President Donald Trump accompanied by acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, left, speaks at a luncheon with members of the United Nations Security Council in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
U.S. President Donald Trump will not send a lawyer to participate in the remaining impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives.
The House Judiciary Committee had given the White House a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to say whether they would send a lawyer.
In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, White House counsel Pat Cipollone called the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry “completely baseless” and said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had ordered Democrats to proceed with articles of impeachment “before your committee has heard a single shred of evidence.”
“We don’t see any reason to participate because the process is unfair,” said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters. “We haven’t been given any fair opportunity to participate. The speaker has already announced the predetermined result and they will not give us the ability to call any witnesses.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stands during a news conference on climate change at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
On Thursday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would start drafting articles of impeachment against Trump.
A full vote could come later this month.
At issue in the impeachment probe is whether Trump abused his office by pressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens and baseless allegations that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 election.
With information from the Associated Press and Reuters.
Letter to Trump from House Judiciary Committee. p. 1
Letter to Trump from House Judiciary Committee. p. 2