I'll preface this by saying I know very little about US Politics, so this just an errant thought.. The fact that they've announced this formally, does that meant they're very confident of the inquiry leading to something? I assumed they would have to have everything very nicely lined up before even talking about it, as to fire a shot and miss would massively favour Trump in the end.
"The decision to begin a formal impeachment inquiry does not necessarily mean that the House will ultimately vote to charge Mr. Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors — much less that the Republican-controlled Senate will vote to remove him. But Ms. Pelosi and her leadership would not initiate the process unless they were prepared to reach that outcome. And Mr. Trump’s allies mostly took it as a sign that a vote on articles of impeachment was inevitable." (NYT)The fact that they've announced this formally, does that meant they're very confident of the inquiry leading to something? I assumed they would have to have everything very nicely lined up before even talking about it, as to fire a shot and miss would massively favour Trump in the end.
Yes and no, mostly no I think. Impeachment powers are very broad, not specifically defined, so they could have lined things up and done it long ago. The question is would they. Will a heard of cats form ranks and march together? It's technically not impossible!! And they've been threatening to promise to begin to decide whether they should form a committee to initiate a proceeding to determine...
Today is way more concrete than previous noises, so it's positive momentum at least.