White House rejects House Democrats’ invitation to participate in impeachment process as Trump focuses on friendly Senate

The White House on Friday appeared to reject the latest entreaties from the House for it to participate in the rapidly accelerating impeachment inquiry, calling the proceedings “completely baseless” as House Democrats continued their push to impeach the president by the end of the month.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone indicated to the House Judiciary Committee on Friday that Trump would not send lawyers to the committee’s hearing on Monday, when the panel charged with drafting articles of impeachment will hear evidence from Intelligence Committee lawyers on the investigation into the president’s conduct toward Ukraine.

The scathing two-paragraph letter reiterated the White House’s protests that the Democrats’ impeachment investigation violated Trump’s due-process rights. Cipollone did not explicitly say the White House would not later participate in the House process but gave no indication that it would.