Three Democratic committee chairmen in the House issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Friday, seeking documents dealing with President Trump’s contacts with Ukraine.
The subpoena set an October 4 deadline for Pompeo to provide the documents to Congress. In a separate letter to the secretary of state, the three Democrats — Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Eliot Engel, Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, and Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings — informed him that they would consider any refusal to comply with the subpoena obstruction of justice.
“The subpoenaed documents shall be part of the impeachment inquiry and shared among the Committees. Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry,” the letter read.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday announced the launch of a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump, amid accusations that he withheld military aid from Ukraine in an effort to prompt a Ukrainian investigation of Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden.
The White House released a partial transcript this week of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, which showed that Trump repeatedly asked Zelensky to investigate allegations that Biden used his position as Barack Obama’s vice president to help a Ukrainian energy company avoid a corruption probe soon after his son, Hunter Biden, was appointed to its board of directors.
On Tuesday, Trump admitted that he temporarily withheld congressionally mandated military aid from Ukraine that was intended to help the country ward off Russian aggression, prompting suspicion of a quid pro quo scheme.
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Mairead McArdle
National Review
