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What happened today

The House Judiciary Committee met at 7 p.m. Eastern for a somewhat unusual evening gathering, during which each of the 41 members of the committee got a chance to argue for or against Mr. Trump’s impeachment.

Wednesday’s session, which could go until after midnight, is part of a multiday meeting to debate, amend and vote on the articles of impeachment proposed by Democrats. The panel will reconvene Thursday morning, and is expected to approve the articles later in the day, sending them for a vote before the full House.

The late-night meeting, explained

My colleague Michael Shear wrote a handy guide to the Judiciary Committee’s “markup” session. Here’s an abbreviated version.

Why on earth are they doing it so late?

House rules allow all 41 members of the committee — 24 Democrats and 17 Republicans — to make five-minute opening statements, which means it’s going to take hours just to get to the starting point of debate. Democrats wanted to get the speechifying over with Wednesday, then resume in the morning with the actual work of modifying the articles.

What will the lawmakers be doing?

They’re conducting an impeachment version of a typical legislative process called a “markup,” which gives members of Congress a chance to modify bills with amendments. Since the articles of impeachment we saw Tuesday were just drafts, lawmakers will use these sessions to finalize the text.

Thursday morning, members will actually propose changes to the articles. The committee will debate and then vote on whether to accept or reject those amendments, which could include major changes or minor tweaks, down to specific words. Few changes are expected.