There are, by the latest count, at least 130 House Democrats who support impeaching President Donald Trump, a number that has risen quietly but steadily in the wake of Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last month. While that cohort counts many senior members of House leadership among its members—including caucus Vice Chair Katherine Clark and powerful committee heads like Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel and Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding firm in her opposition to moving forward with an inquiry.

In a conference call Friday, Pelosi reportedly told her caucus that although she “grinds her teeth” nightly “about what’s going on in the White House,” Democrats should be “unifying and not dividing,” and that—House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler’s suggestions that impeachment is already underway evidently notwithstanding—the party should wait for a stronger case for impeachment to emerge given that “the public isn’t there” on beginning proceedings.



Late Tuesday, The Washington Post handed Pelosi that stronger case. According to multiple officials reached by the Post’s Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey, Trump, in his eagerness to finish a substantial portion of the border wall by next year’s Election Day, has not only urged the wanton seizure of private land and violation of environmental regulations, he has also assured his subordinates “that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers built quickly.”



“When aides have suggested that some orders are illegal or unworkable Trump has suggested he would pardon the officials if they would just go ahead,” they wrote. “He has waved off worries about contracting procedures and the use of eminent domain, saying ‘take the land,’ according to officials who attended the meetings.” Asked by the Post for comment, the White House claimed that Trump had been joking. True to form, Trump himself called the report “fake news” in a Wednesday tweet.

But the Post thoroughly documented a series of the White House’s eyebrow-raising demands and arrangements. Trump, for instance, has insisted that one of the contracts for the wall’s construction go to North Dakota firm Fisher Industries, evidently at the recommendation of North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, a major recipient of contributions from Fisher’s CEO. Earlier this month, the Post reported that Cramer temporarily stalled the confirmation of a White House budget official to obtain sensitive information from the Army Corps of Engineers about Fisher’s competitors for the bid. After relenting, Cramer issued a statement claiming, remarkably, that Trump had “deputized” him to help manage the bidding process.

