Updated at 11:22 a.m. ET
House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Trump on Tuesday morning, charging him with abuse of power in the Ukraine affair and obstruction of Congress.
Read the articles of impeachment here.
The text recounts the findings of the House's investigation into Trump's dealings this year with Ukraine and, among other charges, says Trump "has betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections."
Those actions, the document says, "were consistent with President Trump's previous invitations of foreign interference in United States elections" — an allusion to the earlier imbroglio over Russia's attack on the 2016 election.
Democrats evidently decided to reference what they called this pattern of behavior and relevant prior events without making them the focus of the charges.
Instead the impeachment case centers on Trump's desire for concessions by Ukraine and what Democrats call his stonewalling in response to Congress' investigation.
The articles appeared 77 days after the House launched a formal inquiry into Trump's freezing of assistance to Ukraine and request to investigate his political rival. It marked only the fourth time in U.S. history that articles of impeachment have been introduced against a president.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Trump "consistently puts himself above the country" and the president's actions in the Ukraine affair left the House with no choice but to resort to the remedy prescribed in the Constitution for the most egregious wrongdoing by a president.
"We must be clear: No one — not even the president — is above the law," he said.
After it completes work on amending the articles, the Judiciary Committee is expected to send them to the full House for a vote on whether to impeach the president. Democrats control the majority.
If the chamber votes to impeach Trump, that would trigger a trial in the Senate — which is controlled by Trump's allies. Republicans in the upper chamber are expected to acquit Trump and permit him to keep his office.
The president wrote on Twitter that he rejected the premise of Democrats' case — he did not "pressure" his Ukrainian counterpart, Trump argued.