Impeachment hearing in Nov: Post

WASHINGTON, OCT 21: Impeachment hearings will begin shortly after the Congress election (November 3)'', House of Representatives Judici...

WASHINGTON, OCT 21: Impeachment hearings will begin “shortly after the Congress election (November 3)”, House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chairman Henry J. Hyde said as his top aides prepared for their first meeting with White House lawyers since the House approved the inquiry into whether President Bill Clinton should be removed from office.

Hyde gave no specific timetable for public hearings as his committee determines whether the allegations against Clinton in the Monica s Lewinsky matter warrant impeachment, says The Washington Post.

The daily, quoting sources close to the inquiry, said the current thinking was for such hearings to begin around November 16 in order to meet Hyde’s self-imposed December 31 deadline for wrapping up the investigation.

First, ground rules for the probe must be worked out between the two parties and with the White House. Today’s session with Clinton’s attorneys and the top judiciary aides was meant to be “a friendly discussion setting the ground rulesand procedures”, Hyde said.

The meeting, scheduled for this afternoon will include White House counsel Charles F C Ruff, special counsel Gregory Craig and top aids to both Hyde and the judiciary committee’s ranking democrat John Conyvers Jr.

Hyde, who will not participate, said his aides will see whether the White House would agree to certain facts outlined in independent counsel Kenneth W Starr’s report to Congress. But the meeting, committee sources said, is expected to focus more on determining the level of participation By White house attorneys in the probe than on reaching agreement about contested facts.