White House won’t take part in impeachment hearing
The White House will not participate in the House Judiciary Committee’s next impeachment hearing, a senior Trump administration official has said, in another sign that US President Donald Trump has accepted that he is likely to be impeached by the House of Representatives.
The decision came in a letter yesterday from White House counsel Pat Cipollone ahead of a deadline set by the committee’s Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler of New York.
In the letter, Cipollone accuses House Democrats leading the inquiry of wasting America’s time ‘‘with this charade’’, and says that adopting articles of impeachment against Trump would amount to a ‘‘reckless abuse of power’’.
‘‘Whatever course you choose, as the president has recently stated: ‘If you are going to impeach me, do it now, fast, so we can have a fair trial in the Senate, and so that our country can get back to business’,’’ Cipollone wrote, citing a tweet from Trump this week.
The decision came a day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she had instructed the committee chairmen leading the inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine to move forward with drafting articles of impeachment.
Trump is accused of abusing his power and compromising national security by pushing the president of Ukraine to investigate his Democratic political rivals as his administration was withholding crucial security aid to the country.
Nadler said the House was disappointed by Trump’s decision, given the complaints by the president and his allies that the process has been unfair.
‘‘If the president has no good response to the allegations, then he would not want to appear before the committee,’’ Nadler said. ‘‘Having declined this opportunity, he cannot claim that the process is unfair.
‘‘The president’s failure will not prevent us from carrying out our solemn constitutional duty.’’
Pelosi said earlier, when asked about the possibility that the White House would decline to participate, that it was an opportunity for the president to ‘‘show innocence’’.
‘‘But they have a consciousness of guilt, and that’s why they may not show up,’’ she said.
The White House had faced a deadline yesterday to inform the judiciary committee whether it intended to have legal representation at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday that will focus on the recently released House Intelligence Committee report outlining its findings against Trump.
The White House also declined to attend the judiciary committee’s first hearing, held on Thursday, which featured legal experts outlining the history of impeachment and its constitutional role.
Trump and his aides have made it clear that they now see his impeachment in the House as inevitable, and have shifted their focus to the Senate, where Trump allies remain confident that Democrats will not have the votes to convict him and remove him from office.