Read the White House’s official response to Speaker Pelosi and Democrat leaders

This evening, the White House sent an eight-page letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrat leaders, responding to the unprecedented, unconstitutional “impeachment inquiry” launched against President Donald J. Trump.

The letter, written by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, lays out how Democrat leaders designed a politically motivated inquiry that violates the constitutionally mandated due process protections:
 

	You have denied the President the right to cross-examine witnesses, to call witnesses, to receive transcripts of testimony, to have access to evidence, to have counsel present, and many other basic rights guaranteed to all Americans. You have conducted your proceedings in secret. You have violated civil liberties and the separation of powers by threatening Executive Branch officials, claiming that you will seek to punish those who exercise fundamental constitutional rights and prerogatives. All of this violates the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent. Never before in our history has the House of Representatives—under the control of either political party—taken the American people down the dangerous path you seem determined to pursue.

The facts are clear. The House Democrats’ “impeachment inquiry,” undertaken without a single vote of authorization by the full House—an astonishing breach of precedent—is constitutionally invalid and violates both basic due process rights and the separation of powers. By the admission of its own advocates in Congress, it plainly seeks to reverse the election of 2016 and to influence the election of 2020. Not only is there no legitimate basis for the inquiry, but the committees’ actions in pursuing it themselves raise serious questions that demand full transparency with the American people.  

Read the White House’s full response to Speaker Pelosi and Democrat leaders.