President Donald Trump in a tweet early Monday lashed out at Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Trump attacked a paraphrased version of his controversial call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky which Schiff gave at a hearing last week.

Trump claims that the statement was presented as his precise words — even though Schiff described it as "the essence" of Trump's meaning rather than his words.

He said Schiff's statement "bore NO relationship to what I said on the call", then wrote "Arrest for Treason?"

It is not clear what grounds a treason case may have. Treason is only applicable against those who betray the US to a nation it is formally at war with. Nobody in the US has been convicted of treason since the 1940s.

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President Donald Trump in a tweet early Monday suggested that Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who has led a congressional probe into a whistleblowers' complaint about the president, should be arrested for treason.

"Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?" tweeted Trump.

The tweet refers to remarks made by Schiff last Thursday in his role as chairman of the intelligence committee, in which he paraphrased a call Trump made with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The call is the subject of a complaint by a whistleblower, who reported that Trump had asked the Ukrainian leader to probe Democrat Joe Biden, a leading contender for the 2020 presidential nomination for the party.

Schiff told the panel that in the comments he was describing "the essence of what the president communicates." They combined his view of what the call mean with quotes from a memo describing the conversation.

In the wake of the comments last week, Trump called for Schiff to resign.

Schiff has led a committee probe into the whistleblower's allegations and said on Sunday that a tentative arrangement had been agreed for the official to testify before the panel.

It is not clear in what way Trump could believe the statement treasonous.

In the US treason is defined narrowly as aiding an enemy nation with whom the US is formally at war — of which there are currently not any. Nobody in the US has been convicted of treason since the 1940s.

It is an offense punishable by death.

Although Schiff attempted to put his remarks into context while making them, Trump could believe that he is guilty of lying to Congress, a separate crime from treason.