We have reached a historic moment in the movement to hold Donald Trump accountable for his high crimes via the impeachment process. 224 Members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are now on record supporting an impeachment inquiry of the president. More than 80 Members of Congress, including the Speaker, joined that call last week, following the explosive evidence that the president sought foreign assistance from the Ukraine government to help his re-election campaign and that he engaged in bribery and extortion to try to get that illegal assistance. The Constitution’s Impeachment Clause requires a simple majority of the House to pass articles of impeachment: 218 votes. 

You helped make this happen. Your activism, your advocacy, and your support for Free Speech For People allowed us to build a legal, constitutional, and historical case for why Congress should impeach President Trump, including draft articles of impeachment that we have delivered to every Member of Congress with the help of hundreds of volunteers. Thank you!

But we’re not done yet. This fight continues until President Trump is impeached and removed from his office for his abuse of power and abuse of the public trust. Can you chip in to help us maintain impeachment pressure on Congress?

Free Speech For People welcomes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement reinvigorating the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry. However, her plan leaves several key points unstated:

1. Timing. As we and our partners wrote to Chairman Nadler in July and reiterated earlier in September, the impeachment inquiry must proceed with the urgency required in the face of this constitutional crisis. The Judiciary Committee must schedule a final vote on articles of impeachment no later than November 1, 2019, and the full House must vote no later than November 15.
   
2. Scope. The inquiry must not be limited to the recent Ukraine revelations, or the earlier Mueller report, but rather must include all of President Trump’s impeachable offenses. These include: abuse of power by directing law enforcement to investigate and prosecute political adversaries and critics, and to undermine the freedom of the press; corruption of the electoral process; abuse of office to promote and act upon racial hostility; and corruption and self-enrichment. (For more background on these categories, see our July 30 letter to Chairman Nadler.) Of note, the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon addressed a broad range of conduct, not just Watergate; for example, the second article of impeachment (which received more votes than the first) cited a wide range of abuses of power, including misusing federal agencies and violating the constitutional rights of individual citizens. The Judiciary Committee must not just limit its inquiry to the Ukraine or Russia-related charges.