In a closed-door meeting earlier in the day, Pelosi described to Democrats what would happen next: The six House panels investigating Trump would compile evidence against him and share it with the House Judiciary Committee, which would then decide whether to recommend articles of impeachment to the full House.

There is just one problem: All of that had already been in motion since July.

“There was no discussion of any structural changes,” Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said. “It was all about what the president has done.”…

Exiting the caucus meeting, several Democrats struggled to articulate what Pelosi’s pronouncement would mean for the actual mechanics of impeachment proceedings. Others said everything was functionally the same.