You've cheapened importance of very ugly word, impeachment: Trump to US Speaker
The letter came a day before the House is set to vote on his impeachment.
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time), in a scathing letter to House of Representative speaker, Nancy Pelosi strongly protested against the "partisan impeachment crusade being pursued by the Democrats".
Stressing that the Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognisable under any standard of Constitutional theory, interpretation, or jurisprudence, the US President in his six-page letter to Pelosi said, "They include no crimes, no misdemeanours, and no offences whatsoever. You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!"
The letter came a day before the House is set to vote on his impeachment.
The US President accused the Speaker of violating her oath of office by proceeding ahead with the "invalid impeachment."
"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 said.
Trump also denied the charge of "abused of power" terming it "a completely disingenuous, meritless, and baseless invention of your imagination." About the second claim of "Obstruction of Congress", the US President termed it "preposterous and dangerous".
The US President accused Pelosi of turning a policy disagreement between two branches of government into an impeachable offence.
"You know full well that Vice President Biden used his office and USD 1 billion dollars of US aid money to coerce Ukraine into firing the prosecutor who was digging into the company paying his son millions of dollars. You know this because Biden bragged about it on video," Trump said in a letter put up by White House on its website.
Mentioning several works done during his tenure as President, Trump said, "You and your party are desperate to distract from America's extraordinary economy, incredible jobs boom, record stock market, soaring confidence, and flourishing citizens."
"There is nothing I would rather do than stop referring to your party as the Do-Nothing Democrats. Unfortunately, I don't know that you will ever give me a chance to do so," he said.
"Your Speakership and your party are held hostage by your most deranged and radical representatives of the far left. Each one of your members lives in fear of a socialist primary challenger--this is what is driving impeachment," he added.
Trump further said he has no doubt that American people will hold "you and the democrats fully responsible in 2020 election."