Pelosi officially calls for formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who for months resisted efforts to launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump came out in favor of the impeachment of President Donald Trump for the first time Tuesday, after meeting with her caucus.

“What would be an impeachable offense would be that that is proven in an investigation. And we have to have an investigation,” Pelosi said at the Atlantic Festival before her 5 pm announcement.

During her sometimes rambling announcmeent she stated:

“Today, I’m announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry,” Pelosi told reporters on Tuesday. “The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

Her decision will divide the caucus as some members are concerned that waiting to have a formal impeachment vote will benefit Trump. Pelosi may have balked at a vote, which would help investigators get streamlined access to material, because there were not enough vote to reach a simple majority. Pelosi said she is asking committee leaders to send their findings to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, who can then submit articles of impeachment to the House floor.

Despite Pelosi’s early reluctance to push for impeachment, there are currently 174 Democrats who support impeachment or an impeachment inquiry, compared to the 61 Democrats who don’t support impeachment or impeachment inquiry, yet. Pelosi has said she believes Trump is “goading” Democrats to impeach him because he thinks it will help him fire up his base.

Many of Pelosi’s Democratic colleagues have continued to push for impeaching Trump, such as Democratic Texas Rep. Al Green, who broke with Pelosi when he vowed to force a vote to impeach Trump in late March. Green, who previously had several bills to impeach Trump overwhelmingly rejected by the House of Representatives, called for a third impeachment vote. Pelosi said impeachment was “just not worth it” in a March interview.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler also requested a number of documents from the White House on March 4 and sent letters seeking information from people and organizations close to Trump.

Nadler sent the requests to 81 groups, people and organizations, searching for constitutional abuses and corruption by Trump. The New York representative said in March the requests for documents are to “begin investigations, to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, about corruption and abuse of power.” (