Democrats draft impeachment charges against President Donald Trump

The Democrats are drafting impeachment charges against Donald Trump ahead of a public House of Representatives hearing on Monday.

It comes as the White House said it would not take part in the panel's hearings and condemned the inquiry as "completely baseless."

Democrats met behind closed doors on Saturday to prepare for what could be the final week of their months-old impeachment inquiry.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee's were working through the weekend to sift through evidence against the Republican president.

They were working to draft formal charges, known as articles of impeachment, that the panel could recommend for a full House vote as early as Thursday.

A 55-page report was released on Saturday morning outlining what they see as the constitutional grounds on which articles of impeachment could be built.

In releasing the report, the panel's Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler, said impeachment was the only way to hold the Republican president to account.

"President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security, and corrupted our elections, all for personal gain," Mr Nadler said in a statement.

"The Constitution details only one remedy for this misconduct: impeachment."

The committee will hold a public hearing on Monday to consider evidence gathered in the inquiry.

Republicans have called for a full day of proceedings to examine their own evidence, including a 110-page report saying the inquiry had found no evidence of an impeachable offense.

On Friday, the White House told Mr Nadler it would not take part in the panel's hearings and condemned the inquiry as "completely baseless."

But Mr Trump has made it clear that his Lawyers will mount a defence if a trial is then held in the Senate.

Mr Nadler expressed his disappointment: "The American people deserve answers from President Trump."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, directed the committee to draw up the charges on Thursday after weeks of investigation into Mr Trump's request that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face the president in the 2020 US election.

Passage of formal charges in the Democratic-led House, now seen as all but certain, would lead to a trial in the Senate on whether to remove Mr Trump from office.

The Republicans who control the Senate have shown little sign of supporting Mr Trump's removal.

The Judiciary Committee is focused on two possible articles of impeachment that would accuse the president of abuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress for refusing to cooperate with investigating committees.

Democrats also need to settle the question of whether to draft a third article alleging obstruction of justice based on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the federal investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

"That's something that we'll decide this weekend," Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell told reporters on Friday.

The probe has focused on a July 25 telephone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open an investigation into Mr Biden and his son Hunter, and into a discredited theory promoted by Mr Trump and his allies that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 election.

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