White house refuses to co-operate with impeachment inquiry

The White House said on Tuesday it would refuse to cooperate with the congressional impeachment inquiry.

A letter sent to Democratic leaders rejected it as "baseless" and "constitutionally invalid".

Three Democratic-led House committees are investigating President Donald Trump.

The white house letter comes hours after the administration abruptly blocked a key witness in the Ukraine scandal from testifying to congressional panels, White House lawyer Pat Cipollone criticized the decision by lawmakers to proceed with an impeachment inquiry without a full House vote.

“You have designed and implemented your inquiry in a manner that violates fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process,” he said, adding House Democrats had left Trump “no choice.”

“To fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the Executive Branch and all future occupants of the Office of the Presidency, President Trump and his administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances,” he said.

The Ukraine investigation has cast a pall over Trump’s campaign to win back the White House in 2020. A whistleblower complaint about a July 25 phone call in which Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, prompted the inquiry.

Biden is a leading candidate among the crowded field of contenders seeking the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the November 2020 election.

Trump has denied he did anything wrong in the phone call.

The investigation could lead to the approval of articles of impeachment - or formal charges - against Trump in the House. A trial on whether to remove him from office would then be held in the U.S. Senate. Republicans who control the Senate have shown little appetite for ousting Trump.