Former GOP Sen. Slade Gorton (Wash.) is urging Republicans to stop dismissing the House's impeachment inquiry into President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE's dealings with Ukraine as a "partisan witch hunt."

In an op-ed for The New York Times, the former senator calls on Republicans to allow a legitimate investigation into the president unfold, saying that "history demands that we all wrestle with the facts at hand."

"Fifty years from now, history will not accept the position that impeachment was a referendum on the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiDemocratic senator to party: 'A little message discipline wouldn't kill us' Overnight Health Care: New wave of COVID-19 cases builds in US | Florida to lift all coronavirus restrictions on restaurants, bars | Trump stirs questions with 0 drug coupon plan Overnight Defense: Appeals court revives House lawsuit against military funding for border wall | Dems push for limits on transferring military gear to police | Lawmakers ask for IG probe into Pentagon's use of COVID-19 funds MORE. It must be a verdict reached on the facts," wrote Gorton, who served as a U.S. senator from 1981 to 1987 and 1989 to 2001.

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Gorton goes on to argue that "there are multiple actions on this president’s part that warrant a vote of impeachment in the House." He asserts that his opinion is backed up by former and current administration officials who have testified before Congress about Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine into opening politically advantageous investigations.

"It seems clear that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was subjected to a shakedown — pressured to become a foreign participant in President Trump’s re-election campaign, a violation of the law," Gorton also wrote, pointing to testimony from officials such as Gordon Sondland Gordon SondlandGOP chairman vows to protect whistleblowers following Vindman retirement over 'bullying' Top Democrat slams Trump's new EU envoy: Not 'a political donor's part-time job' Trump names new EU envoy, filling post left vacant by impeachment witness Sondland MORE, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman Alexander VindmanImpeachment witness Alexander Vindman calls Trump Putin's 'useful idiot' The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Trump, Biden renew push for Latino support Strzok: Trump behaving like an authoritarian MORE, a White House expert on Ukraine.

Gorton later stressed that an impeachment inquiry and Senate trial "are designed to find out" if the officials' testimony is to be believed.

"So, to my fellow Republicans who have been willing only to attack the process, I say: engage in the process," he wrote, noting that they should "use the process to surface those exculpatory facts."

The essay from the former senator comes in the midst of the House's impeachment inquiry into President Trump's interactions with Ukraine.

Trump and Republican congressmen have repeatedly decried the impeachment inquiry as an effort to reverse the results of the 2016 election.

Rep. Devin Nunes Devin Gerald NunesOvernight Defense: Stopgap spending measure awaits Senate vote | Trump nominates former Nunes aide for intelligence community watchdog | Trump extends ban on racial discrimination training to contractors, military Trump nominates former Nunes aide to serve as intel community inspector general Sunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election MORE (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, has called the impeachment procedures a "comedy" that Democrats have been pursuing since Trump's election.