Defiant White House says it won’t ‘participate’
WASHINGTON — In an extraordinary show of defiance, the White House said Tuesday it would refuse to “participate” in the House impeachment inquiry, setting up a direct constitutional clash between the two coequal branches of government.
The eightpage letter, sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and three committee chairmen, marks a major milestone in the impeachment drama, and came hours after the White House directly intervened to block a U.S. diplomat involved in the scandal from giving a voluntary deposition.
The White House letter, signed by Pat Cipollone, counsel to the president, rolled them into a blistering critique of the integrity and motivation of Democrats as they examine whether Trump abused his power when he blocked military aid to Ukraine and then asked its president to investigate one of Trump’s political rivals for alleged wrongdoing.
Rejecting what he called “your baseless unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic process,” Cipollone said Trump and his administration “cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances.”
In the letter, Cipollone accuses Pelosi of violating “fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process” in the House inquiry, saying Trump should be allowed to cross examine witnesses, receive transcripts of the testimony, have access to evidence the House collects and have counsel present during questioning.
House Democrats earlier said they would subpoena Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, to force him to testify and turn over documents and text messages, regarding the president’s dealings with Ukraine.
“The failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents, we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of Congress,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff, DBurbank, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.