The White House on Tuesday sent a letter to House Democrats warning them that President Trump will not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry on the basis that it is “unconstitutional.” The president’s attorney Pat Cipollone writes in the letter that in providing the abridged transcript of Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president, he has “clearly established that the call was completely appropriate and that there is no basis for your inquiry.” “... Never before in our history has the House of Representatives-under the control of either political party-taken the American people down the dangerous path you seem determined to pursue,” he writes. Cipollone further claims that the inquiry is a biased effort on behalf of the Democrats. “Your highly partisan and unconstitutional effort threatens grave and lasting damage to our democratic institutions, to our system of free elections, and to the American people,” reads the letter.

Although written by Cipollone, the letter echoes some of Trump’s well-trodden talking points, including a call back to the 2016 presidential election. “Put simply, you seek to overturn the results of the 2016 election and deprive the American people of the President they have freely chosen,” reads the letter. “Many Democrats now apparently view impeachment not only as a means to undo the democratic results of the last election, but as a strategy to influence the next election, which is barely more than a year away.” “... For the foregoing reasons, the President cannot allow your constitutionally illegitimate proceedings to distract him and those in the Executive Branch from their work on behalf of the American people,” Cipollone writes. “The President has a country to lead.”