The Democratic-controlled US House Judiciary Committee has unveiled charges against President Donald Trump, a key move in impeaching him.
The first article revealed by committee chief Jerry Nadler accuses Mr Trump of abuse of power and the second accuses him of obstructing Congress.
The president is said to have withheld aid to Ukraine for domestic political reasons.
He insists he has done “nothing wrong” and dismissed the process as “madness”.
If the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes to approve the articles later this week, they will then be submitted to the lower chamber for a full vote.
If, in turn, the articles are approved by the House – which is controlled by the Democrats – an impeachment trial in the Republican-held Senate will take place, possibly early in January.
The impeachment process was launched after an anonymous whistleblower complained to Congress in September about a July phone call by Mr Trump to the president of Ukraine.
We knew it was coming. The talk has been of little else, impeachment seems to be the only thing I’ve been reporting on for these past couple of months.
But when the chairman of the Judiciary Committee charged the president with “high crimes and misdemeanours”, it still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. For all the sound and fury of today’s politics, this is not an everyday occurrence.
If the House of Representatives votes to impeach Donald J Trump, he will join Andrew Johnson (1868) and Bill Clinton (1998) as the only other presidents to be sanctioned in this way since American independence.
But that’s for the history books. It’s what happens next that matters. Will this be a grievous blow to Donald Trump winning a second term, or will the American people see this as a political hit job against their president?
The language is of upholding the Constitution, but don’t be gulled: there is raw political calculation too.
Addressing reporters, Mr Nadler accused Mr Trump of exercising the powers of his public office to “obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring or injuring the national interest”, by pressuring Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
Mr Trump “sees himself as above the law”, the committee chief said. “We must be clear, no one, not even the president, is above the law.” -BBC
