Top Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has announced a formal impeachment probe of US President Donald Trump. "This week, the president has admitted to asking the Ukraine president to take action that would benefit him politically," she said, adding, "The president must be held accountable," reported BBC.
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Democrats had lined up in great numbers Tuesday, urging an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, pushed to action by his phone call with Ukraine's new leader and what Trump may or may not have said about corruption, frozen US millions, and Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Trump said he would release a transcript of the call on Wednesday. Attention was focused on House Speaker Pelosi, who had resisted calls for an impeachment inquiry for months.
An impeachment inquiry into a president in the middle of his reelection campaign is virtually certain to exacerbate the nation's partisan divides. Trump has all but dared Democrats to take that step, confident that the specter of impeachment led by the opposition party would bolster his political support. Pelosi has shared that concern and has spent months trying to hold off liberals in her caucus pushing for impeachment.
At issue is a summer phone call Trump had with Ukraine's president, which came to Congress' attention through a whistleblower complaint. Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong in the call, but has suggested he raised Biden and his son Hunter as part of discussions over corruption in Ukraine despite no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of either man.
Moments before Pelosi spoke, Trump tweeted that he had authorised the release on Wednesday of a transcript of the call.
"You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call," Trump said.
The identity of the whistleblower is unknown. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, said Tuesday that the whistleblower wants to speak with the panel and could testify as soon as this week.
-Inputs from PTI