US House committee invites Trump to Dec. 4 impeachment hearing

The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Tuesday (local time) invited President Donald Trump or his counsel to participate in the panel's first impeachment inquiry hearing on December 4.

The hearing on December 4 will feature a panel of constitutional experts as witnesses as the committee announced that the hearing will be based on "constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment".

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said in the statement that the lawmakers' "first task is to explore the framework put in place to respond to serious allegations of impeachable misconduct like those against President Trump."

Nadler sent a letter to Trump on Tuesday notifying him of the hearing and inviting the President or his counsel to participate, including asking questions of the witnesses."I write to ask if ... you or your counsel plan to attend the hearing or make a request to question the witness panel," the New York Democrat wrote. In the letter, Nadler said the hearing would "serve as an opportunity to discuss the historical and constitutional basis of impeachment, as well as the Framers' intent and understanding of terms like 'high crimes and misdemeanors,'" CNN reported.

Nadler asked Trump to respond by Sunday on whether the White House wanted to participate in the hearings, as well as who would act as the President's counsel for the proceedings.

Adam Schiff, who heads the intelligence committee, wrote in a letter to lawmakers that his team is expected to complete the report as soon as Congress returns from Thanksgiving break.

After holding multiple hearings related to impeachment, the panel would debate and approve articles of impeachment before a vote on the House floor.

The impeachment inquiry was launched by the US House Democrats back in September after a phone call made by Trump to the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for allegedly asking to investigate the Former Vice President Joe Biden.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on President Trump to testify as part of the House's impeachment inquiry in the wake of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offering to let him speak with the panel. "Speaker Pelosi invited President Trump to come to testify, and I think her invitation is correct. If Donald Trump doesn't agree with what he's hearing, doesn't like what he's hearing, he shouldn't tweet. He should come to the committee and testify under oath, and he should allow all those around him to come to the committee and testify under oath," Schumer said during a press conference in New York.

( With inputs from ANI )