White House: Trump ‘will not participate in impeachment hearing’

Last week, Chairman Jerrold Nadler said  Trump could either attend or “stop complaining about the process”.The White House did not say whether  Trump would attend a second hearing.

It said it would respond separately to an invitation to the second hearing – which does not yet have a date set – by Friday.

What did the letter say?

The letter, which has been published by Politico, accused the House committee of a “complete lack of due process and fundamental fairness” in the inquiry.

It said the invitation to attend on 4 December would fail to give the White House adequate time to prepare for the hearing and did not give information about the witnesses.

Cipollone said press reports suggested witnesses were “apparently all academics” and would include “no fact witnesses”. A fact witness testifies their personal knowledge of events while an expert witness assists the judge by offering an opinion.The president’s counsel also said that the committee had called three witnesses but allowed Republicans to call just one.

Cipollone lambasted  Nadler’s claim that the process was “consistent” with historical impeachment inquiries, arguing that President Bill Clinton had a fairer hearing in 1998.

He said that in order for  Trump to be represented in further hearings,  Nadler would need to ensure “that due process rights are protected” and that the process was “fair and just”.