The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution to submit articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for a trial.
The resolution passed largely along party lines by 228 votes to 193.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed copies of the articles alongside the team of Democratic lawmakers who will prosecute the case against Mr Trump.
The House, controlled by opposition Democrats, impeached the president last month.
The Senate, controlled by Mr Trump’s Republican Party, will decide whether to convict and remove him from office.
At a press conference before the signing of the articles, Mrs Pelosi said: “Today we will make history. When the managers walk down the hall, we will cross a threshold in history – delivering articles of impeachment against the president of the United States for abuse of power and obstruction of the House.”
The articles were then transferred to the Senate, where Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said they would be exhibited on Thursday at noon, followed by a reading on the floor of the upper chamber. He said the trial would begin on Tuesday.
The president is accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He denies trying to pressure Ukraine’s leader during a phone call on 25 July last year to open an investigation into his would-be Democratic White House challenger Joe Biden.
Mr Trump has been touting unsubstantiated corruption claims about Mr Biden and his son, Hunter, who accepted a lucrative board position with a Ukrainian energy firm while his father handled American-Ukraine relations as US vice-president. Mr Biden is one of a dozen candidates campaigning for the Democratic Party’s White House nomination.
The Senate trial will be only the third of a US president in history.
While Democrats control the House, Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans hold sway in the Senate 53-47 and are all but certain to acquit him. It remains to be seen how the case could influence the president’s campaign for re-election this November.
Democrats hope the impeachment will carry symbolic weight. Mrs Pelosi, who launched the impeachment inquiry in September, said on the House floor before the vote: “We are here today to cross a very important threshold in American history.”
All Republicans voted against the resolution to transmit the articles of impeachment. Only one Democrat, Collin Peterson of Minnesota, did not vote in favour. Democrats were joined by Justin Amash of Michigan, a former Republican who left the party to become an independent.
The Republican leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy of California, said Democrats were trying to remove the president with the “weakest case”. He called it a “sad saga”.
SOURCE: bbc.com
