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Referring to the part in the Constitution that gives Congress the power to impeach and remove a president, the application continues, he said: “To do so, the House must have access to all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise all its full Article I powers, including a constitutional power of the utmost gravity — recommendation of articles of impeachment.”

Still, his account of the pending filing, which he said would be filed Friday afternoon, stopped short of explicitly declaring that it has formally opened an impeachment inquiry.

Democrats have been divided about whether the House should formally declare that the committee is conducting an impeachment inquiry.

Photo by Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

More than 90 House Democrats have said they support opening such proceedings.

Others fear it could provoke a backlash, firing up Trump’s supporters and endangering newly elected Democrats who won moderate districts in the 2018 midterm.

The specific information at issue in the court filing are the portions in the Mueller report that were redacted because the information fell under a rule in the federal criminal code that makes information presented to a grand jury secret. That rule has only limited exceptions to share it with outsiders. Democrats want the House to gain access to the redacted portions of the report, as well as the underlying transcripts and documents that Mueller used a grand jury to gather.