The White House has implicitly moved to force Speaker Pelosi's hand to a formal vote by confirming in a letter that President Donald Trump and his administration won’t participate in the House impeachment inquiry, calling it unconstitutional and invalid, and framing it as an effort to “overturn the results of the 2016 election.”

White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in the letter (full letter below) that:

“You have designed and implemented your inquiry in a manner that violates fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process.”

While Pelosi claims that House committees have full authority to investigate, The White House disagrees, refusing to participate in any hearings or respond to subpoenas:

"President Trump and his Administration reject your baseless, unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic process. Your unprecedented actions have left the President with no choice. In order to fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the Executive Branch, and all future occupants of the Office of the Presidency, President Trump and his Administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances."

Because, simply put, no vote has been taken:

"Your inquiry is constitutionally invalid and a violation of due process. In the history of our Nation, the House of Representatives has never attempted to launch an impeachment inquiry against the President without a majority of the House taking political accountability for that decision by voting to authorize such a dramatic constitutional step."

Thus forcing Pelosi and Schiff to put names to the impeachment farce (most notably those Democrats in swing districts) or the probe dies here - and the media-sponsored narrative with it.

"Your contrived process is unprecedented in the history of the Nation, and lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding..."

We look forward to the response from the Democrats as yet another deep state coup fantasy crashes on the shores of constitutional reality (no matter what Chuck Todd says), even as top Democrats, as The Hill notes, have warned that the administration’s failure to comply with their requests could be cited as obstruction in future articles of impeachment.