President Donald Trump gestures during a signing ceremony with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He to sign a U.S.-China trade agreement, in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Jan. 15, 2020. (Steve Helber/AP Photo)

Trump Formally Responds to Articles of Impeachment: ‘Result of a Lawless Process’

President Donald Trump asked the Senate to reject the Articles of Impeachment in a six-page formal response on Saturday, as “they are the result of a lawless process that violated basic due process and fundamental fairness.”

“The Articles of Impeachment now before the Senate are an affront to the Constitution of the United States, our democratic institutions, and the American people. The Articles themselves—and the rigged process that brought them here—are a transparently political act by House Democrats. They debase the grave power of impeachment and the solemn responsibility that power entails. They must be rejected,” he said. “The House process violated every precedent and every principle of fairness governing impeachment inquiries for more than 150 years.”

The president’s response to Senate summons was filed by Trump’s Counsel Pat A. Cipollone and Jay Alan Sekulow.

The House voted to approve two articles of impeachment, one for abuse of power and one for obstructing Congress, against Trump on Dec. 18, 2019, in a party-line vote and sent them to the Senate for trial on Jan. 15 after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) delayed the transmission for weeks.

Trump said that the first article should be rejected because it doesn’t state an impeachable offense.

“It alleges no crime at all, let alone ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ as required by the Constitution,” he said.

Trump insisted that he did nothing wrong because there was no quid pro quo or connection between security assistance to Ukraine and investigations into Hunter Biden. The security assistance was released without the Ukrainian government announcing any investigation.

For the second article regarding obstructing Congress, Trump said his decisions on the House subpoenas were based on “legitimate Executive Branch confidentiality interests grounded in the separation of powers.”

“In order to preserve our constitutional structure of government, to reject the poisonous partisanship that the Framers warned against, to ensure one-party political impeachment vendettas do not become the ‘new normal,’ and to vindicate the will of the American People, the Senate must reject both articles of Impeachment,” he concluded.

The response from Trump came shortly after House Managers for the impeachment trial, including Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Congresswoman Val Demings (D-Fla.), Congressman Jason Crow (D-Colo.), and Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), filed a brief with the Senate Secretary on Saturday afternoon.

The House Managers stand by the two Articles of Impeachment alleging that Trump used his official powers to pressure a foreign government to interfere in a United States election for his personal political gain and attempted to cover up his scheme afterward by obstructing Congress’s investigation into his misconduct, the brief said.

“The case against the President of the United States is simple, the facts are indisputable, and the evidence is overwhelming,” they stated. “Senators must accept and fulfill the responsibility placed on them by the Framers of our Constitution and the Oaths they have just taken to do impartial justice.”

Read President Trump’s full response: