The White House signaled on Friday that it did not intend to mount a defense of President Trump or otherwise participate in the House impeachment proceedings, in a sharply worded letter to Democrats calling the process “completely baseless” and urging lawmakers to get it over with quickly.
“You should end this inquiry now and not waste even more time with additional hearings,” the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, wrote in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York.
“Adopting articles of impeachment would be a reckless abuse of power by House Democrats and would constitute the most unjust, highly partisan and unconstitutional attempt at impeachment in our nation’s history,” he added.
The letter did not explicitly say what Mr. Trump’s legal team planned to do, but it ended by quoting the president saying that the House should vote quickly on impeachment so a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, where White House officials believe Mr. Trump will have a better chance to mount a defense, can commence.
“House Democrats have wasted enough of America’s time with this charade,” Mr. Cipollone wrote.
The missive came the day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she was directing senior Democrats to begin drafting impeachment articles against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Nadler had set a deadline of Friday evening for the White House to state whether it intended to mount a defense before the panel.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.