Committee detailed its authority and intent to conduct this investigation in a series of reports, memoranda, and legal filings.38
On August 22, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, sent a letter requesting that the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Oversight and Reform, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Financial Services provide "information, including documents and testimony, depositions, and/or interview transcripts" relevant to the "ongoing impeachment investigation relating to President Trump."39
In September, the Intelligence Committee, the Oversight Committee, and the Foreign Affairs Committee sent letters requesting documents and interviews from the White House and the Department of State regarding the actions of President Trump, the President's personal agent, Rudy Giuliani, and others to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and a debunked conspiracy theory alleging Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.40
On September 22, President Trump admitted to discussing former Vice President Biden and his son with the President of Ukraine during a telephone call on July 25.41 On September 24, Speaker Pelosi stated publicly that the House Committees were "moving forward" to "proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry." She explained that, for the past several months, the House had been "investigating in our Committees and litigating in the courts, so the House can gather 'all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise its full Article I powers, including a constitutional power of the utmost gravity-approval of articles of impeachment.42
On September 25, the White House made public a Memorandum of Telephone Conversation of President Trump's call with President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25. As discussed in detail in Section I, this call record documented how President Trump directly and explicitly asked President Zelensky to launch investigations of former Vice President Biden and the 2016 election.43
Following the Speaker's announcement and the release of the call record, the Intelligence Committee, the Oversight Committee, and the Foreign Affairs Committee continued their investigation, requesting documents and information, issuing subpoenas, and conducting interviews and depositions. The 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."44
On October 31, the House voted to approve House Resolution 660, directing the Committees "to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America." The resolution set forth the process for holding public hearings, releasing deposition transcripts, presenting a report to the Judiciary Committee, holding proceedings
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