US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo missed the House subpoena deadline for providing Ukraine-related documents, CNN reported on Saturday, citing a Foreign Affairs Committee aide:
"Secretary Pompeo has failed to meet the deadline to produce documents required by the subpoena. However, the State Department has contacted the Committees on this matter, and we hope the Department will cooperate in full promptly. Apart from the outstanding subpoena, we look forward to hearing from Ambassadors Sondland and Yovanovitch next week", the aide told the broadcaster.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Oversight and Reform also subpoenaed the head of American diplomacy. Members of the House also scheduled depositions for five State Department officials.
Lawmakers require the documents from Pompeo amid the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump; which was launched in September, after a whistleblower's complaint about a phone call between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky.
During their conversation on 25 July, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the business activities of Hunter Biden – the son of ex-Vice President and Democratic 2020 contender Joe Biden. He pointed out the politician's role in removing the Ukrainian former chief prosecutor that was supposedly conducting an investigation against Biden's son in 2016.
The White House released a transcript of the call to prove that Trump wasn't pressuring Zelensky. The Ukrainian president also stated he hadn't been coerced by anybody, but House Democrats claim that Trump should be impeached for abusing his power in a bid to win the 2020 elections.
The US president called the probe another "witch hunt", stating that the Democrats are trying to destroy the Republican party, and reiterated that Kyiv should investigate Biden's case, adding that China should launch a similar investigation.
