Elijah E Cummings

A federal appeals court on Friday sided with the House Oversight and Reform Committee over President Donald Trump in a fight to enforce a subpoena for eight years of Trump’s financial records.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, ruled that accounting firm Mazars USA must comply with the April 15 subpoena.

Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine who was recalled in May after butting heads with the White House, told members of the committees leading the impeachment inquiry into President Trump on Friday that her removal was “based, as far as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

In her opening statement, obtained by the New York Times, Yovanovitch said she was told by her superior that she had done nothing wrong and that there had been “a concerted campaign against me” and that the State Department had been under pressure “from the President” to have her removed since the summer of 2018.

The chairmen of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees subpoenaed Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday, demanding records about his interactions with Ukrainian officials, including the president, a central figure in their impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

In a letter, Intelligence Chairman Adam B. Schiff, Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah E. Cummings and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot L. Engel requested Perry turn over files about his knowledge of a July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy and his activities in and business connections to Ukraine, including with a state-run natural gas company, Naftogaz.

The 11th-hour cancellation of testimony of a key player in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump threw Democrats into an uproar with one suggesting it was another piece of evidence of the president obstructing justice.

The Democratic chairmen of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees on Tuesday evening made good on a plan to subpoena Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, for his testimony and documents.

Chairmen of three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump on Friday demanded Vice President Mike Pence turn over documents related to the president’s campaign to pressure Ukraine for political objectives, including records from Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the department he runs.

The Department of Energy did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Two weeks: The chairmen of the House Oversight and Reform, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees issued a subpoena to White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to produce documents by Oct. 18 as part of the Trump impeachment inquiry. 

“The White House has refused to engage with — or even respond to — multiple requests for documents from our Committees on a voluntary basis,” Reps. Elijah E. Cummings, Adam Schiff and Eliot L. Engel wrote in a letter Friday. “We deeply regret that President Trump has put us — and the nation — in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena.”

Change of heart: New York Rep. Max Rose said Wednesday that he would “fully support” the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. The freshman lawmaker was among a handful of House Democrats who had not backed the probe. Rose told a town hall audience in his Staten Island district that he opposes “a rush to judgement” but will “follow the facts where they lead no matter the consequences.”

Biden goal?: Trump refused to answer a reporter's question about just what he wanted the Ukrainian government to do with former Vice President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden. Trump repeatedly snapped at Reuters’ Jeff Mason, who repeatedly asked the question to an increasingly agitated president.

House Democrats finally agreed last week that they are conducting an impeachment inquiry, but as that probe quickly unfolds there are new divisions in the caucus about how much evidence they need to proceed with articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

Several Democrats believe the readout of a July 25 phone call of Trump asking Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate a potential 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son; Trump’s public statements admitting to the request; and a whistleblower complaint alleging White House lawyers and officials tried to “lock down” the call transcript is all the evidence they need to impeach.

Allegations that Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao used her office to help the shipping company owned by her father and sister are “simply false,” a Transportation Department official told the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Monday.

Adam Sullivan, the departments’s assistant secretary of governmental affairs, said in a letter to Chairman Elijah E. Cummings that Chao is not involved with the management or operations of her family’s shipping company, Foremost Group, and does not have a financial stake in the company.

House Democrats led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, issued a sweeping subpoena Monday to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, asking him to preserve and produce documents relating to his dealings with Ukraine dating back to January 2017.

The subpoena also seeks documents and depositions from Giuliani’s associates Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian businessman; the latter’s partner Igor Fruman; and Semyon Kislin, a Russian businessman who is said to be associated with Giuliani. The documents are due to the House Democrats by Oct. 15.