What have we learned so far in the impeachment public hearings and what comes next?

Nicholas Wu | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Impeachment hearings: a week in the Trump impeachment in five minutes A week of impeachment hearings is a lot of information. Five minutes will get you caught up on all things Trump impeachment inquiry.

WASHINGTON – After two weeks of House Intelligence Committee hearings featuring a dozen witnesses, House leaders are mapping plans for the next steps in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Monday that three panels investigating Trump's dealings with Ukraine would submit their report to the Judiciary Committee "soon after" the Thanksgiving holiday. He said the committees including Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform found overwhelming evidence that Trump sought foreign interference in the 2020 election for his personal benefit.

The committees also found the administration stonewalled the inquiry by refusing to comply with subpoenas for documents and testimony, despite the witnesses who did show up. Schiff said the obstruction of Congress could become an article of impeachment against the president.

But Trump and congressional Republicans have argued that he was justified in urging Ukraine to investigate corruption, even if allegations involved former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Republicans have argued that the fight is a disagreement over foreign policy, which the president has the authority to direct.

Also on Monday, the Judiciary Committee won a case in U.S. District Court to enforce a subpoena for testimony former White House counsel Don McGahn. Special counsel Robert Mueller described McGahn as a key figure in episodes of potential obstruction of justice by Trump, another potential article of impeachment against the president. But the Justice Department said it would appeal the ruling from Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Trump has argued that he didn't obstruct Mueller because his aides including McGahn cooperated by testifying and because Mueller was never removed.

To catch-up and stay up-to-date, here's a look at the journey of the inquiry and what you can expect next.

By the numbers

59: Days since the beginning of the inquiry on Sept. 24

Days since the beginning of the inquiry on Sept. 24 5: Days of the public testimony over the last two weeks

Days of the public testimony over the last two weeks 12: Witnesses who testified in public before the committee

Witnesses who testified in public before the committee 17: Witnesses who provided closed-door depositions

Witnesses who provided closed-door depositions 15: Closed-door depositions that have been released to the public so far

Closed-door depositions that have been released to the public so far 3,907: Pages of closed-door testimony transcripts released so far

Pages of closed-door testimony transcripts released so far 0: Drafted articles of impeachment

The case

Trump's Ukraine phone call: U.S. and Ukraine relationship, explained U.S. and Ukraine relations go further back than the now infamous phone call between Trump and Zelensky. We explain their relationship.

What are the allegations against Trump?

The investigation began after an unnamed whistleblower raised concerns about a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. The summary of the call shows Trump asking Zelensky to begin investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who sat on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma while his father was part of the Obama administration.

Since then, several witnesses and House Democrats have alleged that Trump and his associates — including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer — threatened to withhold nearly $400 million in Congressionally approved security aid to Ukraine as well as a White House meeting between Trump and Zelensky unless Ukraine agreed to investigate Hunter Biden's role at Burisma.

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland also said he delivered a message to a top Ukrainian presidential adviser that aid would not resume to Ukraine unless the country delivered a public announcement of investigations.

Other witnesses, such as former National Security Council official Fiona Hill, have since testified to what she and others referred to as dual policy objectives — so-called "regular" and "irregular" diplomacy channels — where some officials were "involved in national security foreign policy" with Ukraine while others, allegedly led by Giuliani, were involved in a "domestic political errand," according to Hill.

House Republicans have attempted to unmask the whistleblower or call them to testify, but Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, R-New York, has refused to allow it, saying that most of the allegations in the initial whistleblower complaint have since been corroborated by other witness testimony.

What happened to the whistleblower?

The whistleblower's lawyers have instead offered to provide written answers from their client to questions from lawmakers but have balked at their client appearing publicly.

What does Trump say in response?

The president insists that his conduct is unimpeachable and that his July 25 call with Zelensky was "perfect."

Trump has repeated his call to Sondland, in which he told him, "I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo."

According to the president, the witnesses' testimonies have not proven any misconduct by him or his administration.

"There's nothing there," he said in a Friday interview with "Fox and Friends."

That said, he declared, "I want a trial."

What have we learned from testimony so far?

There have been three key findings from the public testimony:

Ukrainians were concerned about security assistance the day of the Trump-Zelensky call. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper told lawmakers that Ukrainian officials were concerned about security assistance and contacted the State Department on July 25.

Republicans have said the Ukrainians did not know about the hold on security assistance at the time of the call. “My staff showed me two unclassified emails that they received from the State Department. One was received on July 25th at 2:31 pm. That email said that the Ukrainian embassy and House Foreign Affairs Committee are asking about security assistance,” Cooper said. “The second one was received on July 25th at 4:25 pm. That email said that the Hill knows about the FMF [Foreign Military Financing] situation to an extent, and so does the Ukrainian Embassy." "Everyone was in the loop" on the quid pro quo," Sondland told lawmakers. Sondland told lawmakers on Wednesday that "everyone was in the loop" about the conditioning of a White House meeting between Trump and Zelensky and the opening of investigations. Sondland also provided emails and text messages to lawmakers showing how he informed top Trump administration officials of his progress. He said he worked with Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani at "the express direction of the president" to pressure Ukraine on the investigations. Trump called Sondland about the status of "investigations." In his public testimony, Ambassador William Taylor, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, revealed a new piece of evidence – that a member of his staff, later revealed to be David Holmes, had overheard a July 26 call in which Trump had asked Sondland about the status of "investigations." Holmes discussed the call in his public testimony on Thursday. "I've never seen anything like this, someone calling the President from a mobile phone at a restaurant, and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful language," Holmes said. Sondland did not dispute the characterization of the call in his own public testimony, instead joking about how he and the president communicated with profane language. "Yeah, it sounds like something I would say," Sondland said. "That's how President Trump and I communicate. Lots of four-letter words...In this case, three letters."

What's next?

Will there be more hearings?

House Democrats have so far been noncommittal about the next steps in the impeachment inquiry. In her weekly press conference on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the timeline would be up to the committees leading the impeachment inquiry.

"That will be a judgment made by the committees of jurisdiction," she said. "So, no, we haven't made any decision."

Democrats currently do not plan to hold hearings during Thanksgiving week, although they could add closed-door interviews or hearings to the calendar.

Then what happens?

The House Intelligence Committee will then draft a report of its findings and present it to the House Judiciary Committee, who are tasked with deliberating the case and drafting articles of impeachment, if necessary.

How many votes are needed to impeach a president?

Should the House vote to impeach, the Senate will then hold a trial to determine whether to remove Trump from office, with 67 of the 100 senators needed to vote in favor of convicting the president before he can be impeached.

Could this stretch into 2020?

Congress does not return to Washington until the week of Dec. 2 and will then have only twelve days left in its 2019 session to hold hearings and votes.

House Democrats have expressed reluctance to let an impeachment trial go too far into 2020, though, as Democratic senators running for president wouldn't likely Washington during the hearings, which would also be the height of campaign season leading up the start of the primaries.

Here's what we don't know:

Who else could be called to testify?

Many of the witnesses at the center of the controversy have yet to testify or release relevant documents, including former national security adviser John Bolton, who has so far refused to testify, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Rudy Giuliani. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also refused to turn over any documents related to the inquiry. Trump, too, has declined to testify although he said he would "strongly consider" giving written testimony.

More: Trump says he'd 'strongly consider' giving written testimony in impeachment inquiry