Defense Department, WH budget office subpoenaed in impeachment probe

WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Monday subpoenaed the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Defense as part of the widening impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

The House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight committees have requested documents related to Trump’s order to withhold nearly $400 million in U.S. military aid days before Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

The committee leaders sent letters to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and acting OMB Director Russell Vought that set an Oct. 15 deadline for turning over documents.

"The Committees are investigating the extent to which President Trump jeopardized national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere with our 2020 election and by withholding military assistance provided by Congress to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression, as well as any efforts to cover up these matters," the letter states.

It was signed by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump said the White House Counsel’s Office is preparing a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) denying access to all documents requested of the White House in connection with the inquiry.

Asked by reporters about the letter, Trump repeated long-standing grievances with the House inquiry, calling it a “scam.”

House Democrats launched the inquiry on Sept. 24 after a U.S. intelligence official filed a whistleblower complaint outlining Trump’s July 25 call with Zelensky and efforts by the White House to “lock down” records of the call.

The three committees since have issued subpoenas to the White House, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. The committees also wrote to Vice President Mike Pence last Friday requesting documents related to Pence’s communications with Zelensky.

Trump has said the call at the center of the inquiry was “perfect.”

But congressional Democrats say Trump abused his office by inviting a foreign entity to investigate his political rivals.

The president, according to a summary of the July 25 call released by the White House, called on Zelensky to open investigations into Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate, and Hunter Biden along with an American cybersecurity firm that oversaw security for the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

Trump repeatedly has taken aim at Hunter Biden’s stint on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company while his father was in office. However, Ukraine’s current prosecutor has said there was no wrongdoing committed by the Bidens.

The widening probe comes a day after attorneys for the original U.S. intelligence whistleblower said they were representing a second whistleblower with “first hand” knowledge of some of the events and conversations outlined in the whistleblower’s August complaint.

Asked if he was concerned by the emergence of a second whistleblower, Trump told reporters "not at all, because the call was a perfect call."

On Monday, the president’s supporters also continued to downplay Trump’s call for China to investigate the Bidens.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), appearing on “Fox and Friends,” said Trump likely was joking, a sentiment that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have repeated.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, speaking to reporters ahead of planned trade talks with China this week, told reporters at the White House Monday, “I don’t honestly know” when asked if the president was joking about his request to China.

Kudlow said the request had not come up during past trade meetings.

“The president’s view is there is no linkage between that and trade talks … I guarantee there will be no linkage,” Kudlow said.

Trump, fielding questions from reporters during a meeting with top military officials, refused to answer repeated questions about whether he was serious or joking in making his open appeal to China.