First Impeachment Hearing Against Trump Begins

Donald Trump

The impeachment investigation into Donald Trump has entered a new phase as the House Judiciary Committee begins hearings into Mr Donald Trump’s conduct.

The public testimony by four experts on constitutional law comes one day after the House Intelligence Committee laid out the case for removing Mr Trump.

The intelligence panel’s report said evidence of Mr Trump’s misconduct was “overwhelming”.

If impeachment passes in the House, the US Senate will put Mr Trump on trial, BBC reports

The impeachment process began in September after an anonymous whistleblower complained to Congress about a July phone call by Mr Trump to the president of Ukraine, in which Mr Trump appeared to tie US military assistance to Ukraine launching investigations which would help him politically.

The White House has denied allegations made by Democrats – that Mr Trump put his own personal political interests “above the national interests of the United States” by soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 US elections, as the 300-page report argues.

After the report’s release on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said that it “utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing”.