US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sent a letter to House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urging her to halt the impeachment proceedings and accusing Democrats of an “unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power.”
The six-page letter comes one day before the House is set to vote to impeach Trump. Last Friday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment that charge Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors, setting up Wednesday’s vote.
Trump complained in the letter about the impeachment process, defended his conduct toward Ukraine and accused Democrats of “interfering in America’s elections.”
“It is time for you and the highly partisan Democrats in Congress to immediately cease this impeachment fantasy and get back to work for the American People. While I have no expectation that you will do so, I write this letter to you for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record,” he wrote.
“This is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting both. You are not just after me, as President, you are after the entire Republican Party,” Trump wrote in the letter, which marked his first personal correspondence with Pelosi on impeachment.
“History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade,” he warned.
“You are the ones interfering in America’s election. You are the ones subverting America’s Democracy. You are the ones Obstructing Justice,” Trump wrote. “You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain.”
“I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election. They will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power,” he added.
"More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials," Trump wrote in the letter.
Democrats accuse the president of endangering the US Constitution, jeopardizing national security and undermining the integrity of the 2020 election by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to investigate his Democratic political rival Joe Biden.
Trump denies wrongdoing and has condemned the inquiry as a hoax.
The White House has made clear that Trump “wants to have a trial in the Senate because it’s clearly the only chamber where he can expect fairness and receive due process under the Constitution.”