President Donald Trump’s lawyers are expected to release a letter to Congress that tells them that the president and the White House will not cooperate with their impeachment inquiry.

According to CNN,

The lawyers say in the letter that the House proceedings amount to an illegitimate investigation that is trying to overturn the 2016 election.

“The lengthy letter all but dares House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a formal vote opening an impeachment inquiry into Trump, a step she has so far resisted. The letter claims Trump’s due process rights have been circumvented without a vote and that Trump has no choice but to not cooperate,” said CNN.

The letter also says that the White House will continue to refuse any subpoenas or requests for information.

Impeachment inquiries open up access to this information under the law, but Trump is playing chicken with Democrats, who have yet to imprison anyone for not complying with a subpoena.

It’s unclear how far Democrats are willing to go to enforce the laws.

Crooked Media editor-in-chief Brian Beutler called it a “Jedi mind trick” in efforts “to convince Democrats they’d suffer consequences for voting to sanction the impeachment inquiry while recognizing all along that the vote is actually perilous for THEM.”

Over the weekend, he suggested that Sen. Mitt Romney, who is among a handful of Republican lawmakers who criticized the president for seeking foreign help to dig up dirt on a Democratic political rival, was in the midst of a voter revolt in his home state of Utah because of those remarks. No voter impeachment effort is underway.

Trump also has repeatedly lambasted Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chairman who is leading the impeachment review, as guilty of treason or defamation for mocking Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Neither charge is valid.

Trump had a similar playbook to dispute the Russia investigation by assailing special counsel Robert Mueller as biased and saying the inquiry was illegally hatched by Democrats. Those charges have been shown to be untrue.

Meanwhile, amid signs of manufacturing weakness, Trump unfairly pointed a finger of blame at the Federal Reserve rather than his escalating trade war with China, and overstated his role in a World Trade Organization ruling for the United States.

In Tuesday’s eight-page letter to House Democrats, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone pronounced Trump innocent of wrongdoing and the inquiry “unconstitutional.”

He said Trump’s July 25 phone call asking the new president of Ukraine to do him “a favor” and investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter was “completely appropriate. The president did nothing wrong, and there is no legitimate basis for an impeachment inquiry.”

It’s not clear how or whether House Democrats will respond to Trump’s vow of noncooperation. In recent weeks, leaders of the House inquiry signaled they are reluctant to go to court or seek to hold officials in criminal contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena.

No one believes that the Justice Department under Atty. Gen. William Barr would enforce a contempt citation against a Trump advisor or an administration official. And a court battle to enforce a subpoena “would take many months,” Bowman said.

If a federal judge ruled for or against the House, the losing side could appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and then to the Supreme Court.

University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck said it was remarkable for the top White House lawyer to say in writing that it “is completely appropriate for the president of the United States to actively solicit foreign intervention in U.S. presidential elections. Let’s not lose sight of just how insane that is.”

Lisa Kern Griffin, a Duke law professor, described the letter as a “political stunt that misinterprets the Constitution, ignores relevant precedents and defies common sense.” She said the letter sets the stage for a constitutional crisis.

“Of course, the House can proceed with impeachment based on the testimony and evidence it can access, but it strikes me as dangerous for the entire executive branch to defy congressional oversight.”

Section 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

K9s wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 3:49 pm They tried putting off elections in some GOP states (as a test, I would argue), but it didn't work out. I assume that SCOTUS would tell POTUS to knock it off. Too many people have too much time and money invested in elections to suspend them. More likely that GA, TX, and/or FL would suspend or fake results if they looked like the GOP might not win. I know they would do that in Georgia.