US President Donald Trump impeached by the House over Ukraine dealings

Washington: A defiant Donald Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine even as the US House of Representatives voted to impeach the President for abusing his power and obstructing Congress in a historic set of votes.

Wrangling between Democrats and Republicans has already begun over how to conduct the next stage of the impeachment process: a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate to determine whether Trump should be removed from office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces the passage of the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, against President Donald Trump.Credit: AP

Following the House votes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested she may delay transmitting the articles of impeachment to the Senate in a bid to gain more leverage for Democrats over the rules for the Senate trial.

Trump is only the third president in US history to be impeached, following Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868.

The House impeachment votes, which played out almost entirely along party lines, followed a day of impassioned debate in which Republicans and Democrats accused each other of undermining American democracy.

Speaking to supporters at a rally in Michigan as the House votes took place, Trump said that Democrats had cheapened the impeachment process and would pay a price at the next year's presidential election.

"There’s no crime," he said. "I’m the first person to ever get impeached and there’s no crime. I feel guilty. It’s impeachment lite."

He continued: "The country is doing better than ever before. We did nothing wrong. We have tremendous support in the Republican Party like we’ve never had before."

The House voted 230-197 of the first Article of Impeachment, which accused Trump of abuse of power.

It voted by 229-198 on the second article accusing him of obstruction of Congress.

Just two Democrats voted against the first article of impeachment while a third Democrat joined Republicans in the second vote. No Republicans voted in favour of impeachment, highlighting Trump's popularity within the party.

Pelosi said House members would be in dereliction of their duty to protect the constitution if they did not impeach Trump.

"It is tragic that the President’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary," Pelosi said. "He gave us no choice."

Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said: "What is at risk here is the very idea of America."

After the first vote Pelosi, who has tried to maintain a sombre atmosphere during the impeachment process, signalled to Democrats not to applaud the outcome.

She told reporters that she would wait and see the rules for a Senate trial before passing on the articles of impeachment.

"So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us," she said.

Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in September.Credit: AP

Republicans accused Democrats of overseeing a "shameful sham" and pursuing a "political vendetta" against the President.

One House Republicans compared Trump's impeachment to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour while another argued that Jesus Christ had received more justice before his crucifixion than the US President has in the impeachment process.

At one stage Republicans also rose to their feet and held a minute's silence to "honour the Americans who voted for Trump at the 2016 election".

A visibly rattled US President Donald Trump raved and ranted at a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, while the impeachment vote was taking place.Credit: AP

Trump faces no realistic prospect of having his presidency cut short given the composition of the Senate.

It would require around 20 Republican senators to vote against the President to achieve the two-thirds "super-majority" required to remove him from office.

The House result reflected the deep fissures in American society over both impeachment and Trump's presidency more broadly. Opinion polls have shown Democrats overwhelmingly supported impeachment while Republicans were adamantly opposed.

Independents have split evenly on whether Trump should be impeached or not.

The impeachment saga began in late September when it was revealed that a confidential whistleblower had filed a complaint accusing Trump of "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election".

The summary of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed the US President asking his counterpart to "do us a favour" and launch an investigation into Joe Biden, a potential 2020 rival.

Biden's son, Hunter, served on the board of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma when he was vice -president.

Trump also asked Zelensky to investigate debunked conspiracy theories about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.

At the time of the call, the White House was withholding almost $US400 million ($582 million) in military aid from Ukraine that had been approved by Congress.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement: "Today marks the culmination in the House of one of the most shameful political episodes in the history of our nation.

"Without receiving a single Republican vote, and without providing any proof of wrongdoing, Democrats pushed illegitimate articles of impeachment against the President through the House of Representatives."