In a letter that echoed the president's recent impeachment messaging — accusing Democrats of violating the Constitution and civil liberties and attempting to overturn the results of the 2016 election — the White House said it would not comply with the request from House Democrats because they were conducting an invalid investigation.
"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," White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote.
The White House argued that in order to make the impeachment investigation valid, Democrats would need to give Republican ranking members the authority to issue subpoenas.
The move was the latest demonstration of a White House strategy of almost-universal resistance taking shape in its efforts to stymie the Democratic investigation into whether President Donald Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine to investigate 2020 rival Joe Biden.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that the executive branch, which includes the White House, the Justice Department and the State Department, would not be cooperating with the impeachment investigation as a general rule.
"The Executive Branch cannot be expected to, and will not participate in, this exercise of partisan political theater," Grisham said.
The letter came hours after the Trump administration made a last-minute move to block Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who is believed to be a key witness, from appearing for a scheduled interview before the House.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Government Oversight and Reforms Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Tuesday that they planned to issue a subpoena to Sondland for both his testimony and documents.
House Democrats have said they would issue a subpoena to the White House for the additional documents if they were not voluntarily turned over. If the White House does not comply, Democrats have said they would not consider contempt or any other penalties, instead using the noncompliance as evidence of obstruction for impeachment.
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