Congress approves options for probe aimed at Trump impeachment

“With these new procedures, we will begin next week an aggressive series of hearings investigating allegations of corruption, obstruction and abuse of power against the president,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told reporters after a 24-17 vote along party lines.

A more aggressive probe could also increase pressure on House Democratic leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has resisted impeachment of Trump as a politically risky step for moderate Democratic freshmen from swing districts where ousting the president is an unpopular idea.

“Democrats have never gotten over the fact that I won the Election very fairly,” Trump said in a statement posted to his Facebook page hours after the vote.

“If they go down the path of impeachment they will be dividing the nation! So ridiculous to even be talking about this subject when all of the crimes were committed by the other side,” the president said.

Trump and his Republicans allies charge that former U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s possible collusion stemmed from an earlier effort to sink his candidacy, and later his presidency, by former officials at the Justice Department.