Former US State Secretary Hillary Clinton has expressed support for the House of Representatives' decision to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a press briefing, said that the Democrat-controlled House was moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry into Trump over allegations that he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former US Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, in order to boost his own 2020 re-election bid.
"I did not come to that decision [to support Trump's impeachment] easily or quickly, but this is an emergency as I see it ... This latest behaviour around Ukraine, trying to enlist the president of Ukraine in a plot to undermine former Vice President Biden or lose the military aid he needs to defend against Trump's friend [Russian President] Vladimir Putin -- if that's not an impeachable offense, I don't know what is," Clinton told the People magazine.
Last week, US media reported, citing a whistleblower's complaint, that during a July phone call with Zelensky, Trump had urged the Ukrainian leader several times to cooperate with a corruption probe into Hunter Biden's business dealings with a gas company in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Trump said that the Democrats' investigation of his conversation with President Zelenskyy was a political witch hunt. At the same time, the White House reportedly agreed to provide to Congress by the end of the week both the whistleblower complaint over the call between the two leaders and the inspector general report, which could become the basis for launching the official impeachment inquiry.
Trump on Tuesday said he authorised the release of the full transcript of his telephone call with the Ukrainian president.