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Washington, October 9
President Donald Trump is “trying to make lawlessness a virtue”, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said.
Pelosi’s comment came after the White House in a letter to the Democrat leaders on Tuesday refused any cooperation from President Trump in the impeachment investigations by the opposition.
“For a while, the President has tried to normalise lawlessness. Now, he is trying to make lawlessness a virtue,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“The American people have already heard the President’s own words–do us a favour though. The President’s actions threaten our national security, violate our Constitution and undermine the integrity of our elections. The White House letter is only the latest attempt to cover up his betrayal of our democracy, and to insist that the President is above the law,” she said.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives are examining whether there are grounds to impeach Trump, a Republican, based on a whistleblower’s account that said he asked Ukrainian President Zelenskiy in a July 25 phone call to help investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden.
In the letter written to the Democratic leaders, White House counsel Pat Cipollone rejected the allegations against President Trump terming them baseless and unconstitutional.
In a strongly-worded statement, Pelosi said the White House should be warned that continued efforts to hide the truth of the President’s abuse of power from the American people would be regarded as further evidence of obstruction.
“Mr President, you are not above the law. You will be held accountable. This letter is manifestly wrong, and is simply another unlawful attempt to hide the facts of the Trump Administration’s brazen efforts to pressure foreign powers to intervene in the 2020 elections,” Pelosi said.
She also said that WH’s stonewalling against the allegations was giving evidence of President Trump abusing his office and violating his oath to ‘protect, preserve and defend the Constitution’. PTI