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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on Monday he fully expected four White House officials scheduled for depositions with investigators in the House’s impeachment inquiry to defy congressional subpoenas.

“We expect the witnesses who have been subpoenaed to come in this afternoon, at White House instruction, also to be no-shows. This will only further add to the body of evidence on a potential obstruction of Congress charge against the president,” Schiff told reporters.

The officials were called in to testify in the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry stemming from a July 25 call in which U.S. President Donald Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate one of Trump’s domestic political rivals, former vice president and leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.