WASHINGTON—The blistering, six-page letter sent by President Trump to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the eve of the House impeachment vote is a running list of accusations, grievances and boasts, all written in the informal style of the president’s tweets.
In it, Mr. Trump denounced the impeachment process, declaring his innocence and saying Democrats had engaged in an unprecedented misuse of power and “cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!”
The public letter came Tuesday, the day before the House vote in which Mr. Trump was likely to become the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.
“You are the ones interfering in America’s elections,” the president wrote. “You are the ones subverting America’s Democracy. You are the ones Obstructing Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain.”
The House is considering two articles of impeachment: one accusing Mr. Trump of abuse of power by soliciting election interference from Ukraine and conditioning U.S. military aid to Kyiv and a White House meeting on those probes, and one alleging he obstructed Congress by preventing key officials from testifying and failing to turn over documents.
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In his letter, Mr. Trump dismissed the articles as “not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory” and recounted a defense he has mounted for weeks in tweets and comments from the White House and his political rallies. He portrayed a scheme to remove him from office that began the night in 2016 when he defeated Hillary Clinton.
“Everyone, you included, knows what is really happening. Your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College landslide (306-227) and you and your party have never recovered from this defeat,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Mrs. Pelosi’s office didn’t immediately comment on the letter.
Democrats said the letter underscored their criticisms of Mr. Trump’s temperament, and they defended their impeachment plans.
“This letter is an embarrassment to the office,” tweeted Rep. Don Beyer (D., Va.), saying “no amount of temper tantrums” will discourage the House from what it sees as its constitutional duty. Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) called the letter “completely insane.”
The impeachment inquiry has its origins in a whistleblower complaint that emerged in September about Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, specifically a July 25 call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the letter, Mr. Trump referred to the interaction with Mr. Zelensky as “a totally innocent conversation.”
Mr. Trump decried the impeachment proceeding as unfair, and Republicans have complained about the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation and the inability of White House lawyers to participate. Democrats note that Trump instructed top officials with direct knowledge of the Ukraine events not to testify and declined to have his legal team participate in the Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearings.
“More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials,” wrote Mr. Trump.
While the House is expected to impeach Mr. Trump along party lines, the Republican-controlled Senate is likely to acquit Mr. Trump, even as some members of the majority have said they found the president’s actions improper.
Mr. Trump said Democrats would pay a price with voters in 2020—and with the history books. “One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair,” his letter concluded, “I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President again.”
Write to Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com
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December 18, 2019 at 05:00AM
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