Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has responded to Donald Trump’s call for the top US court to stop impeachment. “The president is not a lawyer,” she told the BBC in an exclusive interview, adding: “He’s not law trained.” In a wide-ranging conversation, she also said poor women were victims of restrictive abortion access.

The US president is expected to be impeached by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The House, controlled by the Democrats, accuses him of an abuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine. Impeachment is like an indictment – the charges will then be sent to the Republican-controlled Senate for a trial, where senators act like jurors. President Trump is expected to be acquitted there of the two charges he faces.

Earlier this month, the president suggested in a tweet that the Supreme Court could step in. “Radical Left has NO CASE. Read the Transcripts. Shouldn’t even be allowed. Can we go to Supreme Court to stop?” When the BBC’s Razia Iqbal asked the justice what her reading of the constitution was in this context, she replied: “The president is not a lawyer, he’s not law trained.”

Ms Ginsburg was talking to the BBC at an event where she was awarded the Berggruen Prize for philosophy and culture, which is awarded annually to someone whose ideas “have profoundly shaped human understanding and advancement”.(BBC)…[+]