Washington: The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has invited President Donald Trump to its first impeachment hearing, scheduled for December 4, starting a new phase of the inquiry that could lead to formal charges against the president within weeks.
Trump is not required to attend the hearing. But the move allows the president and his legal team access to congressional impeachment procedures that he and other Republicans have denounced as unfair, partly because the White House has not been able to call or cross-examine witnesses.