The US Congress House Judiciary Committee has invited President Donald Trump to its first impeachment hearing on December 4.
The Chairman of the committee, Jerrold Nadler, said Trump could either attend or “stop complaining about the process”.
Trump’s attendance would provide opportunity to question witnesses.
It would mark the next stage in the impeachment inquiry, which centres on a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In that call, President Trump was reported to have asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, currently oe of the front runners to be the Democratic candidate in next year’s presidential election, and his son Hunter Biden, who had previously worked for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
The probe is looking into whether Trump used the threat of withholding US military aid to pressure Ukraine into investigating the Bidens. The president has denied any wrongdoing and has called the inquiry a “witch hunt”.
Nadler said in a statement that he had written to Trump inviting him to the hearing in December.
“At base, the president has a choice to make,” Nadler said. “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.”
