Pelosi to make announcement after meeting with House Democrats

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters she will be making an announcement after a caucus-wide meeting with House Democrats Tuesday, as more Democrats are voicing support for initiating impeachment proceedings against President Trump. They are pressing for an investigation of a call between Mr. Trump and the Ukrainian president during which Mr. Trump talked about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Pelosi is also appearing at The Atlantic Festival at 2 p.m. in Washington for a conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine.

The call is the subject of a whistleblower complaint from the intelligence community. The intelligence community inspector general found the complaint both credible and of “urgent concern.” As a result, it was supposed to be turned over to the House Intelligence Committee, but the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, has declined to submit the complaint to the committee because he determined that it was not of urgent concern. 

Since the completion of the Mueller report, Pelosi has been criticized by the more liberal members of her caucus for not moving forward with impeachment proceedings against President Trump. She has instead advised her caucus that the House needed to continue with various investigations into the president before considering impeachment. Even as more prominent Democrats have come out in support of opening an impeachment inquiry — most notably Congressman Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee — Pelosi has shied away from saying that the House would commence impeachment proceedings.

Several Democrats, including many freshmen representatives who flipped Republican seats in the 2018 election, have announced their support for beginning impeachment proceedings amid media reports that Mr. Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden. Congressman John Lewis, an influential member of the House, also announced Tuesday that he supports beginning impeachment proceedings.

At least one week before Mr. Trump spoke with Zelensky in late July, he instructed his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold off on releasing nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine that had already been appropriated by Congress, CBS News’ Major Garrett confirmed. Ultimately, the White House released the funds to Ukraine in September, after withholding the aid for about two months.