Trump’s in trouble

President faces impeachment action

US President Donald Trump has slammed as “a total witch hunt scam” the start of formal impeachment proceedings by Democrats.

In announcing the first impeachment inquiry since Bill Clinton’s presidency in the 1990s, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mr Trump had violated the law and the constitution by asking the Ukrainian president to probe the actions of a political rival.

But Mr Trump shrugged off the controversy, admitting that while he discussed Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he had done nothing wrong.

There are claims Mr Trump further threatened to withhold US aid to Ukraine if the Bidens were not investigated.

Ms Pelosi said that by asking a foreign government to help him politically, and by refusing to release information about a whistleblower complaint involving the controversy, Mr Trump had “betrayed the constitution”.

“Therefore today, I am announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry,” Ms Pelosi said. “The president must be held accountable, no one is above the law.”

Mr Trump slammed the move as “just a continuation of the witch hunt”. He said he would release a transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president on Wednesday local time.

“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call,” Mr Trump said at the United Nations in New York.

Impeachment is the rarely used process through which the US president can be removed from office if convicted of “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours”.

It has only occurred twice, to Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. Neither were removed from office. Disgraced leader Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached over Watergate.

While some Democrats have repeatedly called for impeachment, Ms Pelosi has until now resisted pressure, saying she would prefer to defeat Mr Trump at the ballot in November 2020.