PBS Newshour: Tuesday, October 1, 2019 segment..

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Pompeo, Democrats clash over whistleblower inquiry and documents
Oct 1, 2019 6:55 PM EDT

While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday pushed back on demands by House Democrats for testimony and documents related to the Ukraine investigation, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley defended the whistleblower who filed a complaint about President Trump’s actions.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has forcefully entered the fray over impeachment. He wrote to the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee today, rejecting demands for testimony and documents.

In the letter, Pompeo accused Democrats of trying to — quote — "intimidate and bully" State Department employees. He warned that he will not tolerate such tactics. In turn, Democrats insisted on full compliance. They are investigating whether President Trump pressured Ukraine's leader for help with his reelection, in return for military aid.


Judy Woodruff:

To help break down these latest developments, our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, and our White House correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, are here.

Hello to both of you, another very busy day.

Yamiche, let me start with you.

The Democrats charging full-speed ahead with this impeachment inquiry. What are you learning about how the administration is preparing and responding?

Yamiche Alcindor:

Secretary of State Pompeo's letter is really a key part of that.

He is now saying that he thinks that the Democrats are making it unfeasible for these depositions to go forward because they're going so quickly. He's also saying that State Department officials feel bullied.

I want to point out some things that are in the letter. The first is that he says depositions essentially need to be slowed down, because his State Department officials need to have time to find their counsel and to be able to know exactly what these depositions are going to be about.

He also says that Trump administration officials and their lawyers need to be included in these depositions, because there might be executive privilege issues. And we have seen the White House stop a lot of people from saying things that they think are executive privilege.

And Democrats, of course, have said that that's not exactly the right way to go about things. He also says that he is still going to be intending to comply with a subpoena, or at least looking — intending to comply with the subpoena to have documents turned over to Congress by Friday.

So there are some people who are seeing this as hard no from Secretary Pompeo. I was reaching out to the State Department to say, is this a hard no? And I haven't got an answer yet.

So, it leads me to think that Secretary Pompeo is saying, hey, these are not — we're not going about this right, but I am also going to provide people and have these depositions, as we know there are some scheduled already this month.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Lisa, it is a strongly worded letter from the secretary of state. What are Democrats doing in response?

Lisa Desjardins:

Well, we have had some developments in just the last hour.

I have been told by my sources on the House Intelligence Committee that, in fact, one deposition has been delayed now. That's the deposition of the former Ukraine ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch. She is still currently a State Department official. But we're told that she's scheduling now her deposition for next week.

[My understanding from some report online that she no longer works in the State Department. I truly don't know anymore about any of this.😞]