It would appear that the prospect of ousting a tough-talking President Donald Trump through the instrumentality of impeachment is becoming a reality as the days go by. This is especially since antagonistic democrats-led members of the House of Representatives are said to have secured the majority need to commence the president’s impeachment.
Recall that House Democrats rushed on Wednesday to plot the course of their formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, getting their first glimpses of the secret intelligence whistle-blower complaint that touched off the investigation that could lead to his removal.
But even as they obtained crucial details about allegations that Mr. Trump pressured a foreign leader to help him tarnish a political rival, Democrats did not plan any immediate action to formalize their impeachment inquiry. They do not intend to hold a vote on the House floor to authorize the proceedings, as has been done in the past, lawmakers and senior party officials said, because they do not believe it is necessary.
Instead, they were planning to use the coming weeks to build as strong a case as they could against Mr. Trump, with an eye toward drafting articles of impeachment against him. That would mean the House would not vote on the matter unless the articles of impeachment were brought to the floor.
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The disclosure to Congress of the whistle-blower’s complaint, coming less than 24 hours after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would pursue an official impeachment inquiry, underscored how rapidly things were changing now that lawmakers had pivoted to using their powers under the Constitution to weigh charges against the president.
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It came as the number of House members supporting an impeachment inquiry reached 218, a critical milestone that indicates there is a majority in the House willing to at least consider drafting and voting on articles of impeachment., a critical milestone that indicates there is a majority in the House willing to at least consider drafting and voting on articles of impeachment.
Ms. Pelosi spent Wednesday largely sequestered behind closed doors, strategizing with her leadership team, top aides and a group of six committee leaders investigating Mr. Trump. She repeatedly stressed that she wanted the House to move “expeditiously” to uncover new facts about Mr. Trump’s attempts to pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate Joseph R. Biden Jr., one of his leading political rivals, for corruption.
As they debated how best to structure the inquiry, lawmakers made headway in obtaining documentary evidence that could constitute a crucial piece of their case. Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine are at least part of the whistle-blower complaint, which the Trump administration had withheld from Congress until Wednesday afternoon and which is said to contain a detailed account of the president’s attempts to pressure a foreign power for personal political gain.
Democrats plan to make those interactions the top priority of their impeachment case, senior lawmakers and aides familiar with the speaker’s thinking said. They emphasized again and again what Ms. Pelosi has called the president’s “betrayal” of his oath, of national security and of the American electoral process.
Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee who is leading the House’s Ukraine investigation, said early Wednesday afternoon that a newly released summary of a July conversation between Mr. Trump and the Ukrainian leader, in which Mr. Trump offered the assistance of his personal lawyer and the attorney general, only added urgency to that point.