The growing impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine took another turn this week when top Congressional Democrats added Vice President Mike Pence to the growing list of Trump Administration officials they want information from. On October 3, Congressmen Adam Schiff (D-CA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) sent a letter to Vice President Pence requesting documents that could shed light on whether he knew anything about President Trump’s intentions towards Ukraine. The letter specifically requested that Pence turn over all documents related to “the Administration’s attempts to press the Ukrainian President to open an investigation into former Vice President Biden or election interference in 2016,” as well as “the reasons behind the White House’s decision to delay critical military assistance to Ukraine.”
On October 2, it was reported that President Donald Trump used Vice President Mike Pence to exert pressure on the Ukrainian government to convince it to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. For example, President Trump told Vice President Pence not to attend the inauguration of Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, knowing the Ukrainian leader desires close ties with the US in the face of continued threats by the Russian government. Additionally, the Washington Post reported that Pence met with Zelensky to convey to him that hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid would not be released to the country amid concerns about the country’s lack of efforts to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
In response to these allegations, Vice President Mike Pence state that he was unaware of President Donald Trump’s efforts to tie US aid to Ukraine to the Ukranian government’s efforts to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Additionally, Vice President Pence’s press secretary Katie Workman indicated that the letter by the top Democrats on the Oversight, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs Committee was “not a serious request but just another attempt by the Do Noting Democrats to call attention to their partisan impeachment.” According to Congressmen Schiff, Cummings, and Engel, however, public reports indicate that Vice President Pence may have direct knowledge of the Trump Administration’s plan to withhold aid to Ukraine. The main problem for the House Democrats is that the Trump Administration has refused to cooperate with the Congressional inquiry, meaning that they will be unsuccessful in receiving the documents they need for an investigation without a fight.
As such, the most likely outcome at this point is….
A bigger fight between the House Democrats and President Trump and his Congressional allies.
