Pompeo Not Complying With Impeachment Inquiry, Senior House Democrat Says

Hayley Miller
Updated

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is not complying with a subpoena issued as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Engel is one of three House Democrats ― along with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California and House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland ― leading the impeachment inquiry.

“He’s not complying with the inquiry so far,” Engel said of Pompeo during an appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday. “We’re hoping that there are discussions that are ongoing and we’re hoping that he will comply.”

Pompeo has defended the president’s push for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He acknowledged last week that he was one of several U.S. officials on the line during Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The call became the subject of a subsequent whistleblower complaint filed in August by a U.S. intelligence official that prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to open a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.

Engel’s committee issued a subpoena for Pompeo on Sept. 27 that requested he make five State Department officials available for depositions and turn over a slew of documents related to Trump’s Ukraine dealings. The deadline for those documents was Friday.

In response, Pompeo accused Engel of trying to “bully” and “intimidate” department officials and claimed the records requested are potentially privileged and restricted.

Engel said Sunday that Pompeo’s accusations of intimidation are “laughable” given the “numerous complaints” from State Department staffers who have alleged that the Trump administration has discriminated against them.

“People who were summarily let go or fired because they were deemed to be the wrong political persuasion or the wrong ethnic persuasion,” Engel told CBS. “I find it really laughable that the secretary of state suddenly has this great concern for the State Department.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.