Evidence of Trump impeachment 'overwhelming'

The panel, leading the impeachment inquiry, found the evidence for impeaching US President Donald Trump for misconduct in office is "overwhelming". 

The president placed personal political interests "above the national interests of the United States", it states in a key report to House lawmakers, reports BBC. 

Trump tried to solicited foreign interference from Ukraine to boost his 2020 re-election chances, undermined national security and ordered an "unprecedented" campaign to obstruct Congress. 

The report is designed to lay out the case to remove Mr Trump from office. 

However, Trump denies any wrongdoing, and has described the inquiry as a hoax.

Before the draft report was released, the Republican president attacked the Democrat-led investigation as "very unpatriotic".

Following publication, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the Democrats "utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing" and that the report "reflects nothing more than their frustrations".

The report now goes to the House Judiciary Committee, which will begin proceedings on Wednesday and consider formal impeachment charges against Mr Trump.

What does the report say?

The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report was made public on Tuesday by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

It says the inquiry "uncovered a months-long effort by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election".

"President Trump's scheme subverted US foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in favour of two politically-motivated investigations that would help his presidential re-election campaign," it says.

"The president demanded that the newly-elected Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announce investigations into a political rival that he apparently feared the most, former Vice-President Joe Biden, and into a discredited theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election."

Evidence of misconduct is overwhelming "and so too is the evidence of his obstruction of Congress", the report says.