The House’s general counsel said on Tuesday that the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump goes beyond his attempt to get Ukraine to investigate 2020 rival Joe Biden.
During a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, as reported by CNN, House General Counsel Doug Letter told presiding Judge Beryl Howell that Democrats leading the impeachment effort may also charge Trump with obstructing Congress and lying to the public.
“I can’t emphasize enough, it’s not just Ukraine,” Letter said.
The hearing was centered on the House’s battle with the Justice Department to obtain the grand jury materials in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. House Democrats want the FBI’s memos detailing what key witnesses in the Russia investigation told Mueller.
Besides the aforementioned memos, the Trump administration has also refused to hand over requested documents or allow key witnesses to testify in the inquiry.
Letter’s argument may indicate that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) no longer wants to limit the inquiry’s scope to Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky only.
