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3 House committees subpoena Pompeo over Ukraine call

Posted at 1:26 PM, Sep 27, 2019
and last updated 2019-09-27 16:31:29-04

The chairmen of three House committees subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Friday over his failure to produce answers about Ukraine.

"Pursuant to the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry, we are hereby transmitting a subpoena that compels you to produce the documents set forth in the accompanying schedule by October 4, 2019," the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees wrote in a letter to Pompeo.

In addition to the subpoena, Reps. Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel and Elijah Cummings informed the top US diplomat in a separate letter that they had scheduled depositions for five State Department officials who have been mentioned in relation to the inquiry -- Ambassador Marie "Masha" Yovanovitch, Ambassador Kurt Volker, Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent, Counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl and Ambassador Gordon Sondland.

The chairman of the three committees wrote to Pompeo on September 9 with a request for six categories of documents "related to reported efforts by President Trump and his associates to improperly pressure the Ukrainian government to assist the President's bid for reelection."

That initial letter requested these materials by September 16. After that deadline was missed, Schiff, Engel and Cummings sent another letter on Monday warning that unless the documents were handed over, "our Committees will have no choice but to move towards compulsory process this week."

The State Department had until Thursday to reply.

Pompeo has not publicly addressed the State Department's role in Rudy Giuliani's dealings with Ukraine and the State Department has not responded to numerous requests for comment about the situation.