President Donald Trump and his lawyers will not participate in Wednesday’s impeachmenthearing in the House Judiciary Committee, according to a letter from the White House to the committee obtained by ABC News.
"As for the hearing scheduled for December 4, we 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. More importantly, an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the President with any semblance of a fair process. Accordingly, under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing," White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a Sunday evening letter to Chairman Jerry Nadler.
The absence of White House participation follows weeks of vocal protests from the president and Republicans in Congress, who have accused Democrats of blocking their due process rights.
(MORE: President, lawyers should participate in impeachment hearing: Demings, McClintock)
The Judiciary Committee has yet to decide on how many hearings it will have or if it will call fact witnesses.
Nadler, D-N.Y., gave the White House a deadline of 6 p.m. Sunday to tell the committee if they plan to participate in Wednesday's hearing, after inviting the president and his counsel to attend. Nadler also wrote a separate letter to the White House asking them to alert the committee by 5 p.m. Friday about whether they plan to present a defense or participate at all in the committee’s impeachment proceedings.
The president tweeted on Saturday that he will be representing the United States at NATO during the scheduled hearing.
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04.29.2024