On September 26, President Trump argued that Congress should not be "allowed" to impeach him under the Constitution: "What these guys are doing—Democrats—are doing to this country is a disgrace and it shouldn't be allowed. There should be a way of stopping it— maybe legally, through the courts."68
A common theme of President Trump's defiance has been his claims that Congress is acting in an unprecedented way and using unprecedented rules. However, the House has been following the same investigative rules that Republicans championed when they were in control and conducted aggressive oversight of previous Administrations.69
White House Counsel's Letters Implementing the President's Order
On October 8, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi and the three Committees explaining that President Trump had directed his entire Administration not to cooperate with the House's impeachment inquiry. He wrote:
Consistent with the duties of the President of the United States, and in particular his obligation to preserve the rights of future occupants of his office, President Trump cannot permit his Administration to participate in this partisan inquiry under these circumstances.70
On October 10, President Trump confirmed that Mr. Cipollone was indeed conveying his orders, stating:
As our brilliant White House Counsel wrote to the Democrats yesterday, he said their highly partisan and unconstitutional effort threatens grave and lasting damage to our democratic institutions, to our system of free elections, and to the American people. That's what it is. To the American people. It's so terrible. Democrats are on a crusade to destroy our democracy. That's what's happening. We will never let it happen. We will defeat them.71
Mr. Cipollone's letter elicited immediate criticism from legal experts from across the political spectrum.72
Mr. Cipollone wrote a second letter to the Committees on October 18, declaring that the White House would refuse to comply with the subpoena issued to it for documents.73
On November 1—after the House had already issued several subpoenas to the White House and other Executive Branch officials for testimony—the Trump Administration issued a new "Letter Opinion" from Assistant Attorney General Steven A. Engel to Mr. Cipollone. The Office of Legal Counsel opinion sought to extend the reach of the President's earlier direction to defy Congressional subpoenas and to justify noncompliance by officials who could not plausibly be considered among the President's closest advisors.
Mr. Engel's opinion asserted that the House's impeachment inquiry seeks information that is "potentially protected by executive privilege" and claimed the Committees' deposition
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