The year in impeachment was a true roller coaster ride: A slow build to a high peak at the time of special counsel Robert Mueller's report; a deep and fast dive in its aftermath; a rocket-like ascent following the whistle-blower's report of U.S. President Donald Trump's call with Ukraine; and now, at year's end, a harrowing run to an impeachment that itself will likely end in the "pffft" of a Senate vote not to remove the president.
Think back, if you can, to early 2019, when the Mueller investigation was still proceeding in secret, with remarkably few leaks. We all knew that Trump had fired FBI director James Comey because of the Russia investigation (the president himself admitted as much). What we did not know was the more important question of whether the Trump campaign had actively colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election results.
Along the way, we also got various criminal prosecutions, including Paul Manafort (now serving a prison sentence), several Russian intelligence hackers (indicted but unlikely to ever face trial) and most tantalizingly of all, Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and all around fixer (also serving time in jail).