Trump impeachment: House Democrats charge President with ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’
The Democrats have unveiled formal impeachment charges against US President Donald Trump today.
The Trump impeachment charges concern withholding military aid from Ukraine in a bid to pressure the country into opening an investigation into the President’s political rival, Democrat Joe Biden.
Jerrold Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, charged Trump with “high crimes and misdemeanours”.
Read more: Nancy Pelosi moves articles of Trump impeachment forward
“He endangers our democracy, he endangers our national security,” Nadler said. “Our next election is at risk… that is why we must act now.”
impeachment will centre on alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The US leader hit back online, calling the procedure “sheer political madness”.
When the charges are unveiled by the House of Representatives the full lower chamber will begin an impeachment vote.
If the Democrat-controlled House passes the articles, that will force an impeachment vote in the Senate, which is controlled by the Republicans.
That vote could take place in early January.
Trump has denied wrongdoing after the White House released a transcript of a phone call with Ukraine’s leader in which Trump asks his counterpart to investigate political rival Joe Biden.
Before the call Trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars from the country.
Democrat House leader Nancy Pelosi last week led her party in pushing the articles of impeachment forward.
“The facts are uncontested,” she said at the time.
“The President abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security.”
Trump said on Twitter: “To Impeach a President who has proven through results, including producing perhaps the strongest economy in our country’s history, to have one of the most successful presidencies ever, and most importantly, who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness!”
It comes after two months of congressional hearings prompted by a whistle blower complaint to Congress in September.
Last month, EU ambassador Gordon Sondland testified that he believed the call constituted a “quid pro quo” between Trump and Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sondland, a Trump donor, said that requests from Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for a probe into Biden and the Democrat’s son, Hunter Biden, were in return for a White House visit for Zelensky.
“Mr [Rudy] Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server and Burisma,” Sondland has said.
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“Mr Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President.”
Democrats are investigating if Trump deliberately withheld a Congress-approved $391m (£305m) in security aid to Ukraine in return for Zelensky opening a corruption probe into Biden.