White House refuses to attend impeachment hearing

The White House will not participate in the House of Representatives judiciary committee's hearing Monday on the impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump, the White House counsel said Friday.

Pat Cippolone slammed the impeachment inquiry as "completely baseless,” in a letter addressed to the committee's chairman, Jerry Nadler, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported.

"House Democrats have wasted enough of America’s time with this charade. You should end this inquiry now and not waste even more time with additional hearings," said Cippolone.

Last week, Nadler told Trump (below) in a letter to he had until Dec 6 to decide whether to attend the hearings, offering the president the option of sending someone to represent him.

The judiciary committee opened its first impeachment hearing Wednesday.

The White House's response came a day after house speaker Nancy Pelosi asked lawmakers to draft articles of impeachment against the president.

The House's investigation is centred on Trump's multiple requests to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to declare criminal investigations into leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, as well as claims it was Ukraine, not Russia, that meddled in the 2016 election.

Also at issue is the holdup of US$400 million in military aid to Ukraine and whether Trump conditioned the release of the aid and a possible meeting with Zelensky on the Ukrainian president publicly announcing the investigations.

- Bernama