White House says House inquiry unconstitutional

WASHINGTON—The White House declared Tuesday it would not participate in the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and other top Democrats, White House counsel Pat Cipollone accused them of violating the due process of law by not holding a formal vote in the House to open the impeachment inquiry.

Can the Trump administration do that? The executive branch can make it significantly harder for House Democrats to obtain information. The White House has blocked Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, from speaking to investigators, and the State Department has not handed over requested documents. The Trump administration said the impeachment process was partisan and unconstitutional, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani called it “the McCarthy committee on steroids.” Democrats will likely respond by issuing subpoenas and looking to the courts to referee.

Dig deeper: Read the eight-page letter and more on what started the inquiry in my report in The Stew.