Thirteen articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump have been sitting on the congressional record since early April — and most Americans have never heard about them. On April 6, 2026, Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) introduced House Resolution 1155, a sweeping indictment that accuses the president of high crimes and misdemeanors ranging from an undeclared military campaign against Venezuela to the deployment of National Guard troops into American cities.
What the Resolution Actually Charges
H.Res.1155 lays out 13 separate articles. At their center is the administration’s military intervention against Venezuela. The resolution charges the president in connection with a naval blockade and a series of strikes on vessels the administration described as drug-trafficking boats — actions the articles characterize, in stark legal language, as “murder, war crimes and piracy.”
The articles also target the domestic use of military force. They cite the deployment of National Guard troops into cities across the country, describing it as the “militarization of domestic law enforcement.” And they single out the president’s executive order moving to end birthright citizenship, among other alleged abuses of power and circumventions of Congress’s constitutional authority over war and appropriations.
The document was not drafted casually. According to reporting on the filing, the articles were written in collaboration with longtime consumer advocate and attorney Ralph Nader and constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein — giving the resolution the structure of a detailed legal brief rather than a quick political broadside.
A Standing Resolution — Not a Live Floor Vote
Here is the part that matters for understanding what this is, and what it is not. H.Res.1155 was introduced in April. It is a standing resolution — it exists on the record, but it has not been brought to the House floor for a vote, and a single member introducing articles of impeachment does not force the chamber to act on them.
Under House rules, leadership controls the calendar. With Republicans holding the majority, there is no realistic path for Larson’s resolution to reach a vote anytime soon. It can be referred, set aside, or simply left to sit. Impeachment articles introduced by a member of the minority routinely never advance — they function as a formal marker of objection more than an imminent legal threat to a sitting president.
So the accurate framing is this: the charges are real, they are on the record, and they are serious. But they are not a countdown to a Senate trial. They are a question hanging over the House — whether the body will ever take them up, or whether they remain a symbolic protest.
Why It Matters
Even as a standing resolution, H.Res.1155 puts a detailed set of allegations into the official congressional record — the kind of document that can shape oversight hearings, court filings, and the public debate over the limits of presidential power. The articles touch on some of the most contested questions of this presidency: when a commander in chief can order lethal force abroad without congressional authorization, whether troops can be turned toward domestic policing, and how far executive orders can rewrite settled constitutional ground like birthright citizenship.
For ordinary Americans, the stakes are not abstract. The questions at the heart of these articles — who decides when the country goes to war, who polices American streets, and who counts as a citizen — are exactly the questions that determine how much power one office holds over everyday life. Accountability, supporters of the resolution argue, is the whole point of putting it in writing, even when the votes to pass it do not exist.
That is what makes this a genuine debate rather than a settled story. Critics call the resolution a doomed gesture with no chance of passage. Supporters say a formal record of alleged abuses matters regardless of the immediate odds. Where you land depends on what you think Congress is for.
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