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Washington: US President Donald Trump in a scathing letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought to halt impeachment proceedings against him by the lower chamber of the Congress, which is all set to start the process with a debate on Wednesday.
"This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of the American legislative history," Trump said in a letter to the Pelosi.
Asserting that the Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognisable under any standard of constitutional theory, interpretation or jurisprudence, Trump said they include no crimes, no misdemeanours and no offenses whatsoever.
"You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment," said Trump, who is the third American president to be impeached.
"By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution and you are declaring an open war on American democracy," he said.
Trump said he had been deprived of basic constitutional due process from the beginning of this "impeachment scam" right up until the present.
"I have been denied the most fundamental rights afforded by the constitution, including the right to present evidence, to have my own counsel present, to confront accusers, and to call and cross-examine witnesses, like the so-called whistleblower who started this entire hoax with a false report of the phone call that bears no relationship to the actual phone call that was made," he said.
"Once I presented the transcribed call, which surprised and shocked the fraudsters (they never thought that such evidence would be presented), the so-called whistleblower, and the second whistleblower, disappeared because they got caught, their report was a fraud, and they were no longer going to be made available to us. In other words, once the phone call was made public, your whole plot blew up, but that didn't stop you from continuing," he added.
Trump said she and her people on committees have long said impeachment must be bipartisan it is not.
"You said it was very divisive it certainly is, even far more than you ever thought possible and it will only get worse," he said.
"This is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting booth. You are not just after me, as president, you are after the entire Republican Party," he said.
"But because of this colossal injustice, our party is more united than it has ever been before. History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade," said the US President.
"Perhaps most insulting of all is your false display of solemnity. You apparently have so little respect for the American people that you expect them to believe that you are approaching this impeachment somberly, reservedly, and reluctantly," he said.
Trump said since the moment he won the elections, the Democrat Party has been possessed by "impeachment fever."
"There is no reticence. This is not a somber affair. You are making a mockery of impeachment and you are scarcely concealing your hatred of me, of the Republican Party and tens of millions of patriotic Americans," he said.
"The voters are wise, and they are seeing straight through this empty, hollow, and dangerous game you are playing," he said.
"I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 elections. They will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power," said the president.
"There is far too much that needs to be done to improve the lives of our citizens. It is time for you and the highly partisan Democrats in the Congress to immediately cease this impeachment fantasy and get back to work for the American people," he said.
"While I have no expectation that you will do so, I write this letter to you for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record," Trump said.
(PTI)
