After months of making document requests of the White House to no avail, Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings isn't kidding around anymore. Writing to members of his committee Wednesday morning, Cummings notified them of his "intent to issue a subpoena to the White House."
Cummings said he didn't take the move “lightly” but also felt compelled to act.
"The White House's flagrant disregard of multiple voluntary requests for documents combined with stark and urgent warnings from the Inspector General about the gravity of these allegations have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena," he wrote.
Democrats feel a palpable urgency about uncovering facts related to their Ukraine inquiry after being ignored by the Trump administration ever since they retook the gavel. The impression that the long, drawn-out Russia probe lulled the public into complacency hangs over the current Ukraine-related investigation like a cloud.
At a joint press conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi later in the morning, House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff warned that continued stonewalling by Trump and his allies would simply be seen by Democrats as "strengthening the case on obstruction.”
“We’re not fooling around here,” Schiff said. “We don’t want this to drag on months and months and months, which would be the administration’s strategy."