Democrats have announced two articles of impeachment charging Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The charges stem from the president’s pressure on Ukraine to announce investigations into his political rivals as he withheld aid to the country.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump tweeted he did “NOTHING” wrong and that impeaching a president with his record would be “sheer Political Madness!”
House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of the announcement that Mr Trump tried to “corrupt our upcoming elections” and remains a “threat to our democracy and national security”.
She said the House was taking next steps to “defend the democracy”.
House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff said Democrats had “no choice” but to unveil articles of impeachment against President Trump.
“We stand here today because the President’s continuing abuse of his power has left us no choice. To do nothing would make ourselves complicit in the President’s abuse of his high office, the public trust and our national security,” he said.
Trump officials seek to get a trial over quickly before the election campaign starts
While Republicans in the senate have set time aside for a Senate trial on impeaching the President to begin in January, Trump officials would prefer to get it out of the way as fast as possible so as not to overshadow the 2020 US Presidential Election.
As White House officials will no try to prevent this next phase of impeachment from dragging far into next year.
The White House is briefing it wants a Senate trial to begin as soon as the House passes articles of impeachment, even if that means over the Christmas holidays. And it feels confident it can persuade reluctant Republican senators to bend to their timetable.
This will be an indication of how partisan the impeachment process will be and how far it is likely to get with a Republican majority.
