The Latest on Impeachment Inquiry: House passes rules package for impeachment probe

WASHINGTON - Democrats have swept a rules package for their impeachment probe of President Donald Trump through a divided House, as the chamber's first vote on the investigation highlighted the partisan breach the issue has only deepened.

For only the fourth time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives has started a presidential impeachment inquiry. House committees are trying to determine if President Donald Trump violated his oath of office by asking a foreign country to investigate a political opponent.

A quick summary of the latest news:

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Democrats pushed a package of ground rules for their impeachment inquiry through a sharply divided House Thursday, the chamber's first formal vote in a fight that could stretch into the 2020 election year.

- A former top White House official testified Thursday in the House impeachment inquiry that he saw nothing illegal in President Donald Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian president that is at the center of the Democrat-led investigation.

- Only two Democrats broke ranks Thursday to oppose the House resolution that sets ground rules for the impeachment inquiry: freshman Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and 15-term veteran Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota. They complained that the process so far has been overly partisan and is further dividing the country.

NUMBERS THAT MATTER

In the first House vote focusing on impeachment, two Democrats broke ranks and voted against the measure. Both represent districts won by Trump in 2016: Peterson of Minnesota's 7th District, where Trump won by nearly 31 percentage points; and Van Drew of New Jersey's 2nd District, which Trump carried by nearly five points.

By 232-196, lawmakers have approved the procedures they'll follow as weeks of closed-door interviews with witnesses evolve into public committee hearings and - almost certainly - votes on whether the House should recommend Trump's removal.

All voting Republicans opposed the package. Every voting Democrat but two supported it.

Trump tweeted, "Now is the time for Republicans to stand together and defend the leader of their party against these smears."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says Democrats are abusing their power and discrediting democracy by "trying to impeach the president because they are scared they can't defeat him at the ballot box."

The California Republican is speaking out against a package of impeachment rules approved Thursday.

McCarthy says that ever since Donald Trump's election, Democrats have waged a "permanent campaign to undermine his legitimacy. They have predetermined the president's guilt. They have never accepted the voters' choice to make him president. So, for 37 days and counting, they have run an unprecedented, undemocratic and unfair investigation. This resolution only makes it worse."

McCarthy says Democrats are "using secret interviews and selective leaks" to portray Trump's legitimate actions as an impeachable offense. He is referring to the closed-door hearings in the House as Democrats gather evidence in the impeachment inquiry.

Ivanka Trump is quoting a letter from Thomas Jefferson to his daughter following the House near party-line vote approving rules for its impeachment inquiry into her father.

Ivanka Trump tweets "Some things never change, dad!" after quoting a portion of the Jefferson letter that talks about being surrounded by enemies and spies "catching and perverting every word that falls from my lips or flows from my pen, and inventing where facts fail them."

Ivanka Trump has generally avoided weighing in on the impeachment probe. The probe is focused on the president's effort to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and a potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, while the administration was withholding military aid to the Eastern European ally.

It's illegal to seek or receive foreign help in U.S. elections. Trump says he did nothing wrong.

The White House says the House vote approving rules for its impeachment inquiry has enshrined "unacceptable violations of due process into House rules."

Press secretary Stephanie Grisham says in a statement moments after the House vote that the process "is unfair, unconstitutional, and fundamentally un-American."

Grisham says President Donald Trump "has done nothing wrong" and that Democrats have an "unhinged obsession" with impeachment. Her statement was echoed by Trump's reelection campaign which accused Democrats of trying to legitimize their process after the fact.

Campaign manager Brad Parscale says: "Voters will punish Democrats who support this farce and President Trump will be easily re-elected."

A sharply divided House has approved the rules for its impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

Underscoring the gravity of the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over the chamber as it voted on the rules package.

The vote was a victory for majority Democrats, who will control the investigation in the House. It gives them the ability to curb the ability of Republicans to subpoena witnesses and of White House lawyers to present witnesses.

Republicans said the process was skewed against them and the White House.

The vote showed how neither side has budged in their fight over whether Trump's effort to squeeze Ukraine for dirt on his Democratic political foes merits forcing him from office.

Standing next to a large U.S. flag in the well of the House, Pelosi said the impeachment inquiry was necessary to defend the Constitution and prevent an abuse of power by Trump.

"The times have found each and every one of us in this room," Pelosi said. She urged lawmakers to vote in favor of the impeachment rules "to protect the Constitution of the United States. What is at stake in all of this is nothing less than our democracy."

The investigation is focused on Trump's efforts to push Ukraine to investigate his Democratic political opponents by withholding military aid and an Oval Office meeting craved by the country's new president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.