Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly got the idea not to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate from former White House counsel John Dean.

The House of Representatives voted to impeach the president on two articles, obstruction of Congress and abuse of power, last month. The speaker has since refused to pass the articles along to the Senate for a trial as she tries to force concessions from the GOP-held chamber led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Pelosi began "mulling the tactic" of not sending the articles to the Senate after Dean's appearance on Don Lemon's show on CNN on Dec. 5, according to a Thursday profile published by Time.

“Somebody said to me today that he may not even take up what we send. [But] then [Trump] will never be vindicated,” Pelosi said, the publication reported, citing an aide in the room. “He will be impeached forever. Forever. No matter what the Senate does.”

Dean, who pleaded guilty to plotting to cover up the June 1972 break‐in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters during President Richard Nixon's tenure and was later disbarred after serving a reduced prison sentence for cooperating with investigators, argued that Pelosi "has some real leverage in this," during the television appearance.

"She doesn’t have to send articles of impeachment to the Senate," he said. "What happens, Don, after there’s a vote on the articles, they adopt a resolution where they select managers, and then they decide when they’re going to send the managers over to the Senate. So there’s a flexibility in the process where she could say, 'listen, let’s just hold these articles here until the Senate gets its act together,' and that could last right through the campaign as far as her powers."

While Pelosi has continued to withhold the articles, she appears likely to send them in the near future as a number of Democrats in the House and Senate have urged her to do so.