Updated 11:47 PM EST, Wed December 18, 2019
Donald Trump has become the third president in US history to be impeached.
The House of Representatives voted almost entirely along party lines — 230-197-1 — to charge Trump with abuse of power, and it followed it up with a 229-198-1 vote to charge Trump with obstruction of Congress.
The votes mark the culmination of a rapid three-month inquiry into allegations that the President pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals while withholding a White House meeting and $400 million in US security aid. Democratic leaders said the President also obstructed the investigation into his misconduct with a blanket blockade of subpoenas, refusing to allow key senior officials to testify before Congress.
Trump has said he did nothing wrong in his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that there was "no pressure whatsoever." He has called the impeachment inquiry "the greatest hoax," lashing out at Democrats, the media and the anonymous whistleblower who submitted a complaint to the intelligence inspector general.
Now that the House has impeached Trump, the Republican-controlled Senate will hold a trial to consider whether he should be convicted and removed from office.
Photographer David Butow was in Washington to document the atmosphere on this historic day.
