On Monday, the general counsel for the House of Representatives made a shocking statement about the president of the United States that stunned even those who’ve become unimaginably hardened and cynical from the events of the last 34 months.. In requesting that Congress receive access to secret grand jury evidence from Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, for the purposes of the House’s impeachment inquiry, Douglas Letter told a federal appeals court, “There is evidence, very sadly, that the president might have provided untruthful answers…Did the president lie? Was the president not truthful in his responses to the Mueller investigation? The House is trying to determine whether the current president should remain in office. This is unbelievably serious and it’s happening right now, very fast.”

Donald Trump, a liar? Our Donald Trump, people no doubt asked themselves, mouths agape. But how could that be? Sure, he told 13,435 “falsehoods” between January 20, 2017, and October 9, 2019. Yes, entire fact-checking industries have been built around his penchant for basically never telling the truth. But lie to Bob Mueller in order to save his own ass? The Trump we know? Donald J. Trump? The same one born in Queens and currently living in the White House? Look, we accept that he basically can’t go a day without telling a lie, such that doctors believe doing so is an essential part of his biological functioning, similar to how other humans must move air in and out of their lungs. And, yes, he lies about things he said in rooms full of people with cameras running, and redraws maps and hopes no one notices, and claims migrant caravans traveling from South America contain Middle Eastern terrorists, and proclaims that his daughter, Ivanka Trump, created 14 million jobs. And…alright, sure, when the facts are laid out that way, yes, it seems…entirely probable and 150% in character that Trump lied to Mueller.

Letter’s request came days after the president’s longtime associate Roger Stone was convicted of lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 election, and subsequently attempting to cover it up by concealing evidence from investigators and engaging in witness tampering, which the general counsel cited in his argument. He also included the guilty plea of Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who admitted to lying to Congress. “We have at least two people who have already been convicted of lying to Congress,” he said. “And what are they lying about? They’re lying about things that go directly to the Mueller report,” Letter said, describing the matter as being of “immense” importance and “a key part of the impeachment inquiry.”

While it’s not clear if articles of impeachment will include obstruction of justice claims laid out in Mueller’s report, or solely focus on Ukraine, some members, according to the Washington Post, want to include charges connected to the special counsel’s inquiry. The grand jury information being sought is part of an attempt to build a case that the president did, indeed, obstruct justice, which Mueller indicated during a press conference he might have. Last month, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell for the District of Columbia ruled that the House could receive the grand jury evidence, saying that it is engaged in a legal judicial process that exempts it from grand jury secrecy rules, and on Monday, a three-member panel appeared to be leaning in the same direction.