President Donald Trump will be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, in the process becoming only the third among 45 U.S. presidents since 1776 to suffer this ignominy.

Trump's impeachment by the House, which is controlled by the opposition Democratic Party, was ensured last week when the House Judiciary Committee led by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) on Friday voted to advance the articles of impeachment against Trump by a 23 to 17 straight party-line vote. The articles of impeachment were then sent to the House for a full House vote on Dec. 18.

Democrats accuse Trump of pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden, Trump's political rival and his son, Hunter. They also charge Trump president obstructed their investigation by refusing to comply with subpoenas and directing members of his administration to do the same.

"Today is a solemn and sad day," said Nadler after his committee voted to advance the articles of impeachment. "For the third time in a little over a century and a half, the House Judiciary Committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president."

The committee separately approved the two articles of impeachment on votes of 23 to 17. No members crossed party lines. One Democrat was absent for medical reasons.

Democrats control the House with 233 seats as against 197 Republicans and one independent. It's known all Democrats will vote for impeachment, along with the lone independent, but all Republican Congressmen will vote against it. It will only take a simple majority in the 435-member House to impeach Trump.

After Trump is impeached, the House will send the articles of impeachment to the Republican-controlled Senate for a trial. Out of the 100 senators, 53 are Republicans, 45 Democrats, and two Independents that vote with Democrats. The U.S. Constitution provides that two-thirds of all senators find Trump guilty for him to be removed from office. This outcome is impossible since at least 20 Republicans will have to vote with all Democrats and the two independents to remove Trump.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) admitted in an interview he was coordinating closely with the White House on impeachment and there was "zero chance" Trump would be removed from office.

The abuse of power charge accuses Trump of freezing nearly $400 million in U.S. security aid to Ukraine. It also accuses Trump of offering a White House meeting to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to get him to publicly announce investigations of Joe and Hunter Biden, who was formerly on the board of a Ukrainian gas company named Burisma.

Trump also asked Ukraine to investigate a patently false and debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

The obstruction charge against Trump is based on his directives to current and former administration officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting White House chief-of-staff Mick Mulvaney and Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry and to defy House subpoenas.