US President, Donald Trump Impeached

President Donald Trump has been impeached by the US house of representatives at a time he was addressing a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan.

The lower chamber of the congress found him guilty of abuse of office in the Ukrainian affair in which he was accused of seeking foreign interference in US politics — an impeachable of offence.

Trump will remain in office until he is tried and convicted by the senate, a scenario considered unlikely because his Republican party has control of the upper chamber.

If he remains in office after the senate trial that is expected to take place after the winter break in January, Trump will be joining a rare group of two other American presidents — Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton — who were impeached. Both were saved the hammer by the senate.

In a vote that was very partisan, 229 Democrats voted to find Trump guilty while 197 Republicans sought to absolve him.

A second vote on “obstruction of congress” will follow.

At about 8:30pm local time (02:30am in Nigeria), the house called for votes on the two charges: first, abuse of power, stemming from Mr Trump’s alleged attempt to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into his Democratic political rival, Joe Biden; and second, obstruction of Congress, because the president allegedly refused to co-operate with the impeachment inquiry, withholding documentary evidence and barring his key aides from giving evidence.

Details later…