The White House on Tuesday said it would not cooperate with the impeachment investigation against United States President Donald Trump, BBC reported. The inquiry is looking into allegations against Trump for trying to push Ukraine into investigating former US Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

A letter sent to leaders of the Democratic Party called the allegations “baseless and constitutionally invalid”. Three Democrats-led House panels are conducting inquiries against Trump.

This followed hours after the Trump administration blocked the United States envoy to the European Union from testifying before a congressional impeachment inquiry. “To fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the Executive Branch and all future occupants of the Office of the Presidency, President Trump and his administration cannot participate in your [Democrats] partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone said, according to Reuters.

Democratic legislators criticised the administration’s move to block the US envoy, Gordon Sondland, from appearing for the inquiry. The lawmakers called it an attempt to obstruct the investigation and issued a subpeona, asking Sondland to appear for questioning on October 16.

The letter, addressed to United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also accused the Democratic Party of attempting to alter the 2016 election results. It also described the investigation a “naked political strategy”, which violated Trump’s rights to due process.

A whistleblower had revealed Trump’s conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the US president had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Democratic presidential election front-runner Biden and his son Hunter Biden for alleged corruption. Trump, who released the transcript of the conversation last week, refuted allegations that his actions had been inappropriate.

Another whistleblower with firsthand knowledge of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine also spoke to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog office earlier this week.

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