President Donald Trump is now almost certain to become the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House of Representatives.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a press conference on Thursday that she is formally asking the House Judiciary Committee to draft articles of impeachment against Trump over his actions toward Ukraine, saying "the president leaves us no choice but to act."
The Trump re-election campaign said in a statement: “We are less than a year away from Election Day 2020 and Democrats can’t possibly explain to the American people why they want to take the decision of who should be president out of the hands of voters," adding that Democrats "should just get on with it so we can have a fair trial in the Senate and expose The Swamp for what it is."
Pelosi, who earlier this year had counseled her caucus against impeaching the president over obstruction of justice allegations related to the Russia investigation, now says that the evidence and witness testimony from weeks of impeachment hearings are "uncontested."
"The president abused his power for his own personal, political benefit" and "seriously violated the Constitution," she said.
The announcement means that it is now increasingly likely that articles of impeachment will be drafted and voted on before the House leaves for its end-of-the-year recess, as some Democrats had previously indicated, with a Senate trial possible in the beginning of 2020.
The IRS is showcasing its new capability to aggressively audit high-income tax dodgers as it makes the case for sustained funding and tries to avert budget cuts sought by Republicans who want to gut the agency.
A First Amendment group sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott and others on Thursday over the state’s TikTok ban on official devices, arguing the prohibition – which extends to public universities – is unconstitutional and impedes academic freedom.
No fingerprints or DNA turned up on the baggie of cocaine found in a lobby at the White House last week despite a sophisticated FBI crime lab analysis, and surveillance footage of the area didn’t identify a suspect, according to a summary of the Secret Service investigation obtained by The Associated Press. There are no leads on who brought the drugs into the building.
Kamala Harris, who made history as the first woman or person of color to serve as vice president, has made history again by matching the record for most tiebreaking votes in the Senate.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee accused the agency of targeting conservatives, suppressing evidence that Covid-19 came from a lab leak and abusing its surveillance powers.
The Biden administration calls it a “student loan safety net.” Opponents call it a backdoor attempt to make college free. And it could be the next battleground in the legal fight over student loan relief.
Nearly 30,000 people in Mississippi were dropped from the state's Medicaid program after an eligibility review that the government ended during the pandemic.
