The House of Representatives of the United States has invited on Tuesday the president of the country, Donald Trump, to participate in a view of the impeachment process scheduled for December 4, at the beginning of a new phase in the proceedings against him.
The Judicial Committee of the lower house – one of the three involved in the impeachment process – has published a statement in which it has detailed that the hearing, the first in this body of the House of Representatives, will take place at 10.00 (local time).
“The president (of the committee, Jarrold Nadler) has also sent today a letter to President Trump reminding him of his right and that of his lawyers to come to view,” he said.
Nadler has stressed that “the investigation of the ‘impeachment’ has entered a new phase” and added that “the main task is to exploit the framework in force to respond to serious accusations of conduct …. such as those against Trump” .
“I have written to Trump to remind him that the rules of the investigation of an ‘impeachment’ on the committee allow the president to come to the hearing and have his lawyer question the panel of witnesses,” he added.
“Thus, the president has a choice to make: he can take this opportunity to be represented in the impeachment views or stop complaining about the process,” Nadler said.
In this regard, he expressed his desire that the president “choose to participate in the investigation, directly or through a lawyer, as other presidents have done before him.”
In his letter, Nadler reminded Trump that the deadline to notify his participation in the hearing is December 1 at 6:00 p.m. (local time). “By that date, I ask you to also indicate who will act as your lawyer for these procedures,” he added.
“I remind you that the participation of the president or his lawyers has been described by the committee in past investigations’ not as a right, but as a privilege or courtesy that extends to the president’s lawyer.”
“I hope that you and your lawyer choose to participate in the committee’s view, in line with the rules of decorum and with the solemn nature of the work before us,” he stressed.
Finally, he “reminded” that “if you continue to refuse to present witnesses and available documents before the jurisdiction of the committee, according to resolution 660, ‘the president (of the committee) will have the power to take appropriate remedies.”
TRUMP BROMEA ON THE PROCEDURES
For his part, Trump has taken advantage of the act to ‘forgive’ two turkeys on the occasion of Thanksgiving to joke about the investigations, as reported by the Reuters news agency.
The president has stressed that the animals ‘Butter’ and ‘Bread’, have been taught to remain calm “under any conditions.” “This is important, because they have already received subpoenas to appear Thursday in the basement of Adam Schiff,” he added.
Schiff is the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee and has become the focus of Trump’s criticism since the beginning of investigations into his controversial telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelenski.
Thus, Trump has added that “unlike previous witnesses,” with ‘Pan’ and ‘Butter’ “he has come to meet,” referring to repeated criticisms against the impossibility of his attorneys handing witnesses in the audiences
The preliminary impeachment or impeachment process against Trump is based on his alleged pressures on Zelenski for that country to investigate Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
