Ukraine documents: House Democrats subpoena Pompeo

WASHINGTON: Democrats in the US House of Representatives pursuing an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump pressed ahead with their probe on Friday, issuing a subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for documents concerning contact with the Ukrainian government.

Following a whistle blower complaint that Trump, a Republican, solicited a political favor from Ukraine’s president that could help him get re-elected, the lawmakers are investigating concerns that Trump’s actions eopardized national security and the integrity of the US elections. The House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight Committees also scheduled depositions for five State Department officials over the next two weeks, including Kurt Volker, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, says a UK-based international news agency. Volker resigned his post on Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter. The reason for Volker’s resignation was not immediately known.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the subpoena or Volker’s resignation. The committees announced the subpoena after the Trump administration missed a Thursday deadline to provide documents and information about contacts with Ukrainian officials, as well as a July 25 telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. That call is central to the impeachment investigation that Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the Democratic-led House, announced this week. The impeachment inquiry has cast a new pall over Trump’s presidency just months after he emerged from the shadow cast by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether he colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. Trump has reacted furiously to the impeachment inquiry, arguing he did nothing wrong, and accused Democrats of launching a politically motivated “witch hunt.”

More than 300 former national security officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations on Friday endorsed the impeachment inquiry, saying they did not prejudge the outcome but wanted to know more facts. As the subpoena was announced, Trump’s re-election campaign said it would spend $10 million next week airing an ad called “Biden corruption” on television and websites that accuses Democrats of playing politics with the impeachment investigation.

Former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden is Trump’s leading rival in the race for the 2020 presidential election. The White House this week released a summary of Trump’s July 25 phone call in which he asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden ahead of the November 2020 presidential election - a call at the heart of the whistle blower’s complaint.