Democrats set to move ‘swiftly’ to impeach Trump, likely by end of month

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., gestures while speaking during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutional grounds for the impeachment of President Donald Trump on Dec. 4, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Pool photo via AP)

WASHINGTON — The next steps for impeachment became clearer on Wednesday, as Democrats said they will hold at least one more hearing in the House Judiciary Committee after today’s panel of legal witnesses.

But it appeared likely that there will be only two more hearings before that committee, and then a vote to send articles of impeachment to the full House for a vote to impeach President Trump.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said at the beginning of the hearing that the committee would hold their next hearing “in a few days.” A Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee told Yahoo News it would be “probably next week.”

“In a few days we will reconvene and hear from the committees that worked to uncover the facts before us,” Nadler said.

Nadler was describing what will be a “formal presentation” of the report written by the House Intelligence Committee to the Judiciary Committee, the Democrat on the committee said.

And the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Doug Collins R-Ga., said that there are “no fact witnesses planned for this committee.” 

If that’s the case, then after a hearing to receive the Intelligence Committee report, all that would be left would be a hearing to debate and vote on sending articles of impeachment to the full House, possibly next week as well.

That would likely mean the full House would vote to impeach Trump the week of Dec. 16, sending the articles over to the Senate for a trial that would begin in early January. 

Nadler said the Judiciary Committee would “move swiftly.”

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The House is scheduled to leave Washington for Christmas recess on Friday, Dec. 20. But House Democrats have been told to plan for the possibility of votes over that weekend, up to Dec. 22, NBC News 

The implication was that the House would vote on articles before the December 20 recess, according to two members. But one member notes that they were told to “not make plans” on Dec 21 and 22.

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— Leigh Ann Caldwell (@LACaldwellDC) December 4, 2019

During a session with reporters in his office, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., played coy about the timing of a final House vote to impeach Trump.

“There’s time to do it before the end of the year, but I’m not saying we’re going to do it before the end of the year,” Hoyer said.

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