“I do not know whether former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s explosive testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week is sufficient to prove that there are grounds to impeach Trump. But Cohen’s testimony, coupled with the indictments of many of Trump’s other close advisers and the federal and state investigations into Trump’s business affairs, compels Pelosi to authorize a formal impeachmentinquiry… At this point, it would be an abdication of responsibility for the House not to pursue [an investigation].”
Philip Allen Lacovara, Washington Post

“In many ways, the congressional investigation offers advantages that Mueller’s probe lacks… While Mueller is bound by grand jury secrecy rules and Department of Justice policies to prevent public disclosure of matters under investigation, congressional committees operate largely in the public…

“Mueller is [also] limited to looking for federal crimes. But just because conduct does not amount to a violation of the criminal code does not mean that Congress should permit it to occur unchecked.”
Barbara McQuade, New York Magazine

“Political investigations tend to be marathons rather than sprints, requiring the slow, meticulous accretion of evidential layers. It’s easy to forget how slowly and painfully the Watergate investigation unfolded. It was more than a year after John Dean’s congressional testimony that President Richard Nixon resigned. With his investigation, Mr. Nadler is looking to build a case for impeachment so compelling that it will have enough bipartisan support to survive the Republican-controlled Senate… This is what oversight looks like.”
Michelle Cottle, New York Times

Some posit that “the Framers fantasized that the Senate would be made up of disinterested natural aristocrats who would always put country above party… [But] it hasn’t exactly turned out that way. In a two-party system with roughly equal distribution of power, whichever party holds the presidency will almost inevitably be able to block removal in the Senate, provided its members think the party has more to lose from removal than to gain from it…

“Constitutionally, this aggressive exercise of oversight may answer a question that has troubled many observers, myself included: What happens to the rule of law if there is evidence that the president is guilty of serious crimes, but there’s insufficient political will to impeach him? The answer may well be that such a president can be made to twist slowly in the wind, provided the opposition party controls one chamber of Congress.”
Noah Feldman, Bloomberg