Nancy Pelosi announces impeachment inquiry into Trump

The US faces its first impeachment inquiry against a president since the 1990s.

The United States is facing its first impeachment inquiry against a US president since Bill Clinton in the 1990s, in a move that holds significant risks for both the Democrats and for Donald Trump.

“The president must be held accountable, no-one is above the law,” Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said announcing a formal impeachment inquiry against Mr Trump.

“This week the president has admitted to asking the president of the Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically,” Ms Pelosi said. “The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonourable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of out national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. Therefore today I am announcing the House of Representatives will move forward with an official impeachment inquiry.”

The surprise move came after Ms Pelosi and moderate Democrats dropped their previous opposition to impeachment proceedings following the allegations that the president improperly pressured the Ukraine president to investigate his political opponent Joe Biden.

The calling of an impeachment inquiry is no guarantee that the Democrats will ultimately move for impeachment but it sets them on that formal course.

WATCH: Speaker Pelosi's full statement announcing an official impeachment inquiry against President Trump: "The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law."

Latest: https://t.co/q3Mx8Px0eU pic.twitter.com/7sr4T9rQDR

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 24, 2019

The White House attacked the move, saying Democrats’ “attacks on the President and his agenda are not only partisan and pathetic, they are in dereliction of their Constitutional duty.”

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WH statement on impeachment inquiry: Democrats' "attacks on the President and his agenda are not only partisan and pathetic, they are in dereliction of their Constitutional duty." pic.twitter.com/937dUWAdHb

— Andrew deGrandpre (@adegrandpre) September 24, 2019

Earlier, when told of the move at the UN where he is meeting with world leaders, Mr Trump replied “So the country is doing the best it’s ever done, and I just heard she’s likely to impeach.

“If she does that, they all say that that’s a positive for me for the election.”

The shock move came as Donald Trump authorised the release of the transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Mr Trump said the transcript will prove he did not pressure the president to investigate Mr Biden.

“(I) have authorised the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and unreacted transcript of my phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine,” Mr Trump tweeted Wednesday (AEST).

“You will see it was a totally appropriate call. NO pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a confutation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!”

Mr Trump has been under growing pressure to respond to media reports that he repeatedly pressured Mr Zelensky to investigate Mr Biden and his son Hunter Biden over their activities in Ukraine in when Mr Biden was Vice President. Democrats say that the president has committed an impeachable offence if he used his office to influence a foreign leader for domestic political advantage.

Mr Trump has confirmed that he held back almost $US400 million in military aid to Ukraine shortly before speaking with the president but has denied that it was a part of a quid pro quo deal with Mr Zelensky. Instead he says he held back the money temporarily because of concerns that the US was contributing much more aid than European nations to the Ukraine.

“My complaint has always been, and I’d withhold again and I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine because they’re not doing it,” Mr Trump said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will today announce an impeachment inquiry. Picture: AP.

Meanwhile the Democrat chairman of the house intelligence committee Adam Schiff said the whistleblower who triggered the controversy by filing a complaint about the president’s behaviour wants to speak with his committee.

“We’re in touch with counsel and look forward to the whistleblower’s testimony as soon as this week,” Mr Schiff said.

Democrats have been fighting to see the report compiled by the whistleblower, an unnamed intelligence officer, concerning an alleged ‘promise’ which the president made to a foreign leader.

Mr Trump’s announcement that he would release the transcript of the phone call came as the Democrats moved decisively towards impeachment proceedings for the first time.

The Democrat presidential frontrunner Mr Biden said he would call for the president’s impeachment if Mr Trump continued to stonewall attempts by Congress to investigate the issue.

“We have a president who believes there is no limit to his power,” Mr Biden said. He said pressuring a leader of another nation to investigate a political opponent was not the conduct of an American president but was an “abuse of power.”

“If we allow a president to get away with shredding the US constitution that will last forever,” he said.

Mr Biden said Congress would have no choice but to pursue impeachment if Mr Trump continued to obstruct its investigation. “That would be a tragedy but a tragedy of his own making.”

Speaking earlier, Mr Trump said of impeachment proceedings: “I think its ridiculous. It’s a witch hunt. I’m leading in the polls. They have no idea how they stop me. The only way they can get me is through impeachment. This has never happened to a president before.’

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia