very ready” for a Senate trial, noting that legislative affairs director Eric Ueland was on the Hill yesterday and that she’s been present for meetings with some senators.

The Senate process, she argued, “would include live witnesses who have visibility and knowledge into facts.”

She said the Senate should call on the Bidens and Adam Schiff to testify, and, interestingly, said she has a list of Burisma board members on her desk that “maybe” will be called.

It’s “more likely” that White House counsel Pat Cipollone will testify in Senate proceedings, per Conway, but she wouldn’t weigh in on whether Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pompeo, and John Bolton will testify on the Senate side before the articles of impeachment are known.

Rep. Steve Cohen — a Democrat who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, which will be responsible for writing the articles of impeachment — spoke with CNN this morning about what happens next now that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has asked the lawmakers to move forward.

Cohen said that he believes the articles of impeachment will include at least two charges against Trump: abuse of power and the obstruction of Congress.

“The Democratic caucus, the Judiciary Committee, we’re all working as a team and we will see what Speaker Pelosi and her team come up with and then we’ll support it,” Cohen said.

Asked about Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler’s comments last November that impeachment should only proceed if its a bipartisan process, Cohen said, “It’s a different Republican party than Jerry Nadler was talking about.” 

Cohen said, “Chairman Nadler is thinking of a Republican party that had members like Howard Baker, Barry Goldwater, what they call Rockefeller Republicans. They no longer exist.”

He continued:

President Trump’s campaign just released a statement following Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that the House will move forward with articles of impeachment.

Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, said impeaching Trump has long been a Democratic goal, “so they should just get on with it so we can have a fair trial in the Senate and expose The Swamp for what it is.”

Here’s the full statement:

“We are less than a year away from Election Day 2020 and Democrats can’t possibly explain to the American people why they want to take the decision of who should be president out of the hands of voters. But impeaching the President has always been their goal, so they should just get on with it so we can have a fair trial in the Senate and expose The Swamp for what it is. Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, and Hunter Biden should testify, and then we can get back to the business of our country.”

House Speaker Pelosi will continue meeting with members and getting their input on the articles of impeachment in an effort to help her understand where the votes are, according to Democratic sources.

But the reality is that the people who will make the decision on the contents of the articles of impeachment are only a handful — namely Pelosi, with consultation from House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler and House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff.

And it will be a closely held secret until it is unveiled.

They will have to make a decision on the scope of the articles, which some have speculated will encompass the Mueller investigation.

 The articles of impeachment under consideration are:

The possible timeline: Articles could be voted on next week (the week of December 9th) in House Judiciary and the week after (the week of December 16th) on the House floor.

Expect one more hearing in the House Judiciary committee next week, when the House Intelligence Committee attorneys present their findings.

Then, if a simple majority of the House votes in favor of the articles of impeachment, the trial will move to the Senate.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced at a press conference this morning that she is asking House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler to proceed with articles of impeachment.

Articles of impeachment represent a key next step in the impeachment inquiry.

The Constitution explains that offenses that could prompt impeachment are treason, bribery or “other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

A president is not impeached until the full House votes to approve articles of impeachment.

The House Judiciary Committee, which held its first hearings yesterday, will draft one article of impeachment for each alleged offense, and the House will vote on each article separately.

In this case, Democrats are considering multiple articles of impeachment, including charges of abuse of power, bribery and obstruction of Congress for defying subpoenas.

What comes next: In the House, if a simple majority votes in favor of the articles of impeachment, the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over a trial in the Senate. A two-thirds majority is required to convict and remove a president from office.

The White House has reacted to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement moments ago that Democrats are moving forward with articles of impeachment against President Trump.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tweeted, “@SpeakerPelosi & the Democrats should be ashamed. @realDonaldTrump has done nothing but lead our country - resulting in a booming economy, more jobs & a stronger military, to name just a few of his major accomplishments. We look forward to a fair trial in the Senate.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced moments ago that she is asking House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler to proceed with articles of impeachment.

She began her statement my referencing some of the founders of the US.

“Another founder, Governor Morris, feared that a president may be bribed by a greater interest to betray his trust. He emphasized that this magistrate is not a king. The people are the king. They, therefore, created a constitutional remedy to protect against a dangerous or corrupt leader: Impeachment,” Pelosi said.

She added, “In America, no one is above the law.”

She then said Trump has “abused his power” as President.

“The President abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security,” Pelosi said.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi just said the House is moving forward with articles of impeachment against President Trump.

“Today, I am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment,” she said.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to deliver a statement about the impeachment inquiry at 9 a.m. ET.

We’ll cover it live here.

We’re not exactly sure what she’ll talk about, but remember: She also gave a statement when she first announced the impeachment inquiry. This could be a sign she is ready to announce the next stage, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.

President Trump is tweeting about the impeachment inquiry, saying Democrats have “gone crazy” and that they have “no Impeachment case.”

He urged the House to impeach him “fast” so the process can move to the Senate, where there will be a “fair trial.”

Here’s are his full tweets:

As the House continues its impeachment inquiry into President Trump, the Senate is getting ready for a possible trial.

Senators know it’s coming. Their respective leaders have held closed-door briefings walking through procedural and technical aspects. The White House is fully engaged with the chamber’s 53 Republicans and is forming an aggressive trial operation and defense.

Every senator CNN has talked with has started personal preparations and study in one form or another. Staffers — from counsel to communicators — have largely done the same.

And yet in conversations with more than three-dozen Senators and top aides, nobody has any idea what exactly is about to happen when articles of impeachment land on the doorstep of the Senate floor. 

Here’s the bottom line: There’s a reason nobody knows what’s coming next. But the stakes are enormous — and not to mention the importance of this moment in history, the reality of that the chamber that could potentially remove a sitting US President from office.

In the words of one Republican senator: “bizarre. It’s kind of surreal. I don’t know, it’s just a strange moment.” 

So how is this all going to work? As of this moment, the answer was best laid out by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this week:

Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report may play a role in the impeachment of President Trump after all.

In the House Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment hearing, Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, said Trump had obstructed justice during both Mueller’s two-year investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US election and the House’s impeachment inquiry, which is focused on Trump’s alleged abuse of power in pressuring Ukraine to politically damage Democrats.

In his opening statement yesterday, Nadler said Trump’s latest actions showed a “pattern of conduct” seen since his first year in office.

“When his own Department of Justice tried to uncover the extent to which a foreign government had broken our laws, President Trump took extraordinary and unprecedented steps to obstruct the investigation, including ignoring subpoenas, ordering the creation of false records, and publicly attacking and intimidating witnesses,” said Nadler. “Then, as now, this administration’s level of obstruction is without precedent.”

The remarks appeared to reopen a debate simmering within the Democratic Party since the release of Mueller’s 448-page report in April: Were the President’s actions impeachable?

What the report said: Mueller found that Trump did not illegally conspire with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, even as Trump and members of his campaign appeared to have sought its interference. Mueller also declined to say whether Trump had illegally obstructed justice, citing the Justice Department’s position that sitting presidents cannot be indicted.

But Mueller did lay out several examples of potential obstruction, including Trump ordering then-White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller and pushing then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his decision recusing himself from overseeing the inquiry in order to curtail it (both officials refused).

While many liberal Democrats in the House had pushed then for impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sided with her members in tough races, who were wary of charging the President with obstructing an investigation that did not find an underlying crime. Polls showed that support for starting impeachment proceedings was well under 50%.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will deliver a statement about the impeachment inquiry at 9 a.m. ET.

We’re not exactly sure what she’ll talk about, but remember: She announced a similar statement when she first announced the inquiry. This could be a sign she is ready to announce the next stage, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.

As soon as tonight, we should expect the House Judiciary Committee to announce a future hearing for next week. That is expected to include testimony from Democratic and GOP staff attorneys on the House Intelligence Committee presenting the findings of their investigations.

Under the rules, the committee can schedule a hearing within 24 hours. 

The White House has a Friday deadline to decide about whether to participate in that or future hearings. We will see what they do.

Here’s what we’re expecting in the weeks ahead:

One thing to note: While we don’t know when the articles of impeachment will be introduced, it’s clear what they are considering:

Abuse of power and bribery Obstruction of Justice Obstruction of Congress