Last week, the US State Department said in a letter to the House Foreign Affairs Committee that they are not obliged to provide the panel with Ukraine scandal-related documents because the committee is investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, not allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden.
The Democrat-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAS) has announced contempt proceedings against Mike Pompeo, saying the US secretary of state refused to comply with the panel's two subpoenas related to the Ukraine scandal.
The first subpoena pertains to the committee's request that the State Department provide documents on the House impeachment probe into President Trump's withholding of military assistance to Ukraine.
The second one deals with tens of thousands of documents that were sent by the State Department to two Republican-controlled Senate committees and that were related to their inquiry into former Vice President Joe Biden's diplomacy in Ukraine under the Obama administration. The US secretary of state declined to provide the HFAS with these documents.
HFAS Chairman Eliot Engel said in a statement on Friday that Pompeo's “ongoing defiance of two duly authorized subpoenas on matters directly linked to American foreign policy toward Ukraine has left the Committee no further option but to begin drafting a resolution finding Secretary Pompeo in contempt of Congress”.
The State…
