Nancy Pelosi Announces Plan To Draft Articles Of Impeachment Against Trump: ‘No Choice But To Act’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) on Thursday announced she has urged top chairmen from Congress’s lower chamber draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. 

The announcement marks a historic move in the House’s effort to impeach Trump over his Ukraine pressure campaign, a process they could potentially finish before the year is over. The development comes a day after the House Judiciary Committee held its first impeachment hearing. In the hearing, four constitutional attorneys testified and three of them — all Democrats — accused Trump of having abused his power and of committing offenses worthy of impeachment. It also follows the release of the House’s impeachment report earlier this week.

“Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders, and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment,” Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill. “The president has left us no choice but to act.”

“His wrongdoing strikes at the very heart of our Constitution. Our democracy is what is at stake,” the House Speaker added in the nationally televised speech. “The facts are uncontested. The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security.”

The six chairmen from the panels probing Trump, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-New York), are set to meet in private.

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Pelosi did not specify a timeline for when her chamber would consider articles of impeachment. In the ten-minute address, the California Democrat also cited the vision the Founding Fathers had when they created and approved the Constitution. She pointed to the concern they likely felt that a U.S. president could one day potentially attempt to rule as a monarch or other autocratic leader and allow a foreign country to intervene in American politics.

For weeks, Pelosi has insisted she and her caucus will first focus on collecting all evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing before announcing a deadline for Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. Several top Democratic lawmakers have said they wish to finalize their probe — which could conclude with a vote on impeachment — before the month of December is over.