House Democrats announced on Tuesday two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over his alleged conduct toward Ukraine.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and other relevant committee leaders made the announcement.
Nadler said in the press conference that Trump is being accused of “committing high crimes and misdemeanors” including “abuse of power.”
The second article of impeachment is “obstruction of Congress,” Nadler said, adding that Trump allegedly declared himself above “accountability” and Congress. “No one is above the law,” he said.
Party lawmakers scheduled a 9 a.m. announcement to announce “the next steps” in the impeachment probe.
A hearing on Monday in the Judiciary Committee featured testimony from Republican and Democrat lawyers following a 300-page impeachment report authorized by Schiff.
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“In abusing his office in this manner, and in obstructing the investigation that followed, we know that President Trump has put himself before his country,” Nadler said following Mondays hearing.
Democrats have alleged Trump misused his office by withholding $400 million to Ukraine in exchange for investigations into a potential 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. The younger Biden sat on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings while his father was in office. The elder Biden also had bragged in a video that he was able to withhold $1 billion in aid to Ukraine in order to get a prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, fired.
But Democrats said that testimony from State Department and National Security Council officials showed that Trump waged a pressure campaign to secure an investigation, construing a misuse of power.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy have both denied the allegations.
