(Photo: AP)

Washington (People’s Daily) -- The US House of Representatives has formally launched an impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday afternoon.

As a next step, six committees of the House of Representatives will continue to investigate President Trump's various alleged problems under the umbrella of impeachment investigations.

Over the past week, President Trump's alleged pressure on Ukraine to investigate the son of former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has led to a surge of calls within the Democratic camp for an impeachment investigation. Previously, the Democratic leadership, led by Speaker Pelosi, had been reluctant to launch the impeachment process, fearing it would affect their prospects in the 2020 election, even though a number of Democratic lawmakers had long called for an impeachment investigation.

Since last week, there have been numerous US media reports that a whistleblower within the US intelligence community had complained about the content of a summer phone call between Mr Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who Mr Trump allegedly pressed to investigate Biden's son.

President Trump has denied the claim. On Tuesday, Mr Trump, who was attending UN meetings in New York, also announced that his government would release a transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian President.

As for the impeachment process, the House investigation is only the first step. If the investigation can eventually propose impeachment articles, and the full House of Representatives votes pass any article, the sitting President will then be formally impeached. Next, the entire impeachment process will move to the Senate, which will hold a trial presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. In the trial, a small group of lawmakers from the House of Representatives will act as the prosecutor, the President will have his defense lawyers, and the Senate will serve as a jury.

If more than two-thirds of Senators agree that the articles of impeachment stand, the incumbent President is removed from office and the Vice President takes over. Currently, Republicans are the majority in the Senate, and no Republican Senator supports impeaching President Trump.

Only President Andrew Johnson in 1868 and President Bill Clinton in 1998 have gone through formal impeachment proceedings, and both were acquitted. In 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned early to avoid being formally impeached for his role in the Watergate scandal.