Trump's team called the requet a "publicity stunt"
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Donald Trump declined a request to testify at his upcoming impeachment trial, after Democrats attempted to get the former US president under oath to answer questions over his conduct during the Capitol riots.
The demand suggests the House impeachment managers — who will prosecute the case — intend to pursue an aggressive case against Mr Trump despite the fact that he has left office.
The Democratic managers said they had made the request because Mr Trump disputed "critical facts" in the case.
The managers accused Mr Trump of inciting an insurrection with his call to his supporters to "fight like hell" against his election defeat shortly before they stormed the Capitol on January 6 in a deadly riot that left five dead.
In their filing on Tuesday, Mr Trump’s legal team denied that the president incited the attack or intended to disrupt Congress’ certification of the results when he urged his followers to march on the Capitol.
They also argued that Mr Trump’s claims of election fraud were protected under his right to free speech.
In a letter to the former president on Thursday, Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin said: "In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath".
Mr Raskin requested that Mr Trump provide the testimony and submit to cross-examination "either before or during the Senate impeachment trial".
Mr Trump’s legal team were quick to shoot down the request, accusing Democrats of a "publicity stunt".
"Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations," they added.
The Democrats indicated that Mr Trump’s refusal to testify could be used against him at the trial, which begins on February 9.
The impeachment managers could also seek a subpoena against Mr Trump in a bid to compel him to testify, which would require a vote in the Senate.
While Mr Trump’s testimony would no doubt create a dramatic, made-for-TV moment, in the proceedings it is unlikely to alter the outcome.
At least 17 Republican senators would need to join with every Democratic senator in order to convict Mr Trump, a high bar amid the huge support the former president enjoys among his party.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene
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Meanwhile Republican congresswoman and conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday told the House she regretted some "words of the past" ahead of a vote to strip her of her committee assignments.
Mrs Greene, who has previously backed claims that the 9/11 terror attack and school shootings were staged events, said: "I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true… And that is absolutely what I regret."
However Mrs Greene stopped short of an outright apology, instead shifting blame onto the media, which she compared to the QAnon conspiracy theory which posits that Democrats are tied to a global sex trafficking ring.
"Will we allow the media, that is just as guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies, to divide us?" she asked the chamber.
Democrats were expected to move forward later on Thursday with the vote to remove her from her committee posts.
The vote will force Mrs Greene’s Republican colleagues to go on the record to defend or rebuke Mrs Greene, who enjoys a close relationship with Mr Trump.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Speaker, said that she was "profoundly concerned" by Republicans’ "acceptance of an extreme conspiracy theorist."
"Particularly disturbing is their eagerness to reward a QAnon adherent, a 9/11 truther, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings, to give them committee positions. Who could imagine they would put such a person on the education committee?"
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