Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) on Wednesday formally introduced an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump, The Hill reported.

The article of impeachment accuses the president of obstructing justice during the federal investigation of Russia’s 2016 election interference.

This is the first time a lawmaker has offered an impeachment article against Trump, and comes as Democrats have debated whether it is politically wise to press the case for impeachment at this time.

However, a majority vote in the House, currently controlled by Republicans, is required to impeach a president. The Republicans have a 46-seat advantage.

Sherman argues that Trump’s abrupt firing of James Comey as FBI director in May amounts to obstructing justice and "high crimes and misdemeanors" amid the probes of whether Trump's campaign colluded with the Russian government to swing the election.

He cites Comey’s allegations that Trump pressured him to drop the FBI’s investigation into ousted former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as Trump’s shifting story on why he fired Comey.

White House officials initially pointed to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s memo criticizing Comey’s handling of the FBI’s investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Trump later said in an NBC News interview the Russia probe was on his mind when deciding to fire Comey.

“In all of this, Donald John Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, Donald John Trump, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office,” the article of impeachment states, according to The Hill.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders slammed the move.

“I think that is utterly and completely ridiculous and a political game at its worst," she told reporters Wednesday at an off-camera briefing, according to The Hill.

Sherman’s come follows the latest developments in the Russian election meddling saga. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., released an email chain showing that he agreed to meet with someone he believed to be a "Russian government attorney" last summer after receiving an email offering him "very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. released the emails in the wake of a New York Times report that he, along with then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, met with the lawyer.

Trump’s son told Fox News in an interview which aired Tuesday that he never informed his father of the meeting with the lawyer and added that the meeting was "a nothing".

"I wouldn’t have even remembered it until you started scouring through this stuff. It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame," he added.