House Democrats on Monday subpoenaed the Department of Defense and Office of Management and Budget as part of their impeachment inquiry for documents that explain why President Trump withheld military aid from the Ukraine. “The enclosed subpoena demands documents that are necessary for the Committees to examine this sequence of events and the the reasons behind the White House’s decision to withhold critical military assistance to Ukraine that was appropriated by Congress to counter Russian aggression,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) wrote in a letter Monday, along with Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Eliot Engel (D-NY).
In July 2019, at least a week before the president spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump ordered acting OMB Director Mick Mulvaney to freeze military assistance to Ukraine. This order reportedly blindsided officials within the State Department and DOD, prompting them to inform Congress. The Pentagon is now required to turn over “any recordings, transcripts, notes” related to President Trump’s April 21 and July 25 phone conversations with Zelensky, according to the DOD subpoena. They are also required to share the “identity of all individuals who listened to, participated in, assisted in preparation for, transcribed, took notes during, reviewed the call record or transcript, or received information about” the conversations. The DOD and OMB are required to respond to the subpoenas by Oct. 15.
