Republicans now say proof that Trump conditioned military aid to Ukraine to an investigation of Biden, a top 2020 contender, his son Hunter, and the Democratic Party would not shake their opposition to impeachment. The money was released without such a deal and, Republicans emphasize, federal law gives presidents broad discretion to withhold foreign aid.

“Asking people to do something in order to get the foreign aid, that’s a relatively common occurrence with all of our foreign aid. You could say all of our foreign aid is quid pro quo,” Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.

Rep. Tom Cole confirmed that his colleagues are not concerned about the existence of a quid pro quo the way they were in late September, when the lone piece of evidence was the summary transcript of a telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made public by the White House. “It doesn’t matter much anymore,” the Oklahoma Republican said.