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CHARLESTON -- The Republican attorney general of West Virginia has joined a group asking the Senate to reject the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
The 21-attorney general coalition in a 14-page letter argued the articles adopted by the House of Representatives are flawed and factually insufficient, inherently destructive to the separation of powers and are contrary to the framers' vision of impeachment powers, a release from West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said.
"This partisan political effort undermines the democratic process, both now and in the future," the letter said.
"The House unilaterally rewrites the Constitution, without the people's consent to amend it. It weaponizes a process that should only be initiated in exceedingly rare circumstances and never for partisan purposes," the letter said. "This purely partisan attack on President Trump will damage democracy in America in the worst possible way: it will forever weaken the separation of powers -- the very edifice upon which our democracy stands."
The impeachment trial against the president is underway in the Senate. Trump was impeached by the House on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power over encouraging the president of Ukraine to announce it was investigating political adversary Joe Biden and his son.
A request for a comment from the state Democratic Party was not immediately returned.
Morrisey also is sending the letter to Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.
The letter, led by the attorneys general from South Carolina, Louisiana and Utah, was signed by the attorneys general from West Virginia, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. All are Republicans.