Pelosi told Dems she'd like Trump 'in prison': Report

Donald Trump should be sent to "prison," US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told fellow Democrats in a closed-door meeting about whether to launch impeachment proceedings against the president, Politico reported Thursday.

Pelosi, Trump's political nemesis in Congress, has long stated she is not ready to proceed with what would be a deeply divisive impeachment action, and that she would prefer to see the president defeated at the ballot box next year.

But in a meeting late Tuesday with House committee chairmen, she clashed with House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler over whether to kick off an impeachment inquiry, using language that ramped up the rhetoric surrounding top Democrats and Trump.

"I don't want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison," Pelosi said, according to Politico, which cited multiple Democratic sources familiar with the meeting.

Pelosi prefers to see Trump lose the 2020 election and then face prosecution for his alleged crimes, the sources told the US media outlet.

Many Democrats say they believe Trump broke the law by allegedly seeking to obstruct investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.

He is also accused of paying pre-election hush money to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, and of violating constitutional prohibitions on presidents receiving financial benefits from foreign governments.

But Pelosi has argued that launching an impeachment inquiry should only be done if there is sufficient public support and significant bipartisan backing.

Polls show a majority of Americans currently oppose impeachment, and to date only one House Republican has expressed support for removing the president.

Pelosi has toughened her language about the president in recent weeks. She has said Trump "is engaged in a cover-up" and that his staff and family should stage an intervention with the president.

She has also sought to project unity within her Democratic Party on the path forward regarding impeachment.

"Make no mistake, we know exactly what path we're on," she told reporters Wednesday. "We know exactly what actions we need to take."