The House Judiciary Committee approved a resolution Thursday defining the rules of the panel's impeachment investigation. The vote marked the first move the committee has taken toward the potential impeachment of President Donald Trump.

The resolution will allow committee staff to question witnesses at hearings for an hour after members conclude and collect information in a closed setting. It will also give the President's lawyers the ability to respond in writing to public testimonies.

"This Committee is engaged in an investigation that will allow us to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment with respect to President Trump. Some call this process an impeachment inquiry. Some call it an impeachment investigation. There is no legal difference between these terms, and I no longer care to argue about the nomenclature," Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said to CNN. "But let me clear up any remaining doubt: The conduct under investigation poses a threat to our democracy. We have an obligation to respond to this threat. And we are doing so."


Many Democrats have become increasingly frustrated with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's reluctance to move forward in the impeachment process. At her weekly news conference, Pelosi once again declined to say the committee was conducting an impeachment investigation minutes after the vote confirmed that they were.

Nadler's opening statement at Thursday's Committee hearing attempted to clear up any confusion by explaining that the language used to describe the investigation wasn't the important point, while Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, accused the Democrats on the committee of taking pointless action and changing semantics with no concrete results. 

"The difference between formal impeachment proceedings and what we're doing today is a world apart, no matter what the chairman just said," Collins said in his opening statement. "The chairman can do this at any time because he wants the appearance of something that it's not. You're not in an impeachment inquiry."

Despite the move to define the rules of the investigation, no formal articles of impeachment have been filed, with Pelosi stopping any push in the House of Representatives. 

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