As 2019 opened, Democrats prepared to take hold of the House, a new U.S. attorney general was poised to reprise a role he’d previously held under the Reagan administration, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller III neared the end of his two-year investigation into President Donald Trump and Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

It was a combustible combination, and with all the makings for Washington drama, the year would not disappoint. House Democrats launched into oversight and clashed with the administration as it resisted demands for documents and testimony—the tension eventually boiling over with the impeachment of Trump this week.