President Trump questioned: House Speaker: The president did actions amount to bribery

President Donald Trump has admitted to taking actions that amount to bribery in what is now Ukraine's scandal, the centerpiece of the Democratic-led probe to hold Trump accountable in the House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday.

Pelosi told a news conference that "bribery is the granting or withholding of military aid in exchange for a public statement on a false investigation in the elections."

Democrats are investigating whether the US president abused his powers by withholding $ 391 million in security assistance to Ukraine as a way to pressure Kiev to investigate former US Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was a Ukrainian energy company.

The basis of accountability
The US congressional probe focuses on a July 25 phone call by Trump, asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky to open a corruption probe with Biden and his son, and Joe Biden, one of the most likely Democratic candidates to contest Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

President Trump denies any wrongdoing against Ukraine, saying that what Democrats are doing is the biggest political hunt in US history, and Republicans in the House of Representatives have attacked parliamentary inquiries and called it a play.

Pelosi compared Trump's actions to the actions of former US president Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal, which led to him being the only US president to resign in 1974.

The speaker said Trump's move to ask for help from a foreign power in the US election and to block information about it, which she called Tetra, "makes what Nixon has done seems minimal."

Pivotal certificate
Another key figure in parliamentary accountability hearings, former US ambassador to Kiev Marie Jovanovich, will testify on Friday, which Trump suddenly sacked from her post in May.

Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was working to persuade Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son.

Jovanovic told the House of Representatives in a closed-door session on October 11 that Trump had sacked her on the basis of "fabricated and unfounded allegations of suspiciously motivated people" after she was attacked by Giuliani. The article also dismissed claims by Trump's allies that her loyalty was not his, and said she did not know why Giuliani was motivated by the attack.

Acting US ambassador to Ukraine Lean Taylor and George Kent, US assistant secretary of state for European affairs, testified on Wednesday at the first televised hearing of the investigation threatening the Trump presidency.

CNN reported Thursday that statistics showed that 13.1 million viewers watched the first public hearings of Trump's parliamentary accountability.

If the House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats, agrees to make formal accusations against Trump, the Senate will have to hold hearings to determine whether he should be convicted and removed from office. Republicans who control the Senate have shown little support for Trump's removal.