Articles of impeachment against President Trump unveiled

By Meg Wagner, Mike Hayes and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 9:01 p.m. ET, December 10, 2019
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9:41 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

House Democrats unveil articles of impeachment against President Trump

House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler just announced the articles of impeachment against President Trump. There are two.

Trump is the fourth US President in American history to face impeachment. If impeached, he'll be the third President to face a trial in the Senate.

Watch:

9:11 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

NOW: House Democrats are speaking

They are expected to unveil articles of impeachment.

8:55 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

Rep. Steve Cohen holds up two fingers when asked how many articles there are

From CNN's Lauren Fox

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, was asked how many articles of impeachment Democrats plan to unveil

He held up two fingers, and said the articles are obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.

8:51 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

Nadler didn't answer questions this morning

From CNN's Lauren Fox and Jeremy Herb

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler declined to answer questions from reporters as he emerged from this morning’s meeting with Democratic Judiciary members.

House Democrats have announced a news conference for 9 a.m. ET today on Capitol Hill to share the next steps in the impeachment inquiry.

8:48 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

The Judiciary Committee held its second hearing yesterday. Here's what you need to know.

From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Manu Raju, Lauren Fox, Paul LeBlanc, Phil Mattingly and Dana Bash

This morning's impeachment inquiry announcement from the Democrats will come one day after House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler accused Trump of putting "himself before country" at a chaotic hearing.

The hearing — the second the committee has held — was a chance for Democrats to state their case against the President a final time before moving forward with articles of impeachment.

It was meant as a forum for Democratic and Republican staff attorneys to present cases for and against Trump's impeachment.

  • The Democratic case: Democrats charge that Trump abused his office by pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival while withholding $400 million in US security aide and a one-on-one White House meeting. And they say he obstructed Congress by refusing to provide documents to the committee and instructing officials not to testify in the impeachment inquiry.
  • The Republican case: Republicans pointed to witness testimony to argue that Democrats didn't have a case, charging they rushing to impeach Trump in order to beat him in the 2020 election. Republican lawmakers also vocally protested Nadler's handling of the hearing and committee staffers even clashing during questioning.
8:42 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

SOON: Democrats hold a news conference about the impeachment inquiry

Democrats plan to unveil the articles of impeachment this morning, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

House Democrats have announced a news conference for 9 a.m. ET today on Capitol Hill to share the next steps in the impeachment inquiry.

Here's what she tweeted about it moments ago:

Remember: The articles have not been finalized, the sources said, and discussions continued late last night ahead of Tuesday's announcement.

We'll be covering the news conference live here.

8:21 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

We're not sure if the articles of impeachment will include allegations from the Mueller report

From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Manu Raju, Lauren Fox, Paul LeBlanc, Phil Mattingly and Dana Bash

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and senior Democrats have made clear they are proceeding with impeachment, House Democrats are still debating whether the articles should narrowly focus on Ukraine or to expand the scope of the articles to include the allegations detailed by former special counsel Robert Mueller.

While there are advocates for this approach, one source familiar with the discussions said it appeared that getting the necessary votes to pass the article of obstruction of justice out of the House could be difficult, as moderate Democrats have resisted moving beyond the narrow scope of Ukraine.

House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff this weekend seemed to indicate he did not support including the Mueller allegations in the impeachment articles.

"In a charging decision -- and an impeachment in the House is essentially a charging decision -- to charge those that there's the strongest and most overwhelming evidence, and not try to charge everything even though you could charge other things," Schiff said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Keep this in mind: But even if Democrats don't include a separate article on obstruction of justice, they are expected to include references to the Mueller allegations in the other articles to show that Trump's misconduct was part of a larger pattern, according to the sources.

8:06 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

The Judiciary Committee could vote on impeachment this week. Here's why that matters.

From CNN's Zachary B. Wolf

Democrats' anticipated announcement over articles of impeachment is the first in a series of make-or-break moments expected to come in the next two weeks as they look to impeach President Trump before Christmas.

They plan to lay out their case and unveil at least two articles of impeachment, according to sources:

  • One on abuse of power
  • The other on obstruction of Congress

They will then begin to debate them in the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, the sources said. The committee will then vote on whether to refer them to the full House of Representatives.

Here's what happens after that: The articles, if approved by the committee, are given special status on the House floor. It requires a simple majority of voting lawmakers to approve them — and doing so would officially impeach President Trump.

7:54 a.m. ET, December 10, 2019

4 key events we're watching today in the impeachment inquiry

It's set to be another busy day in Washignton as Democrats press forward with the impeachment inquiry. Here's what we're watching:

  • 9 a.m. ET: Democrats plan to unveil the articles of impeachment this morning at a news conference
  • 10:15 a.m. ET: House Democrats will hold their weekly news conference. Questions about impeachment will likely come up.
  • 10:30 a.m. ET: House Republicans will hold their weekly news conference.
  • 7 p.m. ET: President Trump will host a rally at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It's not clear if he'll address impeachment.