Noah Feldman, Columnist

White House Counsel Shouldn’t Act as Trump’s Impeachment Lawyer

Pat Cipollone is implicated in the obstruction of Congress.

January 16, 2020 at 5:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Not the man for this job.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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White House counsel Pat Cipollone will reportedly lead the team that represents President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial. Superficially, this may sound logical. The opposite is true. It’s highly problematic for Cipollone to represent Trump in the Senate.

For starters, Cipollone is the author of the letter to executive branch employees directing them not to cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry. Cipollone’s Oct. 8 letter told the House of Representatives that its impeachment inquiry was illegitimate and that Trump and the executive branch wouldn’t participate in it. The letter was written “on behalf of” Trump. This letter was widely received as legally preposterous and constitutionally wrong. But that’s not the worst of it. That letter became the basis for the House’s article of impeachment of Trump for obstruction of Congress.