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"The President will address these false charges in the Senate
and expects to be fully exonerated, because he did nothing
wrong," White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a
statement.
The statement did not make clear how he would address the
charges. Asked in an interview with Fox News whether Trump would
testify, Grisham said she did not know.
"I'm not going to get ahead of what he may do but I'm sure we'll
participate in some way, certainly with our counsel," she said.
"And we're going to be calling on witnesses and we hope that
they will participate."
Calling the process partisan and lacking in fairness, Trump and
his allies have sought to paint his Democratic accusers as
seeking to undo his 2016 election.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives announced formal
articles of impeachment against Trump on Tuesday, accusing him
of abusing power by pressuring Ukraine to probe a political
rival and obstructing Congress' investigation into the scandal.
The House could vote as soon as next week. The charges conclude
weeks of investigation and hearings, which Trump has derided as
one-sided and failing to offer him a fair opportunity to present
his side. The White House has refused repeated requests for
senior officials to testify and for relevant documents.
The House is almost certain to approve impeachment along
partisan lines. A trial would then likely be held in January in
the Senate, which is controlled by the Republicans. No
Republican in the House or Senate has come out in favor of
convicting Trump and removing him from office.
WITNESS TESTIMONY?
Trump has raised the prospect of having his political
adversaries forced to testify in the Senate, a move that he has
argued will vindicate him while damaging those who have sought
to impeach him.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell raised the prospect
that the Senate could hold a vote on the articles of impeachment
without hearing from witnesses.
The Senate "could decide ... that they've heard enough and they
believe they know what would happen and could move to vote,"
McConnell told reporters.
McConnell said no decisions had been made about how the chamber
would ultimately proceed.
Trump and his allies have sought to depict the impeachment
process as a net gain for the president - arguing that the
Democratic-led effort has pushed his supporters to back him more
staunchly. Republicans are also trying to leverage the process
to attack Democrats in congressional districts the party may be
able to pick up in the 2020 election.
"The announcement of two baseless articles of impeachment does
not hurt the President, it hurts the American people, who expect
their elected officials to work on their behalf to strengthen
our Nation," Grisham said in the statement.
(Reporting by Ginger Gibson, Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu;
Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Peter Cooney)
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