Last Friday, the troika of mental defectives running the House Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees issued subpoenas to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding documents associated with President Trump’s phone call to Ukraine President Zelensky and to make himself and five other officials involved in the call available for depositions.

“Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry.” Mike Pompeo subpoena requires Ukraine documents by October 4. https://t.co/JQocr8Lw2S pic.twitter.com/vW96g1yZXS

— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) September 27, 2019

What had the left orgasmic was the “Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry” line which is meaningless unless or until someone takes any allegation by these clowns of “obstruction” seriously. That isn’t going to happen until there is a Democrat in the White House.

Best casing it, this is just a fishing expedition that probably will not withstand legal scrutiny by an appeals court or the Supreme Court, though it is virtually certain that an Obama judge will give a victory to them at district court level. What is actually up is House Democrats trying to use this information to keep a steady drumbeat of leaks and announcements to create the impression of misconduct where none took place.

Today Pompeo responded

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fired a broadside at House Democrats on Tuesday, saying State Department officials scheduled to appear this week before committees conducting the impeachment inquiry would not be made available until “we obtain further clarity on these matters.”

The refusal, in a letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), described the demand for depositions by five officials who played a role in U.S. relations with Ukraine as “an attempt to intimidate, bully, and treat improperly, the distinguished professionals of the Department of State.”

…

His Tuesday letter chastising the committees said that he would “not tolerate such tactics, and I will use all means at my disposal to prevent and expose any attempts to intimidate the dedicated professionals whom I am proud to lead and serve alongside at the Department of State.”

Saying that no subpoenas had been issued for the five depositions, he said “we are not aware of any other authority by which the committee could compel appearance at a depositions,” and that the scheduled depositions thus “could only be read as a request for a voluntary appearance of the five Department officials.”

The committees, Pompeo said, had provided insufficient time for the officials to prepare and to consult both private and State Department lawyers, as well as consultations “regarding the Department’s legitimate interests in safeguarding potentially privileged and classified information.”

JUST IN: Sec. Pompeo responds to subpoena, saying requested deposition dates "are not feasible;" asserts Democrats' request “can be understood only as an attempt to intimidate, bully, and treat improperly" State Dept. officials. https://t.co/2OeroCnGYE pic.twitter.com/Z6GYHgif19

— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 1, 2019

I don’t know how this plays out. The one thing for certain is that if it goes into the courts, it will not be decided before next year and it is difficult to see how the Democrats keep this particular leaky balloon inflated if the have active resistance from the executive branch.

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