Pelosi plans impeachment resolution vote this week, cutting legs out from GOP 'process' criticism

In a letter to her Democratic colleagues Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi outlined the path forward on Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, including a floor vote this week on a formal impeachment resolution. The resolution will reportedly be introduced Tuesday and voted on Thursday, with public hearings potentially beginning sometime around mid-November.

“This resolution establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the President and his Counsel,” Pelosi wrote, adding that the step will “eliminate any doubt” about whether the Trump administration has legal standing to withhold documents and testimony from the inquiry.

In her letter, Pelosi called the Trump White House’s argument that the House inquiry lacked “the necessary authorization” baseless. “The Trump Administration has made up this argument – apparently out of whole cloth – in order to justify its unprecedented cover-up, withhold key documents from multiple federal agencies, prevent critical witnesses from cooperating, and defy duly authorized subpoenas,” she wrote. The move is clearly intended to cut the legs out from under the process arguments that Trump and his allies have been using for weeks as an excuse not to cooperate with the inquiry.

“Nobody is above the law,” Pelosi wrote, just before signing off.