White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump would not be taking part in the impeachment hearing.
Cipollone wrote to the Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler saying Trump would not be sending representatives to Wednesday’s hearing.
The letter said that neither the president nor his lawyers would be taking part in this week’s hearing, claiming a lack of “fundamental fairness.”
Cipollone wrote to Democrat Nadler stating that Trump’s team “cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the president a fair process through additional hearings.”
WH to Judiciary Committee: “Accordingly, under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing.”
WH does not rule out future participation, though pic.twitter.com/Oc7GkPk5uZ
— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) December 2, 2019
‘Witch hunt’
Cipollone also accused Nadler of intentionally planning Wednesday’s hearing while Trump is out of the country. He wrote: “You scheduled this initial hearing — no doubt purposely — during the time that you know the president will be out of the country attending the NATO leaders meeting in London.
I will be representing our Country in London at NATO, while the Democrats are holding the most ridiculous Impeachment hearings in history. Read the Transcripts, NOTHING was done or said wrong! The Radical Left is undercutting our Country. Hearings scheduled on same dates as NATO!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2019
Cipollone added that the White House would respond separately regarding a second hearing before Friday’s 5 p.m (10 p.m. GMT) deadline. Nadler set the limit for Trump to say whether he or his legal counsel would take part in further proceedings expected next week to examine evidence against him.
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The president has complained that democrats are going against the US constitution by not allowing him “due process” in the inquiry. The impeachment process is taking place in the US Senate rather than the president’s preferred option of the House, where Trump and his legal team would be afforded the opportunity to mount a defence.
Wednesday’s hearing is the Judiciary Committee’s first and is set to analyze the legal basis for the investigation of the 73-year-old president.
At the centre of the scandal is a secret intelligence whistleblower complaint about the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump allegedly pressured his counterpart to dig up dirt on former vice president and possible 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
This article was originally published in DW. You can read it here.