The chairman of a congressional panel helping to spearhead an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he plans to issue a subpoena to the White House for documents relating to the administration's contacts with Ukraine.
"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," House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings wrote in a memorandum to committee members.
"The committees are working in a coordinated and expeditious manner," wrote the authors -- House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, Oversight panel chairman Elijah Cummings and foreign affairs chairman Eliot Engel.
The subpoena is directed toward acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. It requests 13 separate batches of documents related to a July phone call that Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and related matters. The Oversight panel will issue the subpoena in coordination with the House intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, Cummings said.
The action came as House and Senate staff prepared to meet with the State Department's inspector general on Wednesday. A State Department invitation to the meeting, which was reviewed by The Associated Press, requested an "urgent" meeting with staff from eight House and Senate panels.
The invitation said only that the inspector general, Steve Linick, "would like to discuss and provide staff with copies of documents related to the State Department and Ukraine." The documents were obtained from the State Department's acting legal adviser, according to the email.
The subpoena threat is part of a rapidly expanding push by Democrats to obtain documents for their impeachment inquiry.
Democrats have already subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for any documents related to their involvement in the Ukraine drama.
Pompeo has strongly objected, saying he will not tolerate attempts to "bully" or "intimidate" State Department employees.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged Wednesday he was on the phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy that is at the center of the impeachment inquiry. He said that as America's chief diplomat he is well-versed in U.S. policy toward Ukraine. But Pompeo continued to push back against what he said was Democrats' "bullying and intimidation."
The Trump administration has set a defiant tone, resisting Congress' access to witnesses, even as House Democrats warn such efforts themselves could amount to an impeachable offense.
Democrats have scheduled closed-door depositions Thursday with former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and next week with ousted U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
