Donald Trump impeachment bid launched by Democrat

A California Democrat has filed an article of impeachment against US President Donald Trump.

Representative Brad Sherman filed the long-shot bid to remove the president from office on Wednesday.

In it, he accuses Mr Trump of obstructing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, in part by firing former FBI director James Comey.

Mr Sherman acknowledges that filing the article is “the first step on a very long road”.

“But if the impulsive incompetency continues, then eventually – many, many months from now – Republicans will join the impeachment effort,” Mr Sherman said in a statement.

The effort has little chance of success in the Republican-led House. Mr Sherman does not even have the backing of many fellow Democrats.

Democratic leaders have distanced themselves from the efforts to impeach Mr Trump, believing it serves only to energise the president’s supporters. Mr Sherman’s resolution has one co-sponsor, fellow Democrat Al Green of Texas.

Mr Sherman filed the article a day after the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, acknowledged that he met with a Russian lawyer during the campaign. The lawyer promised damaging information from the Russian government about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump Jr said he received no information about Mrs Clinton at the meeting.

The president has questioned his own intelligence agencies and whether the Russians actually interfered in the election.

However, federal authorities say they have definitive evidence that the Kremlin meddled in the US presidential election.