WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Foreign Affairs Committee has dropped a threat of contempt against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after the State Department turned over 16,000 pages of records related to a Senate investigation of Democrat Joe Biden’s son.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., had subpoenaed Pompeo and threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress after months of requesting the records, which had already been turned over to the Republican-led Senate.
The GOP probe by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is looking at Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine, an investigation that Democrats say is an effort to boost President Donald Trump’s reelection bid. The chairman of that committee, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, has said he will issue a final report in the coming weeks.
“It shouldn’t have taken a subpoena, let alone the threat of contempt, for Secretary Pompeo to comply with the Committee’s oversight request,” Engel said in a statement. “Nevertheless, I’m gratified that we’ve received these materials and can review them before Senate Republicans issue their report.”
The State Department’s decision to turn over the records is a rare win for House Democrats who have been repeatedly frustrated by Trump administration officials who have defied or outright ignored their requests. While congressional subpoenas are legally binding, officials who have rebuffed Congress have faced little consequence for defying them, while Trump has fired or demoted federal employees who have complied with requests individually.
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