Tag: U.S. House

House Democrats subpoena EU ambassador blocked from Ukraine testimony

Axios logoThe chairs of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees have subpoenaed U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, who was blocked by the Trump administration from testifying in their Ukraine investigation on Tuesday, to turn over documents by Oct. 14 and appear at a deposition on Oct. 16.

The big picture: The chairs said in a statement that the State Department’s decision to stop Sondland from testifying will be considered evidence of obstruction in their impeachment inquiry. They added that the State Department is withholding relevant messages from Sondland’s personal device about the Trump administration’s interactions with the Ukrainian government.

“These actions appear to be part of the White House’s effort to obstruct the impeachment inquiry and to cover up President Trump’s misconduct from Congress and the American people.  Ambassador Sondland’s testimony and documents are vital, and that is precisely why the Administration is now blocking his testimony and withholding his documents.”

— Chairmen Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel and Elijah Cummings

View the complete October 8 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

3 House committees subpoena Pentagon and Office of Management and Budget

Axios logoThe House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees on Monday subpoenaed the Department of Defense and the White House Office of Management and Budget for documents related to President Trump’s efforts to push Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.

The big picture: The impeachment committees are probing whether Trump froze U.S. military aid to Ukraine in order to pressure its government to investigate Biden and his son over unsubstantiated corruption allegations. The subpoena compels the two agencies to turn over documents by Oct. 15.

“According to multiple press reports, at some point in July 2019, President Trump ordered Acting OMB Chief Mick Mulvaney to freeze the military aid to Ukraine, and Mulvaney reportedly conveyed the President’s order ‘through the budget office to the Pentagon and the State Department, which were told only that the administration was looking at whether the spending was necessary.'”

View the complete October 7 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

Pompeo says he sent response to House investigators, but subpoenaed documents remain undelivered

Washington Post logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that he had responded to the House committees seeking documents in their impeachment inquiry of President Trump, but congressional investigators say they are still waiting for Pompeo to comply with their subpoena.

Also, Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union ensnared in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, has agreed to meet behind closed doors Tuesday with the three panels — Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and House Oversight — spearheading the probe, according to a committee aide. On Saturday, the official confirmed the schedule on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

NBC News first reported Sondland’s planned appearance.

View the complete October 5 article by Karen DeYoung, Karoun Demirjian and Colby Itkowitz on The Washington Post website here.

House Democrats subpoena White House in impeachment inquiry

Axios logoHouse committees leading the impeachment inquiry against President Trump subpoenaed acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Friday.

The big picture: This comes after nearly a month of White House refusals to comply with House investigations into whether Trump jeopardized national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, and by withholding security assistance provided by Congress to help Ukraine, per the subpoena. The committees are demanding documents by Oct. 18.

    • “After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up,” the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios’ Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees’ demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

View the complete October 4 article by Orion Rummler on the Axios website.

Five National Polls Show Support For Impeachment

Multiple polls show Americans warming up to the idea of impeaching Trump, following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s declaration of an official impeachment inquiry in late September. Since Pelosi (D-CA) made the announcement, at least five national polls show a dramatic shift in public sentiment in favor of impeaching Trump.

On Thursday, a USA Today/Ipsos poll showed 45 percent of Americans support a vote by the House to impeach Trump. Only 38 percent oppose such a vote. A poll by the same outfit in June showed overwhelming public sentiment opposing impeachment by a 61 percent – 32 percent margin.

Polls from CNN follow the same pattern. A May poll shows only 41 percent of Americans supporting the impeachment and removal of Trump from office, while 54 percent opposed. Following Pelosi’s announcement, 47 percent supported Trump’s impeachment and removal, while only 45 percent opposed.

View the complete October 3 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Trump Rants While Democrats Lay Down the Law

The president’s angry public statements offer a stark contrast to Pelosi and Schiff’s response.

He called his Democratic investigators liars and traitors, deemed his potential 2020 campaign foe and son “stone cold crooked” and said the impeachment inquiry against him was “BULLSHIT.” They said grimly that they would go through the legal process of subpoenaing the White House for documents and noted their obligation to “give the president a chance to exonerate himself.”

He called the press “corrupt” and lambasted a reporter who asked what, if anything, the president wanted a foreign nation to do regarding Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, demanding that the reporter ask a question of the Finnish president instead – and then answered the question posed to the befuddled-looking Finnish leader. They pleaded lightly for questions about free trade and prescription drug costs before agreeing to answer questions about the impeachment probe.

He threatened a “major lawsuit” against those behind special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election – a probe he insists absolves him of wrongdoing. They solemnly warned the president that failure to cooperate with subpoenas would be viewed as obstruction of justice, in itself an impeachable offense.

View the complete October 2 article by Susan Milligan on The U.S. News and World Report website here.

Scoop: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

Axios logoThe White House is planning to send Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter as soon as Friday arguing that President Trump and his team can ignore lawmakers’ demands until she holds a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry, 2 sources familiar with the letter tell Axios.

Why it matters: By putting in writing the case that Trump and his supporters have been making verbally for days, the White House is preparing for a court fight and arguing to the public that its resistance to Congress’ requests is justified.

  • Trump wants to force House Democrats in vulnerable races to be on the record if they favor pursuing impeachment, these sources tell us.
  • Republicans also say the minority party can exert more influence over hearings and other aspects of an inquiry once it is formalized with a vote.
  • By calling this an inquiry without holding a vote, Pelosi and the Democratic committee chairmen are having it both ways, one official said. “They want to be a little bit pregnant.”

View the complete October 3 article by Alayna Treene and Margaret Talev on the Axios website here.

House questions Volker as impeachment probe ramps up

The Hill logoLawmakers from three House committees on Thursday began questioning Kurt Volker, the Trump administration’s former special envoy to Ukraine, as Democrats accelerate their impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Volker, who resigned his post last week, was one of the figures named in the whistleblower complaint indicating that Trump had pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden, while delaying hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid that had been approved by Congress.

The notion that Trump would enlist the help of a foreign leader to gain a political advantage over a domestic rival outraged Democrats, who have heightened their investigative scrutiny of the president and could be drafting impeachment articles before the end of the year.

View the complete October 3 article by Scott Wong and Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Trump fumes amid impeachment furor

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Wednesday grew testy with a reporter who pressed him about what he was seeking from Ukraine in relation to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, demanding that the reporter ask a question to Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.

“Listen, are you ready? We have the president of Finland, ask him a question,” Trump shot back to Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason. “Did you hear me? Ask him a question.”

The exchange came toward the end of a combative press conference that was unusually heated even by Trump standards. It seemed to exemplify the growing anger the president has over the impeachment effort in the House against him.

View the complete October 2 article by Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

First House Republican backs impeachment inquiry

The Hill logoRep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) on Friday became the first House Republican to voice support for an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

In a conference call with reporters, Amodei made clear he wouldn’t vote to impeach Trump, but he also expressed concern over the president’s dealings with Ukraine, adding that the House should “put it through the process and see what happens.”

“I’m a big fan of oversight, so let’s let the committees get to work and see where it goes,” he said, according to audio of the call released by The Nevada Independent.

View the complete September 27 article by Tal Axelrod on The Hill website here.