Impeachment article has 200 cosponsors: US rep.
The draft, citing "incitement of insurrection," could be introduced Monday.
President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 11 days.
Top headlines:
- Rep. Cicilline: 'Just passed 200 cosponsors' on article of impeachment
- GOP Rep. Kinzinger: Best thing for the country is Trump to resign
- Pence to attend Biden's inauguration: Source
- Senate Democrat says Cruz, Hawley should resign or 'the Senate must expel them'
- Trump asked Georgia election investigator to 'find the fraud': Source
Georgia Secretary of State's office says Trump legal team has 'voluntarily dismissed' election lawsuits
According to the secretary of state's office, the president's and the Georgia GOP's legal teams have voluntarily dismissed four lawsuits related to the general election.
"On the eve of getting the day in court they supposedly were begging for, President Trump and Chairman David Shafer’s legal team folded Thursday and voluntarily dismissed their election contests against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger rather than submit their evidence to a court and to cross-examination," a press release from Raffensperger's office read.
The release also said that the president's legal team is falsely claiming one case was dismissed “due to an out of court settlement agreement.” Raffensperger's office said that isn't true and that "correspondence sent to Trump’s legal team prior to the dismissals makes perfectly clear that there is no settlement agreement."
The three other lawsuits were also voluntarily dismissed by the Trump legal team with no settlement agreements, according to Raffensperger's office.
-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan
John Kelly to CNN: 'I would' vote to remove Trump from office
Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said he believes Trump's Cabinet should meet and have a conversation about the 25th Amendment, adding that if he was still in the Cabinet and had the opportunity, he would vote to remove Trump from office.
"You were a former member of the Cabinet, in addition to being White House chief of staff. If you were in the cabinet right now, would you vote to remove him from office?" CNN's Jake Tapper asked Kelly on Thursday afternoon.
"I -- yes, I would. One thing we have going for us here, Jake, it's only 13 more days," Kelly said.
"I don't think it will happen, but I think the Cabinet should meet and discuss this," Kelly said of the move. "The behavior yesterday and in the weeks and months before that have just been outrageous from the president. And what happened on Capitol Hill yesterday is a direct result of his poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the fraud."
Kelly said the president's actions Wednesday "didn't surprise" him but that he was "very surprised that those people would assault the people's house, do the damage they did and embarrass us all."
He went on to very bluntly criticize Trump, calling him "a very, very flawed man" with "serious character issues."
-ABC News' Elizabeth Thomas
Biden transition deflects on Trump's potential removal from office
The Biden transition is deflecting when asked questions about Trump's potential removal from office, saying both Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are focused on their duties and taking office in less than two weeks.
A spokesperson said Biden and Harris will "leave it to Vice President Pence, the Cabinet and the Congress to act as they see fit," when it comes to Trump's removal, and again urged Trump stop blocking cooperation with the transition.
-ABC News' John Verhovek
McMaster condemns Trump in blistering statement
Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Twitter joined a growing list of former officials bluntly denouncing Trump's actions leading up to Wednesday's riot.
"The reasons for yesterday’s criminal assault on our Congress and election process are many. But foremost among them is the sad reality that President Trump and other officials have repeatedly compromised our principles in pursuit of partisan advantage and personal gain," McMaster said in a Twitter thread.
"Those who engaged in disinformation and demagoguery in pursuit of self-interest abdicated their responsibility to the American people. It was, in every sense of the phrase, a dereliction of duty," he continued, calling on the public to "reject conspiracy theories and false narratives designed to polarize us and pit us against each other."
White House flag lowered to half-staff in honor of Capitol police officers who died
Three days after Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died defending the Capitol against insurrectionists the White House lowered the U.S. flag to half-staff.
The decision to lower the flags came hours after Capitol Police also announced the off-duty death of Officer Howard Liebengood. The circumstances of his death have not been made public.
The U.S. attorney's office in Washington opened a federal murder investigation into the death of Sicknick, who died Thursday night after suffering injuries in the violent siege on Capitol Hill, three law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News.
The investigation is being conducted jointly between the FBI and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, with cooperation from U.S. Capitol Police.
Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said in a statement that the Department of Justice "will spare no resources in investigating and holding accountable those responsible."
-ABC News' Elizabeth Thomas