U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday savaged House Democrats’ impeachment proceedings in a six-page letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi that read like a collection of his most vitriolic tweets.
The fiery missive, frequently punctuated with exclamation points, came loaded with hyperbolic assertions — including the president’s claim that “more due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.”
Trump charged that the current impeachment drive “represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power” by Democratic lawmakers that he argued has been “unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.”
“By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution, and you are declaring open war on American democracy,” he wrote.
The heated correspondence comes a day before the House is expected to vote on articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, likely making him the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.
But the broader intent of the letter to the speaker — which appeared to represent little more than a messaging document and rehashed the same grievances Trump has frequently aired — was not immediately clear.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone issued a similarly confrontational letter in October to Pelosi and the three committee chairs leading the impeachment probe, writing that their inquiry lacked “any legitimate constitutional foundation” and stating that the administration would not comply with Democratic lawmakers’ requests.
Trump’s letter Tuesday, however, marked his first formal, written rebuke to House Democrats since they launched the process to remove him from office.
Although Trump declared he had “no expectation” Pelosi would bring the impeachment proceedings to a halt, he added: “I write this letter to you for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record.”