Presidential election, Speaker Nancy P. Pelosi announced on September 24, 2019 that the House would proceed with "an official impeachment inquiry," under which the Investigating Committees, the Judiciary Committee, and the Committees on Financial Services and Ways and Means would continue their investigations of Presidential misconduct.[1]
Following that announcement, the Investigating Committees issued additional requests and subpoenas for witness interviews and depositions and for documents in the possession of the Executive Branch.[2] The three committees "made clear that this information would be 'collected as part of the House's impeachment inquiry and shared among the Committees, as well as with the Committee on the Judiciary as appropriate.'"[3] However, as detailed further in the portion of this Report discussing obstruction of Congress, White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone sent a letter on October 8, 2019 to Speaker Pelosi and Chairmen Adam B. Schiff, Eliot L. Engel, and Elijah E. Cummings stating that "President Trump and his Administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry."[4] As a result, the Administration refused—and continues to refuse—to produce any documents subpoenaed by the Investigating Committees as part of the impeachment inquiry, and nine current or former Administration officials remain in defiance of subpoenas for their testimony.[5]
Nevertheless, many other current and former officials complied with their legal obligations to appear for testimony, and the Investigating Committees conducted depositions or transcribed interviews of seventeen witnesses.[6] These depositions and interviews were conducted consistent with the Rules of the House and with longstanding procedures governing investigations by HPSCI and the other committees.[7] Members of the Minority previously advocated expanding these authorities, explaining that "[t]he ability to interview witnesses in private allows committees to gather information confidentially and in more depth than is possible under the five-minute rule governing committee
- ↑ Press Release, Pelosi Remarks Announcing Impeachment Inquiry (Sept. 24, 2019).
- ↑ See The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report: Report for the H. Perm. Select Comm. on Intelligence Pursuant to H. Res. 660 in Consultation with the H. Comm. on Oversight and Reform and the H. Comm. on Foreign Affairs at 208, 116th Cong. (2019) (hereinafter "Ukraine Report").
- ↑ Id. (quoting Letter from Chairman Elijah E. Cummings, Chairman, H. Comm. on Oversight and Reform, Adam B. Schiff, Chairman, H. Perm. Select Comm. on Intelligence, and Eliot L. Engel, H. Comm. on Foreign Affairs, to Mick Mulvaney, Acting Chief of Staff, The White House (Oct. 4, 2019)).
- ↑ Letter from Pat A. Cipollone, Counsel to the President, to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, Adam B. Schiff, Chairman, H. Perm. Select Comm. on Intelligence, Eliot L. Engel, Chairman, H. Comm. on Foreign Affairs, and Elijah E. Cummings, Chairman, H. Comm. on Oversight and Reform (Oct. 8, 2019) (hereinafter "Oct. 8 Cipollone Letter").
- ↑ Ukraine Report at 30-31. Ten witnesses defied subpoenas for testimony, but the Investigating Committees subsequently withdrew their subpoena to one of the officials. Id. at 236.
- ↑ Depositions of four of the witnesses postdated the House's approval of H. Res. 660 on October 31.
- ↑ Rules governing the use of deposition authorities were issued at the beginning of the current Congress, just as they have been during previous Congresses. See H. Res. 6 § 103(a), 116th Cong. (2019) (providing authority for chairs of standing committees and chair of HPSCI to order the taking of depositions); Regulations for Use of Deposition Authority, 165 Cong. Rec. H1216-17 (daily ed. Jan. 25, 2019) (setting forth regulations pursuant to this provision).
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