REJECTING HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ UNCONSTITUTIONAL INQUIRY
- “Your unprecedented actions have left the President with no choice. In order to fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the Executive Branch, and all future occupants of the Office of the Presidency, President Trump and his Administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances.”
- “Given that your inquiry lacks any legitimate constitutional foundation, any pretense of fairness, or even the most elementary due process protections, the Executive Branch cannot be expected to participate in it.”
- “Consistent with the duties of the President of the United States, and in particular his obligation to preserve the rights of future occupants of his office, President Trump cannot permit his Administration to participate in this partisan inquiry under these circumstances.”
- “If the Committees wish to return to the regular order of oversight requests, we stand ready to engage in that process as we have in the past, in a manner consistent with well-established bipartisan constitutional protections and a respect for the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution.”
- “We hope that, in light of the many deficiencies we have identified in your proceedings, you will abandon the current invalid efforts to pursue an impeachment inquiry and join the President in focusing on the many important goals that matter to the American people.”
THEIR ATTEMPT TO OVERTURN THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
- “President Trump and his Administration reject your baseless, unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic process.”
- “Put simply, you seek to overturn the results of the 2016 election and deprive the American people of the President they have freely chosen.”
- “As one member of Congress explained, he is ‘concerned that if we don’t impeach the President, he will get reelected.’”
- “The effort to impeach President Trump…is a naked political strategy that began the day he was inaugurated, and perhaps even before.
- “In fact, your transparent rush to judgment, lack of democratically accountable authorization, and violation of basic rights in the current proceedings make clear the illegitimate, partisan purpose of this purported ‘impeachment inquiry.’”
- “Precisely because it nullifies the outcome of the democratic process, impeachment of the President is fraught with the risk of deepening divisions in the country and creating long-lasting rifts in the body politic.”
UNPRECEDENTED, CONSTITUTIONALLY INVALID, IN VIOLATION OF DUE PROCESS
- “In the history of our Nation, the House of Representatives has never attempted to launch an impeachment inquiry against the President without a majority of the House taking political accountability for that decision by voting to authorize such a dramatic constitutional step.”
- “To comply with the Constitution’s demands, appropriate procedures would include – at a minimum – the right to see all evidence, to present evidence, to call witnesses, to have counsel present at all hearings, to cross-examine all witnesses, to make objections relating to the examination of witnesses or the admissibility of testimony and evidence, and to respond to evidence and testimony.”
- “[T]he Committees must provide for the disclosure of all evidence favorable to the President and all evidence bearing on the credibility of witnesses called to testify in the inquiry.”
- “In addition, the House has not provided the Committees’ Ranking Members with the authority to issue subpoenas.”
HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ OUTRAGEOUS ACTIONS
- “Perhaps the best evidence that there was no wrongdoing on the call is the fact that, after the actual record of the call was released, Chairman Schiff chose to concoct a false version of the call and to read his made-up transcript to the American people at a public hearing.”
- “The real problem, as we are now learning, is that Chairman Schiff’s office, and perhaps others – despite initial denials – were involved in advising the whistleblower before the complaint was filed.”
- “Anyone who was involved in the preparation or submission of the whistleblower’s complaint cannot possibly act as a fair and impartial judge in the same matter – particularly after misleading the American people about his involvement.”
HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ THREATS AND INTIMIDATION
- “Threats by the Committees against Executive Branch witnesses who assert common and longstanding rights destroy the integrity of the process and brazenly violate fundamental due process.”
- “In letters to State Department employees, the Committees have ominously threatened – without any legal basis and before the Committees even issued a subpoena – that ‘[a]ny failure to appear’ in response to a mere letter request for a deposition ‘shall constitute evidence of obstruction.’”
- “[T]he Committees have broadly threatened that if State Department officials attempt to insist upon the right for the Department to have an agency lawyer present at depositions to protect legitimate Executive Branch confidentiality interests – or apparently if they make any effort to protect those confidentiality interests at all – these officials will have their salaries withheld.”
- “The Committees’ assertions on these points amount to nothing more than strong-arm tactics designed to rush proceedings without any regard for due process and the rights of individuals and of the Executive Branch. Threats aimed at intimidating individuals who assert these basic rights are attacks on civil liberties that should profoundly concern all Americans.”
