The House Pulls Mike Pompeo Into Its Ukraine Probe

Just days after announcing the start of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s pressuring of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to interfere in the 2020 elections by investigating former Vice President Joe Biden, congressional Democrats are already hitting the ground running.

On Friday the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees announced they had subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for a series of Ukraine-related documents requested by the committees more than two weeks ago. According to the subpoena, Pompeo has until Oct 4 to produce the documents; if he doesn’t, the committee chairs wrote in their letter to Pompeo, they’ll consider it evidence of obstruction of the impeachment inquiry.

“Your continued refusal to provide the requested documents not only prevents our committees from fully investigating these matters,” the chairs wrote, “but impairs Congress’ ability to fulfill its Constitutional responsibilities to protect our national security and the integrity of our democracy.”

The subpoena—the first of presumably many more over the course of the forthcoming impeachment inquiry—was accompanied by a separate letter to Pompeo informing him that a number of his State department employees are scheduled to be deposed as part of the investigation.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Democrats are looking for a full House vote on impeachment around Thanksgiving time—just two months away—so it makes sense that the appropriate committees are rushing to get everything they need so soon after the official inquiry was announced. Still, after months and months of waiting for Nancy Pelosi to get the show on the road, it’s amazing to see just how fast things are finally starting to move.