White House not to cooperate as fight intensifies
WASHINGTON : The White House has told Democrats it would not cooperate with their “unfair”, “unprecedented” and “unconstitutional” impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
The Democrats hit back, saying its defiance could amount to obstruction of Congress, another charge in the articles of impeachment being considered against Trump.
The White House spelt out its defiance in a scathing eight-page letter from Pat Cipollone, counsel to the president, to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, chairmen of the House intelligence and judiciary committees that are leading the impeachment inquiry.
The probe was triggered late September by an intelligence whistleblower’s complaint into Trump’s attempts to force Ukraine to probe his political rivals including Democratic presidential hopeful and former vice president Joe Biden.
“You have designed and implemented your inquiry in a manner that violates fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process,” Cipollone wrote.
“President Trump cannot permit his administration to participate in this partisan inquiry under these circumstances.”
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Trump described the inquiry as a “scam by do-nothing Democrats” and called for ending it for “the good of the country”.
Speaker Pelosi responded with an equally combative statement. “The White House should be warned that continued efforts to hide the truth of the President’s abuse of power from the American people will be regarded as further evidence of obstruction. Mr President, you are not above the law. You will be held accountable.”
The White House budget office said on Wednesday it will not comply with a congressional subpoena for documents relating to Ukraine issued as part of the impeachment probe.
“We will not be participating in a sham process designed to re-litigate the last election,” Russ Vought, the Office of Management and Budget’s acting head, said in an interview with Fox News Channel.
OMB is facing an October 15 deadline set in a subpoena issued by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.