Top Democrat Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday accused the White House of an “unlawful attempt to hide the facts” after it ruled out cooperating with an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump.
Ms Pelosi, the House Speaker, fired back after the White House sent her a letter blasting the impeachment process as partisan, illegitimate and unconstitutional.
“This letter is manifestly wrong, and is simply another unlawful attempt to hide the facts of the Trump Administration’s brazen efforts to pressure foreign powers to intervene in the 2020 elections,” MS Pelosi said in a statement.
Its chief objection was the fact the House of Representatives had not held a formal vote to launch the inquiry.
Democrats say it is not needed because the impeachment process is in its earliest stages, equivalent to gathering evidence for an indictment.
Only afterward would the Democrats call a vote. If a majority of House members back impeachment, the matter shifts to a trial in the Senate, currently controlled by Republicans.
The letter capped a day of explosive developments that included Trump barring a key witness, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, from speaking to Congress – calling it a “totally compromised kangaroo court.”
In response, Democrats slapped Sondland with a subpoena that “compels” him to appear on October 16.
Pelosi formally launched the impeachment inquiry last month after revelations Trump pressured Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in a controversial July 25 phone call.
The top Democrat in Congress told reporters preventing Sondland from testifying shows that “the president is obstructing Congress from getting the facts that we need.”
Biden, the former vice president who is seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination, joined the chorus of condemnation, tweeting that Trump “must stop stonewalling Congress.”
Sondland, a major donor to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was one of a handful of US diplomats on a text message chain between July and September that go to the heart of the investigation.
The messages involving Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani show them coordinating to pressure Kiev into investigating Biden, as the country sought US military aid and access.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said investigators have learned that Sondland has text messages or emails on a personal device that are “deeply relevant” to the probe, but that State is withholding them.
“The failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents” was “additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of Congress,” Schiff told reporters.
Lawmakers have an opportunity on Friday to hear from another key witness in the Ukraine scandal: former US ambassador to Kiev Marie Yovanovitch, who is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee.
US media has reported that Trump removed her from her post because she opposed his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden.
It was unclear whether Trump will block Yovanovitch’s testimony.
Following the White House’s letter, members of the Trump administration will not be authorized to testify in Congress and will ignore subpoenas, a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.
He insisted that the White House was “definitely avoiding saying there’s no way we’d ever cooperate,” but he declined to discuss “hypothetical situations” in which a change might come.
Republicans were largely silent following the White House’s explosive gambit, but Democrats were quick to portray a reckless president defying lawmakers.
“The President’s letter shows he believes he’s above the law,” 2020 White House hopeful Beto O’Rourke tweeted. “It’s on Congress to prove him wrong.”
US media has reported that Trump removed her from her post because she opposed his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden.
It was unclear whether Trump will block Yovanovitch’s testimony.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani will not cooperate with the US House of Representatives impeachment investigation and cannot imagine anyone in the Trump administration would work with Democrats leading the inquiry, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
