Explained: What to know about the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump
Impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump move on to the next stage today, with an inquiry beginning in the House of Representatives.
It is the first public impeachment hearing in 20 years and only the third in the history of the modern presidency.
Here are some things to know about the investigation into whether Donald Trump sought to push Ukraine into investigating his domestic political rivals.
What is impeachment?
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body levels charges against a government official.
Impeachment does not in itself remove the official definitively from office; it is similar to an indictment in criminal law, and is essentially the statement of charges against the official.
This week's proceedings
This week the impeachment inquiry will hear from three witnesses who have privately testified that Mr Trump withheld military aid to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden.
1. William Taylor - top US diplomat in Ukraine.
He has told investigators that shortly after being approached for the job he learned of a sub foreign policy channel that he believed was undermining US national security interests.
2. George Kent - deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
In his testimony he detailed how Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, defied the conventional bipartisan approach toward US support for Ukraine in his effort to push for political investigations.
3. Marie Yovanovitch - former US ambassador to Ukraine.
Mr Trump's lawyer Mr Giuliani successfully pushed for her to be removed from this role in May after accusing her of failing to support Mr Trump's policies.
She testified that she was told to "watch my back" because Mr Giuliani and his associates saw her as an obstacle in achieving their own business interests.
What exactly happened?
It all centres around a phone call Mr Trump had with the Ukrainian president in July in which he asked President Volodymyr Zelensky for a "favour".
At the time of the call, nearly $400 million in US military aid had had already been suspended.
Advisers to Trump wanted the aid released because it was needed by Ukraine to fend off Russian aggression.
They also wanted a White House summit between the two leaders to show US support for the new government.
As one Army officer assigned to the National Security Council – Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman – testified, Trump was pressuring a foreign power that desperately needed America’s help in exchange for its willingness to target US citizens for the president’s personal gain.
“There was no doubt” about what Trump wanted, Vindman told Congress.
Trump has denied anything was wrong with the phone call, insisting it was “perfect.”
Since then, numerous testimonies have corroborated a narrative that Mr Trump pushed for the Ukrainian president to open an investigation into his 2020 rival Joe Biden.
If true, Democrats say it would mean the US president abused the power of his office to influence a foreign country to meddle in the 2020 election.
The view among Democrats is that it amounts to an impeachable offence with some comparing Mr Trump's actions to extortion.
Mr Trump has admitted speaking about Mr Biden with Ukraine's leader but insists he acted appropriately.
What next?
Once the intelligence committee has wrapped up its investigations and hearings, it will send a report and recommendations to the house judiciary committee, which will then draft any possible articles of impeachment.
That panel would then vote on them and present them to the full House.
A full House vote would likely happen quickly with the aim of wrapping up the House side of proceedings before the end of the year.
Impeachment does not force presidents out of office. It is more like a political black eye delivered by the House that kicks off a trial in the Senate.
If that happens, a group of House lawmakers - all Democrats - would act as prosecutors and argue the case before the Senate.
Trump and his legal team would have equal time to put on their defense, with the Senate acting as a kind of jury.
If at least two-thirds of the nation’s senators vote against Trump, he would be removed from office – a high bar in a Senate currently controlled by Republicans.
That is, however, an unlikely outcome because nearly all Senate Republicans are firmly behind the president.
At this point, only 16 of 47 Senate Democrats and independents publicly support impeaching the president.
There is every chance that Mr Trump could be impeached and go on to win a second term in office.
