US President Donald Trump is set to face an impeachment vote on Wednesday over allegations he wooed Ukraine government for his own political gain.
The US Intelligence panel on December 3, released a 300-page report on its findings in which Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., concluded that Trump put his interests above the country’s and then covered up his actions with an “unprecedented campaign of obstruction.”
“The President engaged in this course of conduct for the benefit of his own presidential re-election, to harm the election prospects of a political rival, and to influence our nation’s upcoming presidential election to his advantage,” the report says as quoted by NBCNEWS.
“In doing so, the President placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security.”
But before the daring vote against President Trump, he wrote a scathing letter to top Democrat Nancy Pelosi, accusing her of declaring “open war on American democracy”
“You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!” BBC quoted Trump’s letter written to Pelosi on Tuesday.
As quoted by BBC, Mr Trump claimed in his letter he had been “deprived of basic Constitutional Due Process from the beginning of this impeachment scam” and “denied the most fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution, including the right to present evidence”.
US Impeachment history
Only two U.S. presidents have been formally impeached by Congress-Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton and no U.S. president has ever been removed from office through impeachment.
In addition to Johnson and Clinton, only two other U.S. presidents have faced formal impeachment inquiries in the House of Representatives: Richard Nixon and the incumbent Donald Trump.
Trump is expected to be impeached, setting up a trial in the Senate. He might fall on the list of impeached US presidents to three, should the process sail through.
