No vote to formalize the inquiry, Pelosi says
The House will not vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.
Pelosi, D-Calif., made the announcement after she gathered Democratic lawmakers in a closed-session to discuss the matter.
Trump has said that without a vote, the ongoing impeachment inquiry is “illegitimate.” But Pelosi said Tuesday that “we’re not here to call bluffs,” and “this is not a game to us.”
Pelosi has said Congress is well within its authority to investigate Trump as part of its oversight role. The Constitution gives the House impeachment powers but provides little guidance on the process.
Earlier Tuesday, the House’s lead investigator, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam
Schiff, said the White House had ordered the Defense Department to not comply with a subpoena for documents.
The California Democrat said such a move means “the case for obstruction of Congress continues to build.”
Also Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence refused to comply with House Democrats’ request for a long list of documents as part of its impeachment inquiry; and Jon Sale, attorney for Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, notified lawmakers that Giuliani will not comply with a subpoena issued
to appear before House investigators in the impeachment inquiry.
Democrats set a Wednesday deadline for Giuliani to provide documents, and it was unclear how they might respond to his refusal to comply.
The inquiry is moving quickly as a steady stream of officials, largely from the State Department, are appearing behind closed doors this week, some providing vivid details about the events surrounding the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate a firm tied to political rival Joe Biden’s family and Ukraine’s own involvement in the 2016
presidential election.
A whistleblower’s complaint about the phone call, later made public, is what prompted Pelosi to launch the impeachment inquiry.
In 10 hours of testimony Monday, a former White House aide, Fiona Hill, recounted that national security adviser John Bolton was so alarmed by Giuliani’s back-channel activities in Ukraine that he described Trump’s personal lawyer as a “hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up.”
The former White House aide detailed Bolton’s concerns to lawmakers and told them that she had at least two meetings with National Security Council lawyer John Eisenberg about the matter at
Bolton’s request, according to a person familiar with the testimony who requested anonymity to discuss the confidential interview.
Hill, a top adviser on Russia, also discussed U.S. ambassador Gordon Sondland and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, the person said, telling the three committees leading the investigation that Bolton also told her he was not part of “whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” an apparent reference to talks over Ukraine.
Giuliani was heavily involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine on the investigations. He said Tuesday he was “very disappointed”
in Bolton’s comment. Bolton, Giuliani said, “has been called much worse.”
Giuliani also acknowledged he had received payments totaling $500,000 related to the work for a company operated by Lev Parnas who, along with associate Igor Fruman, played a key role in Giuliani’s efforts to launch a Ukrainian corruption investigation against Biden and his son, Hunter. Parnas and Furman were arrested last week on campaign finance charges as they tried to board an international flight.
On Tuesday, House investigators heard from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, who was concerned about the “fake news smear” against
the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, whom Trump recalled in May, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.
The interviews, like the others conducted by House impeachment investigators, took place behind closed doors. Republican lawmakers have aimed their ire at the process, saying witnesses should be interviewed out in the open.
Five more officials are scheduled this week, mostly from the State Department, though it is unclear if they will all appear after Trump declared he wouldn’t cooperate with the probe. Sondland is expected to appear for a deposition under subpoena Thursday.