House Judiciary Committee Passes Resolution on Impeachment Inquiry Rules

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved a resolution which defines the scope of a potential impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

The party-line 24-17 vote occurred after two hours of debate between Democrats and Republicans about the so-called inquiry’s parameters.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) tried to clear up any misconceptions as the committee approved guidelines for impeachment hearings on President Trump. Some of Nadler’s fellow Democrats — including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) — have stumbled over how to explain what they’re doing.

10 Democrat-held House seats Republicans could flip to save their majority

Trump’s new high-tech government hub holds some bizarre surprises: ‘Enjoy finding them’

National Guard deployment tallies up $49 million in food costs alone

Man Who Took Explosives to Mass for SCOTUS Justices Gets Mindboggling Sentence Thanks to Obama Judge

Loyal dog fetches police to help owner who fell at Kansas home

Sotomayor denies mom’s bid to get son into elite NYC school amid racial discrimination fight

Ranchers are furious about diesel prices and beef imports. Could it cost Republicans a Senate seat in Kansas?

Biden DOJ Senior Prosecutor Hit with Criminal Referral Amid ‘Troubling if True’ Allegations

Christa Pike was set to be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years before botched attempts: What to know

Former Arizona fraternity leader sentenced to jail time after pledge dies in off-campus hazing

FAA breaks controller hiring record after chief warned system was ‘chronically understaffed’

Biden-era federal prosecutor hit with criminal investigation referral over alleged false statements to FBI

States leading nation on the biggest education battles gripping classrooms revealed in first-ever report

Bipartisan data center bill fractures Democrats ahead of midterm elections

1 missing, 4 rushed to hospital after helicopter crashes off Southern California island

“Some call this process an impeachment inquiry. Some call it an impeachment investigation. There is no legal difference between these terms, and I no longer care to argue about the nomenclature,” Nadler said as he opened the meeting. “But let me clear up any remaining doubt: The conduct under investigation poses a threat to our democracy. We have an obligation to respond to this threat. And we are doing so.”

Republicans disagree with Nadler and they argue that the House has never voted to open an official inquiry. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), the top Republican on the committee, said the committee “has become a giant Instagram filter … it’s put in there to look like something, but it’s really not.”

Collins said Democrats are trying to have it both ways.

“My colleagues know very well they don’t have the votes to authorize impeachment proceedings on the House floor, but they want to impeach the president anyway,” Collins said. “So, they are pretending to initiate impeachment.”

Impeachment has divided Democrats who control the House. Democrats on Nadler’s committee, including some of the most liberal members of the House, have been eager to move forward with the process. But moderates, mostly first-term lawmakers who handed their party the majority in the 2018 election, are concerned about the committee’s drumbeat on impeachment and the attention that comes with that continued action.