The House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump on Wednesday. He is the third president in history to be impeached. The House of Representatives led by the Democrats voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday night.
After a majority of 216 members voted in favor of it, the House passed the first article of impeachment against Trump, which charges him with abuse of power. The final vote on the article is still going on, and the count will be checked by Insider as it enters.
First, the House must vote on the second impeachment report, which accuses Trump of blocking Congress.
Wednesday's historic vote came after about 10 hours of debate.
Both articles are related to Trump's efforts to solicit Ukraine's interference in the 2020 election while withholding vital military aid and a White House meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately wanted.
The catalyst for the impeachment inquiry into Trump was a whistleblower complaint that an anonymous US intelligence official filed against the president in August. The House Intelligence Committee revealed the existence of the complaint in early September and released it days later after receiving the document from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
At the center of the complaint is a July 25, 2019 phone call Trump had with Zelensky, during which he repeatedly pressured Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, over baseless allegations of corruption. Trump also asked his Ukrainian counterpart to look into a bogus conspiracy theory suggesting Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US election.
A cascade of witness testimony since Congress launched its impeachment inquiry revealed that the phone call was just one data point in a months-long pressure campaign spearheaded by Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, at the president's direction. Giuliani also enlisted other government officials in his efforts, including Gordon Sondland, the US's ambassador to the European Union, and Kurt Volker, the US's former special envoy in Ukraine.
Trump has led his party in aggressively fighting the charges and attacking the Democrats directing impeachment. On Tuesday, the president sent a scathing six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which he detailed his grievances, calling his expected impeachment "a perversion of justice and abuse of power."
"More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials," Trump wrote, referring to the infamous prosecutions and executions of those accused of witchcraft in the late 1600s.
The president argued that the American people will reject impeachment by voting for him and his party in next year's election.
"I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election," Trump wrote. "Your legacy will be that of turning the House of Representatives from a revered legislative body into a Star Chamber of partisan persecution."
The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial. If Trump is acquitted by the Republican-led chamber, as expected, he still would have to run for reelection carrying the enduring stain of impeachment on his purposely disruptive presidency.
He saw the blame flowing the other direction. He told a political rally in Michigan that “crazy Nancy Pelosi’s House Democrats have branded themselves with an eternal mark of shame.”
The votes were 230 for impeachment and 197 against on the first count, 229-198 on the second.
