Impeachment effort a coup: Trump

WASHINGTON, Oct 02 (Agencies): President Donald Trump is escalating his rhetoric against the impeachment investigation being led by House Democrats.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump says he has come to the conclusion that the inquiry is not really an impeachment, "it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People."

In fact, a coup is usually defined as a sudden, violent and illegal seizure of government power. The impeachment process is laid out in the U.S. Constitution.

Trump has been particularly active on Twitter since the impeachment movement gained steam.

Trump claims in his latest tweets that the impeachment drive is aimed at blocking his agenda of protecting the Second Amendment, building a border wall and preserving religious freedom, among other things.

The State Department's inspector general is set to hold congressional briefings on Ukraine.

Staff from House and Senate committees are expected to hear Wednesday from the inspector general, who will brief them on documents Congress has requested from the State Department about Ukraine.

That's according to a Republican aide unauthorized to discuss the briefing and speaking on condition of anonymity.

The aide said staff from the foreign relations, appropriations, intelligence and oversight panels in both houses have been invited to the briefing.

The panels have requested documents and information about Ukraine, which has been central to the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration's former envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, has confirmed he will speak to three House committees behind closed doors on Thursday.

That's according to a House official familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the US military said on Wednesday it had tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with reentry vehicle from a base in California across the Pacific Ocean. Launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:13 am local time (0813 GMT) the reentry vehicle traveled approximately 4,200 miles (6,750km) across the Pacific Ocean to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the Air Force Global Strike Command said in a statement.

"The test demonstrates that the United States' nuclear deterrent is robust, flexible, ready and appropriately tailored to deter twenty-first century threats and reassure our allies," it said.