Three Democratic House chairmen say they will issue a subpoena to U.S. European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland after he didn't show up for a deposition in the Democrats' impeachment investigation.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings say they consider Sondland's Tuesday morning no-show "to be obstruction of the impeachment inquiry" into President Donald Trump.
The committees say the State Department told Sondland's attorneys he could not testify. They say they'll subpoena the ambassador for his testimony and communications on his personal devices that have not been turned over.
The Democrats are investigating Trump's dealings with Ukraine. Sondland was involved as Trump urged the country to investigate political rival Joe Biden's family and the 2016 election.
Trump has denied doing anything wrong.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guests:
Ron Elving, senior editor and correspondent on the Washington Desk at NPR; he tweets
Harry Litman, professor of law at UCLA and UCSD, former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general, and creator and host of the
podcast, which features former prosecutors discussing ongoing federal investigations; he tweets
Gene Healy, vice president of the libertarian think-tank Cato Institute; he tweets