For months, as House Republicans moved forward with their impeachment crusade against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, many assumed that cooler heads would eventually prevail. Sure, the GOP conference has taken a radical turn, but the party wouldn’t actually impeach a sitting Cabinet secretary without evidence of high crimes, right?

Wrong.

As the dust settles on this rather dramatic abuse of congressional power, there are plenty of questions worth keeping in mind as the process advances.

Will there be an impeachment trial? Several far-right senators want one, but they shouldn’t get their hopes up. There’s a general understanding in the upper chamber — among members of both parties — that the case against Mayorkas is ridiculous and unworthy of the institution’s time. Politico had a good report on this early last week, noting that the Senate’s Democratic majority has already talked behind the scenes “about the best way to kill this as fast as they can.”