Live updates: House Democrats to subpoena White House for documents in its impeachment inquiry focused on Ukraine

2019-10-02 14:51:21

Separately, Pompeo confirmed that he was on Trump’s call with the leader of Ukraine, an acknowledgment that came at the outset of what is shaping up as another busy day in the drive for impeachment by House Democrats.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Wednesday that he was on the July call in which President Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son.

Pompeo’s acknowledgment, at a news conference in Rome, came at the start of what is shaping up as another busy day in the drive for impeachment by House Democrats.

The two key figures in the drama — Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — are scheduled to hold separate news conferences on Wednesday. Pelosi is appearing in the morning with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), while Trump is scheduled to hold a joint news conference with the president of Finland.

The House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, announced it will subpoena the White House for documents related to Trump’s communications with Ukraine.

The State Department’s inspector general is also expected to meet with staff of key committees on Capitol Hill in the afternoon to share documents related to Ukraine.

●Impeachment inquiry erupts into battle between executive, legislative branches

●Key federal agencies increasingly compelled to benefit Trump

●Impeachment inquiry puts new focus on Giuliani’s work for prominent figures in Ukraine

Read the whistleblower complaint | The rough transcript of Trump’s call with Zelensky | Related coverage and analysis of the Trump impeachment inquiry

10:30 a.m.: House Democrats to subpoena White House for documents in its impeachment inquiry focused on Ukraine

In a memo issued Wednesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said that the White House’s “flagrant disregard of multiple voluntary requests for documents — combined with stark and urgent warnings from the Inspector General about the gravity of these allegations — have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena.”

The subpoena will be issued Friday.

9:30 a.m.: Eric Trump cites Republican fundraising as he taunts Democrats

The president’s son Eric Trump went on Twitter on Wednesday morning to taunt Democrats for their impeachment inquiry.

In a tweet, he attached an Associated Press news story about Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee having raised a record $125 million in the third quarter of the year.

“This is what happens when you manufacture nonsense... the American people see right through it. Keep it up @SpeakerPelosi,” Eric Trump wrote.

9:15 a.m.: State Department’s inspector general headed to Capitol Hill for afternoon meeting

Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general, plans to meet with staffers of key House and Senate committees Wednesday at 3 p.m. at his request.

The committees were notified Tuesday that Linick wants “to discuss and provide staff with copies of documents related to the State Department and Ukraine,” according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post.

The offer by Linick’s office, which operates mostly independently from the State Department and is responsible for investigating abuse and mismanagement, comes amid a standoff between Pompeo and House Democrats, who are demanding documents and testimony on Ukraine-related matters for their impeachment inquiry.

Linick’s office “obtained the documents from the acting legal adviser of the Department of State,” the letter said. The inspector general doesn’t have to seek Pompeo’s approval to approach Congress with information, especially if it is not classified.

It is unclear exactly what Linick will provide the committees, which include the panels in charge of foreign relations, intelligence, appropriations and oversight in the House and Senate. But the demand for any credible information related to Ukraine and the State Department is at a fever pitch as Democrats seek to build the case for Trump’s ouster based on his dealings with Ukraine’s leadership.

— Karoun Demirjian and John Hudson

9 a.m.: Trump focuses on other issues in first tweets of the day

Unlike previous days, impeachment did not dominate Trump’s early activity on Twitter on Wednesday.

He instead turned to other topics, including his promised border wall and a federal judge’s order to block a California law that would require Trump to release his tax returns for access to the state’s primary election ballot.

“I won the right to be a presidential candidate in California, in a major Court decision handed down yesterday,” Trump wrote. “It was filed against me by the Radical Left Governor of that State to tremendous Media hoopla. The VICTORY, however, was barely covered by the Fake News. No surprise!”

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said the state would appeal the ruling.

In early tweets, Trump also urged Louisiana voters to pick a Republican candidate in the state’s gubernatorial primary on Oct. 12. Candidates from both parties compete in the state’s “jungle primary.”

8:15 a.m.: Former staff members say it’s unusual for a secretary of state to listen in on a call with leader of small nation

Former staff members who worked on foreign leader calls said it is very unusual for a secretary of state to listen in on calls with leaders from a country as small as Ukraine.

Partly it is because the secretary of state’s schedule is very busy and rarely aligns with the president’s schedule of routine calls to heads of state, so they arrange only to be on major foreign leader conversations.

When Rex Tillerson was secretary of state, for example, he would coordinate plans to listen in on Trump’s calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The former staffers on the National Security Council said Pompeo’s presence on this call suggests the subject or the purpose of the call had high importance to the president, and thus to him. The former staffers spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak more candidly.

— Carol D. Leonnig

7:15 a.m.: Pompeo confirms he was on Trump’s July call with Zelensky

Pompeo acknowledged publicly for the first time Wednesday that he was on the July call between Trump and the leader of Ukraine.

Asked about the episode during a news conference in Rome, Pompeo said, “I was on the phone call.”

In response to a multipart question, he did not say whether he was comfortable with Trump’s pressing of Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter.

Pompeo said the call focused on issues such as the threat that Russia poses to Ukraine and the need for Ukraine to root out corruption.

He said the United States would consider to pursue those issues “even while all this noise is going on.”

During a Sept. 22 appearance on ABC News’s “This Week,” Pompeo was asked what he knew about Trump’s conversation with Zelensky following an initial Wall Street Journal report that the call was part of a whistleblower complaint.

Pompeo responded by saying he hadn’t seen the whistleblower report. He later said he had seen a statement from the Ukrainian foreign minister that there was no pressure applied on Zelensky. Pompeo made no mention of being on the call.

During his news conference Wednesday, Pompeo also repeated his claims from a letter on Tuesday that House Democratic staffers have been seeking to intimidate State Department officials in their efforts to learn more about Trump’s call with Zelensky.

“We won’t tolerate folks on Capitol Hill bullying, intimidating State Department employees. That’s unacceptable, and it’s not something that I’m going to permit to happen.” Pompeo said.

6:30 a.m.: Country to hear directly from Trump, Pelosi on Wednesday

The country will hear directly from the two leading figures in the impeachment drama — Trump and Pelosi — at separately scheduled news conferences on Wednesday.

Pelosi plans to hold a news conference on Capitol Hill at 10:45 a.m. She will be accompanied by Schiff, who has become the public face for Democrats in the impeachment inquiry.

Trump, meanwhile, has a 2 p.m. joint news conference scheduled with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, who is visiting the White House on Wednesday. Trump is certain to get questions from U.S. journalists about the impeachment drive.

6:15 a.m.: Critics blast Trump for calling his impeachment inquiry a ‘COUP’

Trump claimed he was a victim of a coup d’etat on Tuesday night, continuing his dramatic rhetoric that has drawn fierce pushback from legal scholars and Democrats since the House impeachment inquiry began last week.

“As I learn more and more each day,” he wrote on Twitter, “I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of the United States of America!”

Critics disputed the president’s tweet by pointing to basic definitions of a coup d’etat, a violent illegal overthrow of the government by an opposing group, and impeachment, a legal process laid out in the Constitution. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), a presidential hopeful, even suggested Trump should not be allowed to make such a remark on Twitter, sharing his “COUP” tweet with CEO Jack Dorsey.