Democrats demanded Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney appear on Friday to sit for a deposition.
He said no thanks.
Democrats late Thursday issued a subpoena seeking to force the White House official to appear for a closed-door interview on President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, which have prompted Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry into the president.
“An official working on the inquiry said the House intelligence panel subpoenaed Mulvaney because other testimony indicated he ‘could shed additional light on the president’s abuse of the power of his office for his personal gain,’ ” the Associated Press reported.
Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) subpoenaed Mulvaney and, along with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Oversight Committee Acting Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) wrote that he had “substantial first-hand knowledge and information” relevant to the inquiry.
The White House rejected the demand.
“Past Democrat and Republican administrations would not be inclined to permit senior advisers to the president to participate in such a ridiculous, partisan, illegitimate proceeding – and neither is this one,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters on Tuesday.
On Thursday, former national security adviser John Bolton did not appear for an interview. A pair of filings are making their way through the court system to decide whether White House officials can be forced to appear.
During an Oct. 17 press conference, Mulvaney was asked why Trump put a hold on aid money to Ukraine. “We do that all the time with foreign policy,” Mulvaney said. “And I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.”
He later walked back his statement, but the Democratic committee heads said he had already made a “confession.”
“Despite your subsequent attempts to walk-back this clear admission, your statements to the American public on October 17 were nothing less than a televised confession that President Trump’s order to freeze Ukraine security assistance was explicitly linked to Ukraine pursuing investigations as part of an effort to bolster the President’s 2020 re-election campaign,” they wrote.
