House Judiciary Committee announces first impeachment hearing, invites Trump to attend

Image: Jerry Nadler
Jerrold Nadler waits for U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen to testify to the House Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security on Capitol Hill on Dec. 20, 2018. Copyright Joshua Roberts Reuters file
By Dareh Gregorian with NBC News Politics
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The president has complained that he's been deprived of due process by the Democrats

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The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday announced it will hold its first public impeachment hearing next week, and invited President Donald Trump and his lawyers "to participate."

"I am hopeful that you and your counsel will opt to participate in the Committee's hearing, consistent with the rules of decorum and with the solemn nature before us," Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a letter announcing the hearing.

Nadler said the hearing, which will focus on "Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment," will take place on Dec. 4.

Nadler said the hearing comes as the inquiry enters "a new phase."

"Our first task is to explore the framework put in place to respond to serious allegations of impeachable misconduct like those against President Trump," Nadler said, adding that Trump, who has complained that the House is not giving him due process, "has a choice to make: he can take this opportunity to be represented in the impeachment hearings, or he can stop complaining about the process. I hope that he chooses to participate in the inquiry, directly or through counsel, as other Presidents have done before him."

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