President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House on July 9, 2018. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The White House on Tuesday said it will not participate in the U.S. House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry, calling it an unprecedented and dangerous path and an attempt to undo the results of the 2016 presidential election.

The eight-page letter signed by White House counsel Pat Cipollone said there is no legitimate basis for the inquiry and that it violates the due process and separation of powers clauses. The letter said the committees currently handling the inquiry have failed to ensure President Donald Trump's right to see evidence, cross-examine witnesses, make objections to the examination of witnesses or evidence, and to respond to evidence and testimony.

"We hope that, in light of the many deficiencies we have identified in your proceedings, you will abandon the current invalid efforts to pursue an impeachment inquiry and join the president in focusing on the many important goals that matter to the American people," the letter said.

House Democrats began their impeachment inquiry after a whistleblower flagged allegations that Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his family and then allegedly tried to cover up the call.

A senior White House official claimed to reporters on a call shortly after the letter's release that the legal arguments are "grounded in a precedent."

"This is really a situation where the president has an obligation to protect certain principles and not to engage in a process that we believe is constitutionally defective," the official said.

But prominent legal experts were almost immediately dismissive of the claims made in the letter.

"Trump Administration: The reason why a sitting President can't be indicted is because the Constitution expressly creates an alternative, political process for presidential misconduct. Also Trump Administration: That alternative process is too political and entirely illegitimate," Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, tweeted.

The White House's move Tuesday is sure to set up more litigation as House Democrats seek to compel the release of information. Top Democrats have also signaled that they may fold efforts by the Trump White House to stifle the impeachment inquiry into potential articles of impeachment.

A federal judge on Tuesday questioned U.S. Justice Department attorneys over their position that the House could not get redacted grand jury materials from special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

In a hearing Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of the District of Columbia, pointed to past decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that found impeachment does constitute a judicial proceeding, one of the few instances a court can allow the release of grand jury materials, as potentially forcing her hand in ruling for the House in its bid to get the information.

House general counsel Douglas Letter argued it wasn't necessary for the chamber to hold such a vote at this time.

Letter acknowledged that a full House vote may have been held at this stage of other presidential impeachments, but that it wasn't the case in the impeachments of other individuals, like judges.

Read the letter:

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