House of Representatives votes to impeach Trump

Trump became the third US president, joining Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, in history to be formally impeached by Congress.

"Such atrocious lies by the radical left do nothing democrats. This is an assault on America, and an assault on the Republican party," Trump said in a statement on Twitter

He was impeached by the lower house of Congress, which is controlled by the Democrats; he will face a trial by the Senate.

In order for Trump to be removed from office, it would take a two-thirds majority of Senators to vote against him.

The process began when a House impeachment inquiry found that in the Trump-Ukraine scandal, solicited foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help his re-election, and then obstructed the inquiry itself by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony. The inquiry reported that Trump withheld military aid and an invitation to the White House in order to influence Ukraine into publicly announcing investigations into Trump's political rivals.

The inquiry stage of Trump's impeachment lasted from September to November 2019, in the wake of an August 2019 whistleblower complaint alleging abuse of power by Trump. In October 2019, three congressional committees (Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs) deposed witnesses. In November 2019, the House Intelligence Committee held a number of public hearings in which witnesses testified publicly. On December 3, the House Intelligence Committee voted 13–9 along party lines to adopt a final report.

A set of impeachment hearings before the Judiciary Committee began on December 4, 2019. On December 13, the House Judiciary Committee voted 23–17 along party lines to recommend two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress Judiciary Committee also released a report on the articles of impeachment on December 16. (ILKHA)