Coming soon: Trump articles of impeachment

Hello again, OnPolitics readers! The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is front and center yet again this week as the House Judiciary Committee conducted another hearing on Monday and we could see a lot more significant action this week.  

House Democrats are set to announce articles of impeachment

House Democrats will announce articles of impeachment on Tuesday, outlining the case against Trump in a historic move that has only been taken a few times in our nation's history. 

Democrats plan to announce the articles in a morning news conference, a senior Democratic aide told Paste BN, who would not detail what the specific articles contain, only that there are "less than five" articles in total. 

House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing gets testy

Another partisan clash in the House impeachment inquiry was expected on Monday and that's certainly what we got.

Two lawyers for the Judiciary Committee, Barry Berke for the Democrats, and Stephen Castor for the Republicans, presented first. Then, lawyers for the Intelligence Committee, Castor and Daniel Goldman for the Democrats, spoke. The Intelligence Committee lawyers then took questions from the 41 members of the Judiciary Committee. Here are some of the key moments from a long and contentious day.

• Goldman presented the results of House Democrats' 300-page report on Trump's actions in Ukraine and alleged Trump 'directed' a campaign to coerce Ukraine.
• Castor said the evidence didn't support allegations that Democrats made. "The impeachment inquiry’s record is riddled with hearsay, presumptions and speculation,” Castor said.
• Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, confronted Goldman over phone call records that appeared in the Democrats' report on Trump and Ukraine. "You know who it is - you're just not answering," Collins said to Goldman during one intense exchange.
• Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., used his question time to ask about Trump's involvement in the pressure campaign, noting that, "There's a reason nobody has said, 'What did the president know and when did he know it?'" The reason why, Swalwell said, was that "President Donald Trump knew everything" about the pressure campaign in Ukraine.
• There were a number of loud and heated exchanges throughout the day, but one of the most notable involved Republicans pressing their request for a hearing where they choose the witnesses. That led to a shouting match between Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and several members of the committee —including James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., — as Nadler refused to recognize them.
   

IG report doesn't look good for Trump or the FBI

The Justice Department's internal watchdog found the controversial surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser was riddled with errors, raising questions about its justification. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, however, concluded the FBI was legally justified in launching its inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

The report, released Monday by Horowitz, identified 17 separate inaccuracies across three surveillance applications, effectively inflating the justification for monitoring a former foreign policy adviser starting in the fall of 2016.

The report debunks claims by the president and his allies that political bias played a role in the FBI's decision to investigate members of the Trump campaign for possible coordination with Russia.

Trump said Monday the report shows an "attempted overthrow" of government, pointing to inaccuracies found in FBI surveillance applications related to his 2016 campaign. Trump added he was briefed on the report and described its findings as "a disgrace" and "far worse than anything I would have imagined." 

The report may have cleared the FBI of bias, but as Paste BN's Kevin Johnson and Kristine Phillips explain, the report "offered a withering account of the FBI's handling of multiple surveillance requests for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page during the early months of the Russia investigation."

Wray shoots down Trump and GOP's Ukraine interference claim

FBI Director Christopher Wray said there was no indication that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, contradicting claims made by Trump and several Republican lawmakers in recent weeks. 

"We have no information that indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential election," he said in an ABC News interview aired on Monday. 

Wray's comments came a day after Sen.Ted Cruz, R-Texas, alleged during a cantankerous exchange with NBC's Chuck Todd there was "considerable evidence" that "Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election."

More from the world of politics

It's not all impeachment all the time here at OnPolitics. Here are some more headlines from over the weekend and earlier today:

• Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, stated Monday that she won't be attending the December Democratic debate, even if she qualifies. 
• Critics accuse Trump of playing on anti-Semitic tropes during a speech in Florida over the weekend, where he said many Jewish Americans do not 'love Israel enough.'
• After North Korea conducted a "very important test" at a missile site, Trump warns Kim Jong Un that he could be putting their 'special relationship' at risk.
• 'Truth was rarely welcome': Documents reveal top U.S. officials held sharply negative views of the war in Afghanistan and bleak assessments of the prospects for success. 
• What do "Space Force" and paid family leave have in common? Tentative bipartisan agreement from lawmakers, which if approved would mark one of the biggest deals Trump has cut with Congress.
• Amid growing scrutiny, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is now allowed to release the identities of the clients he served when he worked for the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., a decade ago.

— Until Tuesday, OnPolitics readers