House Democrats are moving forward with two articles of impeachment against President Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, multiple Democrats familiar with the proceedings tell CBS News.
Democratic committee chairmen are expected to unveil the articles at a press conference Tuesday morning. The news comes after the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Monday where the counsels from the House Intelligence Committee presented its findings in its impeachment inquiry investigation.
Democrats allege Mr. Trump abused his power by seeking to leverage a White House meeting and nearly $400 million in security assistance for Ukraine to force the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and the 2016 election.
They have also criticized the Trump administration for blocking all subpoenas and documents related to the inquiry across the executive branch, arguing the president is seeking to stonewall legitimate congressional oversight.
House Republicans remain uniformly opposed to impeachment, arguing that Mr. Trump was merely concerned about corruption in Ukraine and pointing out that the security assistance was eventually released.
Some Democrats wanted to broaden the articles to include obstruction of justice charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which met resistance among Democrats who did not publicly come out in favor of impeachment until the Ukraine scandal broke earlier this fall.
The House Judiciary Committee could consider the articles of impeachment as soon as this week, sending them to the floor of the House for a full vote by next week. The House is expected to leave for the end of the year by Friday, December 20.
Grace Segers contributed to this report.
