Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Friday demanded that Chairman Elijah E. Cummings halt a White House subpoena seeking materials related to the Ukraine matter.
“Your memorandum cherry-picks and misstates information to propagate a misleading narrative about the President’s actions,” the committee’s GOP members wrote in a letter to Mr. Cummings. “We strongly object to the issuance of this subpoena and your stated reason for issuing it.”
Mr. Cummings, Maryland Democrat, on Wednesday, gave the White House notice of the subpoena, issued in conjunction with the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees.
The subpoena went into effect on Friday, but House Oversight Republicans charge the move violated a bipartisan agreement to vote on its language.
“By proposing to issue his subpoena unilaterally without a business meeting, the chairman is denying transparency and accountability about the committee’s work,” wrote the Republicans, led by ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
The Democratic committee chairs have taken their fight to the White House as they fight for more documents related to President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The chairmen say they have asked the White House to voluntarily turn over the documents, but the White House has “refused to engage with — or even respond to — the committees.”
But Republicans say that simply isn’t true. They claim Democrats expanded the scope of document categories from six to 40, failing to give the White House time to comply.
“This expansion is particularly troubling because your justification for unilaterally issuing the subpoena is that you claim that the White House has failed to voluntarily comply with your demands,” the Republicans wrote. “The White House, however, cannot voluntarily comply with a request you have not previously made.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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