Trump's impeachment probe reaches into White House

FE Team | Published: October 05, 2019 21:18:24

WASHINGTON, Oct 05 (AP): For the first time, the impeachment inquiry reached directly into the White House on Friday as Democrats subpoenaed officials about contacts with Ukraine and President Donald Trump signaled his administration would not cooperate.
The demand for documents capped a tumultuous week that widened the constitutional battle between the executive branch and Congress and sharpened the political standoff with more witnesses, testimony and documents to come.
Trump said he would formally object to Congress about the House impeachment inquiry, even as he acknowledged that Democrats "have the votes" to proceed. They'll be sorry in the end, he predicted.
"I really believe that they're going to pay a tremendous price at the polls," Trump said.
But Democrats accused Trump of speeding down "a path of defiance, obstruction and cover-up" and warned that defying the House subpoena would in itself be considered "evidence of obstruction" and a potentially an impeachable offense.
Lawmakers have made Trump's request last summer that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden the centerpiece of the probe. A whistleblower complaint said that Trump sought to use military assistance for Ukraine as leverage to push President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the 2020 Democratic hopeful.
"We deeply regret that President Trump has put us - and the nation - in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice," wrote the three Democratic House chairmen, Reps. Elijah Cummings, Adam Schiff and Eliot Engel, in issuing Friday's subpoena after White House resistance to the panel's request for witnesses and documents.
Fighting the inquiry, the White House was expected to send a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arguing that Congress could not mount its impeachment investigation without first having a vote to authorize it. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham derided the subpoena as coming from a Democratic "kangaroo court."
But Pelosi insisted the House is well within its rules to conduct oversight of the executive branch under the U.S. Constitution.
In the letter accompanying the subpoena, the three chairmen agreed, stating, "Speaker Pelosi has confirmed that an impeachment inquiry is underway, and it is not for the White House to say otherwise."
Trump's comments at the White House came shortly before Democrats sent a separate extensive request for documents to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Ukraine.
Pence spokeswoman Katie Waldman dismissed the demand, saying that given its wide scope, "it does not appear to be a serious request."
The House has also subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
When Pelosi recently announced that the House was initiating the inquiry, she didn't seek the consent of the full chamber, as was done for impeachment investigations into former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. But it is proceeding at a rapidly escalating pace.
Late Thursday, House investigators released a cache of text messages that showed top U.S. diplomats encouraging Ukraine's newly elected president to conduct an investigation linked to Biden's family in return for granting a high-profile visit with Trump in Washington.
The release followed a 10-hour interview with one of the diplomats, Kurt Volker, who stepped down as special envoy to Ukraine after the impeachment inquiry had begun.
On Friday, investigators in Congress heard again from Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who brought forward the whistleblower complaint of Trump's call with the Ukraine president that sparked the impeachment inquiry.