White House tells House Democrats it will not participate in impeachment proceedings

Washington, December 7

The White House on Friday informed the House Democrats that it would not participate in the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said it would be a “reckless abuse of power” for them to adopt the articles of impeachment.

This “would constitute the most unjust, highly partisan, and unconstitutional attempt at impeachment in our nation’s history,” he said in a one-page letter.

“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’,” he wrote and slammed the ongoing impeachment inquiry as “completely baseless”.

It violates “basic principles of due process and fundamental fairness,” the White House Counsel said.

Expressing disappointment over the White House response, Nadler said that American people deserved answers from Trump.

“The House invited, and then subpoenaed, his top advisers. The President ordered them not to show and continues to block key evidence from Congress. We are disappointed that the President has once again failed to provide those answers here,” he said.

“We gave President Trump a fair opportunity to question witnesses and present his own to address the overwhelming evidence before us. After listening to him complain about the impeachment process, we had hoped that he might accept our invitation,” Nadler added. PTI