• Friday, March 29, 2024
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House Democrats subpoena US diplomat in impeachment probe

House Democrats subpoena US diplomat in impeachment probe

The House committees leading the Ukraine-related impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump have subpoenaed Gordon Sondland, US ambassador to the EU, to appear before Congress after the state department ordered him not to testify on Tuesday.

The heads of the Democratic-controlled committees — intelligence, oversight and foreign affairs — accused the Trump administration of obstructing their investigation by preventing Mr Sondland from appearing for a deposition and also blocking him from providing the committees with messages on a personal device.

“We consider this interference to be obstruction of the impeachment inquiry,” the committee heads said. “We will be issuing subpoena to ambassador Sondland for both his testimony and documents.”

Mr Sondland, a former hotelier and Trump fundraiser, had been scheduled to appear Tuesday before the House committees leading the impeachment inquiry. But his lawyer, Robert Luskin, said the state department told Mr Sondland that he should not appear for a voluntary deposition.

Mr Luskin said his client was “profoundly disappointed” he would not be able to appear, but added that he “stands ready to answer the committee’s questions fully and truthfully”.

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Mr Trump said on Twitter that he “would love to send” Mr Sondland to testify, but that “he would be testifying before a totally compromised kangaroo court”.

Adam Schiff, the Democrat who heads the House intelligence committee, said the text messages and emails from Mr Sondland’s “personal device” that were being withheld by the state department were “deeply relevant” to the inquiry.

“By preventing us from hearing from this witness and obtaining these documents, the president and secretary of state are taking actions that prevent us from getting the facts needed to protect the nation’s security,” Mr Schiff added.

The Democratic- controlled House committees have proceeded rapidly with an investigation that most experts believe will lead to articles of impeachment being brought — and passed — against Mr Trump. The president is banking on Republicans senators defending him during a potential trial in the Senate.

Most Republicans have so far refused to criticise Mr Trump over his July phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, in which he encouraged President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden — a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination — and the local business activities of his son Hunter.

Republican lawmakers defended the state department’s decision, echoing Mr Trump’s criticisms of Mr Schiff. Jim Jordan, the Republican congressman from Ohio, said Mr Schiff was running an “unfair and partisan process”.

The House committees are also looking into why Mr Trump withheld $391m in congressionally authorised military aid to Ukraine and whether he used the funds as a bargaining chip to urge Mr Zelensky to find dirt on the Bidens, in a move critics have said would amount to foreign interference in the US election.