Giuliani defies congressional subpoena in Trump impeachment probe

US President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says he will defy a congressional subpoena issued by the House Democrats as part of an impeachment probe into the head of state.

Giuliani's attorney, Jon Sale, said in a letter on Tuesday that the former New York mayor "will not participate" in the impeachment inquiry into Trump and will refuse to turn over documents demanded by three Democrat-led committees in the House.

Giuliani's lawyer censured the subpoena as "overbroad and unduly burdensome,” and said the impeachment inquiry into Trump was “unconstitutional, baseless and illegitimate."

“The subpoena is overbroad, unduly burdensome, and seeks documents beyond the scope of legitimate inquiry,” Sale wrote in the letter. “Moreover, documents sought in the subpoena are protected by attorney-client, attorney work-product, and executive privileges."

The House Intelligence Committee called on Giuliani on September 30 to hand over documents related to Trump's effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate his Democratic political rival, Joe Biden, who is a leading candidate in the Democratic presidential primary race and could emerge as Trump's major challenger in the November 2020 elections.

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The 75-year-old said at the time that he had received the subpoena and would consider it, but he criticized the Democratic lawmakers who signed it as having "prejudged" the case.

In a statement on Twitter later on Tuesday, Giuliani said he would not "participate in an illegitimate, unconstitutional, and baseless 'impeachment inquiry.'" He also confirmed that Sale was no longer representing him.

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White House aide Fiona Hill testified during a 10-hour deposition on Monday that Giuliani was running a shadow foreign policy vis-a-vis Ukraine in order to help Trump.

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Pence's office, Pentagon reject subpoena

In a letter to House committees, Mike Pence’s counsel revealed that the vice president would refuse to cooperate and turn over documents requested in a subpoena issued on October 4.

Pence said that the current inquiry has not been authorized by the full House of Representatives.

"Instead of being accountable to the American people and casting a vote to authorize what all agree is a substantial constitutional step, you have instead attempted to avoid this fundamental requirement by invoking the Speaker's announcement of an 'official impeachment inquiry' at a press conference," Pence's office said in a statement.

The Pentagon also said in a letter to the three committees that it has taken steps to identify and preserve potentially relevant documents, but that the subpoena “raises a number of legal and practical concerns" and the department would not comply “at this time.”

Pelosi: House not to vote on inquiry 'at this time'

During a Tuesday evening press conference, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that a full vote on the House of Representatives floor concerning Trump's impeachment inquiry has not been scheduled.

“There is no requirement that we have a vote and so at this time we will not be having a vote," Pelosi told reporters following a meeting with fellow House Democrats.

House Democrats, spearheaded by Pelosi, launched last month the impeachment inquiry of Trump after a whistleblower’s disclosure of the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump allegedly sought Ukraine’s help to smear Biden.

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Trump reportedly urged Zelensky about eight times during the phone call to work with his lawyer Giuliani to investigate government corruption involving Biden and his son, Hunter.

The US president dismissed the Ukraine allegations as another witch-hunt attempting to smear his already tarnished reputation and damage his popularity as the Americans get closer to the 2020 presidential election.

Trump has denounced the impeachment inquiry as a "coup" by Democrats against him.

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