The process of impeaching President Donald Trump has formally moved to the next stage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said.
She added that “the president leaves us no choice but to act” as she said the House of Representatives was moving forward to draft articles of impeachment.
Ms Pelosi argued that “no one is above the law” and Mr Trump’s actions were a “violation of the public trust and constitution”.
Democrats are pushing towards a vote on removing the president, possibly before Christmas.
Responding to the announcement, Donald Trump said his political rivals were trying to impeach him “over nothing”.
“This will mean that the beyond important and seldom used act of Impeachment will be used routinely to attack future Presidents,” he said.
He added: “The good thing is that the Republicans have NEVER been more united. We will win!”
It comes after he told Democrats earlier on Thursday that if they are going to impeach him “do it now, fast”, saying he wants to expose “how corrupt our system is”.
Writing on Twitter before the announcement, the US president claimed his political rivals “have no impeachment case and are demeaning our country”.
“But nothing matters to them, they have gone crazy,” he added.
“Therefore I say, if you are going to impeach me, do it now, fast, so we can have a fair trial in the Senate, and so that our country can get back to business. “
Mr Trump claimed an impeachment trial would reveal” for the first time how corrupt our system really is ” .
“I was elected to ‘clean the swamp,’ and that’s what I am doing!”, He tweeted.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the Democrats should be “ashamed” and argued the president had “done nothing but lead our country – resulting in a booming economy, more jobs and a stronger military”.
The impeachment articles could be voted on over the next two weeks and if a simple majority of the House votes in favor, the president will be formally impeached.
If this happens, there will be a trial in the Senate to decide if he should be removed from office.
The announcement came the day after the House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing in the inquiry, during which three of the four witnesses alleged Mr Trump had committed impeachable offences.
A fourth expert warned against rushing the process and said the impeachment proceedings had the “thinnest” record of evidence in modern
Ms Pelosi met behind closed doors with her Democratic caucus on Wednesday when she asked: “Are you ready?”, the Associated Press news agency reported.
The answer was a resounding yes, people in the room told AP.
Democratic Rep Steve Cohen, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN he believes the articles of impeachment will include the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The party has claimed Mr Trump used his position to solicit foreign interference to boost his chances of re-election next year.
In its impeachment reportreleased earlier this week, Democrats say that not only did the president seek overseas help for his re-election campaign, but that he undermined national security in doing so .
The report said there was evidence that Mr Trump had conducted a “month’s long effort” to “use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election “.
During Congress impeachment hearings, Mr Trump was ac cused of trying to put political pressure on Ukraine to dig up dirt on the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
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Democrats say that Mr Trump used the offer of military aid and the prospect of a visit to the White House to encourage the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to find information that would politically benefit his election campaign next year.
Laying out their impeachment case against the president, the party has argued Mr Trump “placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States”.
They add that the president has made an “unprecedented” effort to obstruct the investigation after he refused to provide testimony from himself, or his advisers.
The president has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
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