U.S. House Democrats seek impeachment vote before Christmas

U.S. President Donald Trump will not attend the House Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment hearing, The Washington Post reported Monday. Democrats in the House are apparently speeding up the process to conclude an impeachment vote before Christmas.

The notice has been issued by the White House that Trump will not participate in the first hearing scheduled for Wednesday. “I will be representing our country in London at NATO, while the Democrats are holding the most ridiculous Impeachment hearings in history,” Trump tweeted Sunday.

According to The Washington Post, White House counsel Pat A. Cipollone sent the House Judiciary Committee a five-page letter in which he said that “the invitation from Chairman Jerrold Nadler ‘does not begin to provide the President with any semblance of a fair process.’” The president’s counsels also will not attend the hearing. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to vote on the impeachment inquiry report on Tuesday while the House Judiciary Committee will start drafting articles on Wednesday.

Still, Trump may choose to attend future hearings. Members of the House Judiciary Committee will have two weeks to analyze the reports on the Ukraine scandal and review whether the alleged evidence could serve as reasons for an impeachment. Additional hearings will take place during this process, and if Trump himself expresses an intent, he will have a chance to explain his stance.

On Nov. 18, Trump tweeted that “Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to this No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it.” However, as not a few Republicans believe that the president testifying at the House-led hearings will do more harm than good, it remains to be seen whether he will join the future process. Chairman Nadler told Trump that he had until Friday to notify the committee whether he would attend.


Ji-Sun Choi aurinko@donga.com