A majority of US Democrats in the House of Representatives now want the impeachment proceedings against Republican President Donald Trump to begin.

On Friday, Salud Carbajal became the 118th lawmaker out of 235 House Democrats to publicly say he favored the start of an impeachment inquiry.

“In the past few years, our nation has seen and heard things from this president that have no place in our democracy,” Carbajal said in a statement.

Trump “evaded truth, encouraged his staff to lie repeatedly to investigators and engaged in obstruction,” he said.

“I believe it is time to open an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump,” added the California representative.

This follows a report compiled by former special counsel Robert Mueller on accusations of collaboration between Trump’s election campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election that was won by Trump.

Mueller, who testified to Congress last week, said he would not exonerate Trump from allegation of obstructing justice in the case, although the report failed to directly blame the head of state for such wrongdoing during his electioneering.

He accused Trump of not always being truthful, called his support for the 2016 release of stolen Democratic emails “problematic” and said Russia would again try to interfere in the 2020 US elections.

In July 2016, the WikiLeaks website released about 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which showed that party leaders had purportedly sought to undermine the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on Friday, saying that the president “will be held accountable” and that in America, “no one is above the law.”

“We owe it to our children to ensure that no present or future president can dishonor the oath of office without being held accountable,” she said.

On Sunday, five more lawmakers joined the long list of legislators pressing for an impeachment inquiry against Trump.

The Hill carried the report, identifying the quintet as Derek Kilmer, Kim Schrier, Suzan DelBene, and Denny Heck from the House as well as Patty Murray from the Senate.

The representatives all cited a report compiled by former special counsel Robert Mueller on accusations of collaboration between Trump’s election campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election that was won by Trump.

Source: Presstv