Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that the House of Representatives will begin drafting impeachment articles against President Trump.

During a press conference on Capitol Hill, Pelosi said of Trump:

"The facts are uncontested. The president abused his power for his own political benefit at the expense of our national security, by withholding military aid and a crucial Oval Office meeting in exchange for an announcement for an investigation into his political rival."

Watch world leaders 'gossiping' about Donald Trump in this video:

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The New York Times reports the congresswoman as stating:

“Our democracy is what is at stake. The president leaves us no choice but to act because he is trying to corrupt, once again, the election for his own benefit.”

And President Trump has told Democrats to move fast if they plan to impeach him. Shortly before Speaker Pelosi's statement he tweeted:

"The Do Nothing Democrats had a historically bad day yesterday in the House. They have no Impeachment case and are demeaning our Country. But nothing matters to them, they have gone crazy. Therefore I say, if you are going to impeach me, do it now, fast, so we can have a fair...."

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".....trial in the Senate, and so that our Country can get back to business. We will have Schiff, the Bidens, Pelosi and many more testify, and will 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!"

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The House has delivered its articles of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate, marking the beginning of the first Senate trial of the former president.

In a ceremonial procession across the US Capitol, nine House impeachment managers carried an impeachment charge against Trump.

Representative Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager and a constitutional law scholar, stood before the Senate and formally told the 100-member body that the managers were prepared to leave the prosecution of the former president.

In the video below, Trump addresses his second impeachment: 

"Donald John Trump engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors by inciting violence against the government of the United States," he said, reading the article aloud.

The delivery and formal reading of the charge marks the beginning of the former president's second impeachment trial.

Last week, Senate leaders agreed to delay proceedings for two weeks in order to give the chamber time to consider President Biden's nominations and for Trump's defense to prepare their case.

Biden told CNN Trump's trial "has to happen" on Monday, even though it is unlikely that Trump will be convicted by his fellow Republicans.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the Senate president pro tempore, presided from behind the dais during the trial - a job that was previously occupied by chief justice John Roberts during Trump's first impeachment.

The chief justice of the supreme court must oversee the trial of a president, according to the constitution, however, it is unclear who should preside over the proceedings when they center around other individuals, including former presidents.

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Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, only recently reclaimed the title, reserved for the longest-serving senator in the majority party, the Guardian reports, after the Democrats reclaimed control of the Senate earlier this year.

Leahy voted to convict Trump on the following two counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

In a statement on Monday, Raskin said the managers were prepared to "present overwhelming evidence of the facts" that the speech Trump gave outside the White House on January 6 prompted the violence which took place later that day.

Leahy vowed in a statement on Monday that he would "not waver from my constitutional and sworn obligations to administer the trial with fairness, in accordance with the constitution and the laws".

The House is moving forward with a historic impeachment vote against Donald Trump a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol building.

As per CBS News, if the vote goes through successfully, it will mean make Trump the only president in US history to have been impeached twice.

The article, which has been backed by more than 200 Democrats, accuses the outgoing president of "incitement of insurrection," and says he "gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government."

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In a recent update, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has told reporters that The House will immediately send the ratified impeachment article against Donald Trump over to the Senate on Wednesday, The Independent reports.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released a statement on Tuesday which said the president "committed a high Crime and Misdemeanor against the Nation by inciting an insurrection at the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election."

There has also been division within the Republican party itself, with prominent members breaking from the president.

They include Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House, who said that she will vote to impeach Trump.

In a statement on Tuesday, Cheney said: "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."

Seth Meyers discusses a looming impeachment for Trump: 

Following the presidential election on November 3, President Trump repeatedly voiced unfounded claims of widespread electoral fraud in a bid to overturn the result.

When the House and Senate convened for a joint session to count states' electoral votes, Trump told supporters outside the White House to "fight like hell" to protect their country.

Prior to today's events, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had urged Mike Pence to enact the 25th Amendment and begin the impeachment process himself, but he wrote the following letter to say that he would not do so.

As per CBC news, proceedings kicked off shortly before 9:30AM this morning and will lead up to the vote to charge Trump with incitement of insurrection.

While last week's events at the Capitol have been condemned by Democrats and Republicans, GOP lawmakers have argued that if Trump is impeached, it will only serve to further divide the country.

"The majority of the House is choosing to divide us further," Republican Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma said in remarks on the House floor. "I can think of no action the House can take that is more likely to further divide the American people than the action we are contemplating today."

In response to the looming impeachment, President Trump said on Tuesday (January 12), that efforts to impeach him are causing "tremendous anger" throughout the United States.

Per ABC News, when speaking to reporters outside the White House before heading to the US-Mexico border in Texas, the outgoing president dismissed plans of his impeachment by House Democrats as "ridiculous".

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"As far as this is concerned, we want no violence. Never violence," Trump said. "On the impeachment, it’s really a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

"This impeachment is causing tremendous anger, and you're doing it, and it’s really a terrible thing that they’re doing," he added.

That being said, CNN has reported that "Trump has nothing on his schedule and lacks a comprehensive legal strategy" in response to today's proceedings.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak write: "Aides expect Trump to mostly watch the proceedings on television throughout the day. But without Twitter, a campaign rally, a team of lawyers or Republicans willing to defend his actions, Trump is set to weather the historic shaming in subdued fashion."

The US House of Representatives has voted to formally proceed with the impeachment inquiry of the President, Donald Trump.

The vote, which went mostly along party lines at 232 to 196, was the first real test of Democrat support for impeachment. The measure is not a vote on whether to impeach the President, writes the BBC, but rather detailed how the inquiry will become a more public undertaking.

Per the BBC, two Democrats voted against the resolution, which has been roundly condemned by the White House.

The impeachment inquiry stems from President Trump's dealings with Ukraine - he is accused of attempting to pressure the nation into investigating corruption claims against political rival Joe Biden, as well as Biden's son.

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In a statement issued after the vote, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said;

“The President has done nothing wrong, and the Democrats know it. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ unhinged obsession with this illegitimate impeachment proceeding does not hurt President Trump; it hurts the American people...

“With today’s vote, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats have done nothing more than enshrine unacceptable violations of due process into House rules. ... The Democrats want to render a verdict without giving the Administration a chance to mount a defense. That is unfair, unconstitutional, and fundamentally un-American.”

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Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, appears to have responded to the day's events by quoting Thomas Jefferson. She took to Twitter to write;

"“…surrounded by enemies and spies catching and perverting every word that falls from my lips or flows from my pen, and inventing where facts fail them.” -Thomas Jefferson’s reflections on Washington, D.C. in a letter to his daughter Martha. Some things never change, dad!"

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NBC News reports that it's anticipated Democrats will begin holding public hearings in order to present testimony against the President.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to write, "The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!"

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In the midst of the ongoing battle over the redacted Mueller report, Donald Trump has asserted executive privilege this week.

Last month, Attorney General William P. Barr released a redacted version of the special counsel's 448-page report, but many Democrats have been fighting to see the full version. Barr has been accused of refusing to give in to a legitimate request for material needed to carry out an investigation into any possible obstruction of justice or abuses of power by Trump.

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The House Judiciary Committee planned to vote Wednesday morning, deciding whether to hold Barr in contempt of Congress for denying a subpoena for the material. Following the announcement of this vote last Tuesday, the Justice Department threatened to ask the President to invoke executive privilege over the hidden portions of the report and all related evidence.

In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Barr's deputy, Stephen E. Boyd, wrote:

“In the face of the committee’s threatened contempt vote, the attorney general will be compelled to request that the president invoke executive privilege with respect to the material subject to the subpoenas.

"I hereby request that the committee hold the subpoena in abeyance and delay any vote on whether to recommend a citation of contempt for noncompliance with the subpoena, pending the president’s determination of this question.”

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Following this threat, Representative Jerrold Nadler said that the department's position had no "credibility, merit or legal or factual basis" in response. “In the coming days, I expect that Congress will have no choice but to confront the behavior of this lawless administration,” Nadler said last week. “The committee will also take a hard look at the officials who are enabling this cover-up.”

On Wednesday morning, Boyd wrote another statement relating to the evidence sought by the Democratic party. “This is to advise you that the president has asserted executive privilege over the entirety of the subpoenaed materials,” he said. In addition to this, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement on the administration's position.

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“The American people see through Chairman Nadler’s desperate ploy to distract from the President’s historically successful agenda and our booming economy," she wrote. "Neither the White House nor Attorney General Barr will comply with Chairman Nadler’s unlawful and reckless demands."