Parnas maintains that the scheme to force Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden’s family was widely known in Trump’s circle and that, as The New York Times put it, “the president was fully aware of the efforts to dig up damaging information on his behalf.” In an ideal world, the entire impeachment trial would be put on hold pending a thorough investigation of the new claims. Americans need to know the full story before their representatives in the Senate decide what—if anything—to do about it.

Instead, something disturbing is about to happen: The Senate is poised to make a monumental decision about the office of the presidency while knowing full well that much of the sordid tale has not even been told.

Trump’s trial, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday, will have some trappings of a normal trial. The president will, for example, have an expansive defense team that includes former Independent Counsel Ken Starr. (I worked for Starr during his investigation of Bill Clinton.) What the trial won’t have—because Trump, his lawyers, and his allies in Congress have been so successful in blocking live testimony and the release of information—is all the facts.

And yet troubling leads keep turning up anyway.