Democrats Give Trump a Deadline for Deciding if He Wants to Defend Himself During Impeachment

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The White House has one week to decide to decide if it will participate in the impeachment inquiry hearings. In a Friday letter, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, informed Donald Trump that the committee will be considering obstruction of justice charges against the president, and that he must notify Congress by December 6 if he plans to mount a defense or call witnesses.

“Please provide the committee with notice of whether your counsel intends to participate, specifying which of the privileges your counsel seeks to exercise,” Nadler wrote. The letter comes after two weeks of explosive impeachment hearings in the House which included testimony from  Bill TaylorLt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill, and Gordon Sondland.

The House moved to begin impeachment proceedings against the president after news broke that Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter in exchange for foreign aid. 

dDespite confessing to the quid pro quo, Trump has continued to refer to the hearings as a “hoax” or a “witch hunt.” Impeachment hearings will resume on Wednesday.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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