US President Donald Trump joins NATO leaders at Winfield House, London on Tuesday for a summit to mark the alliance's 70th anniversary. Reports have suggested the mood is far from festive as some attendees feud over money and strategy. Photo: AFP

 

US President Donald Trump solicited foreign interference to boost his reelection chances, undermined national security and ordered an "unprecedented" campaign to obstruct Congress, Democrats said Tuesday in a report that lawmakers will use as the basis of any formal impeachment charges.

In the 300-page report, Democrats leading the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee leveled allegations of sweeping abuse of power by Trump, saying he used US military aid and the prospect of a White House visit to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to undertake investigations that would benefit Trump politically.

Republican Trump denies any wrongdoing and calls the inquiry a hoax.

The heart of the impeachment probe is whether Trump misused the power of his office to pressure Ukraine to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the 2020 election.

The public release of the report is a milestone in a weeks-long investigation into whether Trump should be removed from office over his dealings on Ukraine. It summarizes hours of private testimony and televised hearings in which former government officials described a months-long effort to pressure Ukraine to carry out the investigations sought by Trump in July.

The report's completions hand the process over to the House Judiciary Committee, which will now be responsible for drafting actual articles of impeachment should lawmakers decide to move forward. 

In the report, Democrats detail accusations that Trump obstructed their investigation, including refusing to provide documents and testimony from his top advisers, unsuccessful attempts to block career government officials from testifying and intimidation of witnesses.

The Democrats argue that "damage... will be long-lasting and potentially irrevocable if the President's ability to stonewall Congress goes unchecked."

Making their case to move forward with impeachment, the report said that "any future president will feel empowered to resist an investigation into their own wrongdoing, malfeasance, or corruption, and the result will be a nation at far greater risk of all three."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff described Trump as a "president who believes that he is beyond indictment, beyond impeachment, beyond any form of accountability and indeed above the law."