The US House of Representatives has launched impeachment proceedings against US President Donald Trump.
In a special address yesterday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said an official impeachment inquiry would examine whether President Trump sought Ukraine's help to smear former vice president Joe Biden - the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
She said: "This week, the President has admitted to asking the President of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically."
"The actions of the Trump Presidency revealed the dishonourable fact of the President's betrayal of his oath of office; betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.
"Therefore today, I am announcing that the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.
She said the President "must be held accountable" adding "no-one is above the law."
She also claimed that President Trump's actions had "seriously violated the constitution" and amounted to "a betrayal of our national security."
Tune in as I speak live from the U.S. Capitol. https://t.co/j6UMq4TC5u
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) September 24, 2019
Ukraine
It comes after a whistleblower submitted a complaint believed to be related to a phone call between President Trump and the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25th.
Reports in the US say President Trump repeatedly asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate unsubstantiated charges that Mr Biden threatened to withhold US aid unless a prosecutor, who was looking into a gas company his son was involved in, was fired.
President Trump has insisted the call was “friendly and totally appropriate” and did not involve any pressure on President Zelensky.
He has said he will release a “complete, fully declassified and unredacted” transcript of the call on Wednesday.
After Mrs Pelosi's announcement, he tweeted: "Such an important day at the United Nations, so much work and so much success, and the Democrats purposely had to ruin and demean it with more breaking news Witch Hunt garbage. So bad for our Country!
"They never even saw the transcript of the call. A total Witch Hunt!"
He added, in block capital letters: "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!"
The Trump administration has refused to release the full whistleblower complaint and Mrs Pelosi said the House will now vote on a resolution condemning the president’s alleged actions in blocking its release.
She said the resolution will make Congress’s disapproval of the move clear and urged politicians to put party politics aside and focus on "maintaining the integrity of our democracy, respect for the rule of law and defending our Constitution".
The move does not guarantee a full Congress vote on whether or not to impeach Donald Trump.
If the inquiry finds evidence to charge President Trump with "high crimes and misdemeanors", that would prompt a full impeachment process through 'articles of impeachment'.
Any such articles would first need to get past a simple majority vote in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, but would then need two thirds support following a 'trial' in the Republican-controlled Senate.
