Trump at brink of impeachment as US House body approves charges

Democrats in the US House of Representatives on Friday took Republican President Donald Trump to the brink of impeachment when they approved two charges against him over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

A badly divided House Judiciary Committee voted 23-17 along party lines to approve articles of impeachment charging Trump with both abusing the power of his office over the Ukraine scandal and obstructing House Democrats' attempts to investigate him for it.

Trump is expected to become the third US president to be impeached when the full Democratic-led House votes on the charges, likely next week, setting up a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate. The Republicans have shown no signs of wanting to remove Trump from office.

In congressional hearings that have gripped Washington, Democrats have accused the president of endangering the US Constitution, jeopardizing national security and undermining the integrity of the 2020 election by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to investigate Biden.

"Today is a solemn and sad day," said Representative Jerrold Nadler, the committee's Democratic chairman. "For the third time in a little over a century and a half, the House Judiciary Committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president."

Republicans have defended Trump and accused Democrats of a politically motivated farce aimed at overturning his surprise 2016 presidential election victory.

"Impeachment is a hoax. It's a sham," Trump told reporters at the White House after the committee's vote. "There was nothing done wrong. To use the power of impeachment for this nonsense is an embarrassment to this country."

If impeached, Trump will go on trial in the Senate in January, just as the 2020 presidential campaign begins to pick up speed.

Biden, a former US vice president, is a leading Democratic candidate to face Trump in the November 3 election. Trump has alleged that Biden was involved in corruption in Ukraine and should be investigated by authorities there, but the president has offered no evidence. Biden has denied any wrongdoing.

ABUSE CHARGE

The abuse of power charge against Trump also accuses him of freezing nearly $400 million in US security aid to Ukraine and offering a possible White House meeting to Zelenskiy to get him to publicly announce investigations of Biden and his son Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Trump also asked Ukraine to investigate a debunked theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election.

The obstruction charge against Trump is based on his directives to current and former administration officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry, even if that meant defying subpoenas.