“Let me be clear: I will 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,” Pompeo wrote to House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel.

The sharply worded letter suggests that Pompeo — who is now ensnared in the intensifying scandal surrounding Trump’s interactions with the Ukrainian president — plans to reject the House’s subpoena for documents by a Friday deadline. It also underscores the hurdles Democrats will face as they attempt to claw information from the White House over Trump's efforts to persuade Ukrainian leaders to provide dirt on Joe Biden and his son.

Pompeo also suggested that State officials identified as key players in the Ukraine affair would be unable to comply with a schedule of depositions set to begin Wednesday.

“Based on the profound procedural and legal deficiencies noted above, the committee's requested dates for depositions are not feasible,” he wrote.

In response, the chairmen of the three committees handling the investigation accused Pompeo of trying to protect himself and the president from congressional scrutiny.

“Any effort to intimidate witnesses or prevent them from talking with Congress —including State Department employees — is illegal and will constitute evidence of obstruction of the impeachment inquiry,” Engel, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings said in a joint statement.

“In response, Congress may infer from this obstruction that any withheld documents and testimony would reveal information that corroborates the whistleblower complaint,” lawmakers continued, referencing the allegations that were referred to the intelligence community’s inspector general in August.

House Democrats subpoenaed Pompeo last Friday — the first subpoena since Speaker Nancy Pelosi formalized an impeachment inquiry — and summoned a slew of current and former State Department officials for closed-door depositions.

Despite Pompeo's comments, Kurt Volker, who resigned last week as U.S. special envoy for Ukraine negotiations, will appear as scheduled on Thursday, according to a committee official.

Marie Yovanovitch — the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine whom Trump criticized in his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — will appear on Oct. 11, the official added. She was initially scheduled to appear on Wednesday.

Separately, a congressional aide confirmed later Tuesday that the State Department’s inspector general made an “urgent request” to brief Capitol Hill staffers on Ukraine-related issues Wednesday.



Volker resigned his position Friday, one day after he was named in the whistleblower complaint that set off the firestorm over Trump's pressure campaign to Ukrainian leaders. Volker is said to have had helped set up meetings between Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ukrainian officials.



House Democrats served Giuliani with a subpoena on Monday — the second in four days as Democrats power ahead with their investigation into Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden.

Democratic investigators are demanding details from Giuliani about his alleged role as an intermediary between the American and Ukrainian governments, including his trips to Madrid, Paris, and Warsaw, Poland, this year to push for a Biden probe on behalf of Trump.

Giuliani has acknowledged that he asked the Ukrainian government to probe Biden and his son Hunter and has been asked to produce “text messages, phone records, and other communications” that could reveal the involvement of senior Trump administration officials.



Democratic leaders have warned that refusing to comply would amount to obstruction of Congress — a charge that could be included in articles of impeachment.

Pompeo rejected that argument, writing in his letter, “there is no legal basis for that threat.”

House Democrats have zeroed in on Trump's Ukraine controversy in their impeachment inquiry, putting aside, for now, a slew of other ongoing investigations into the president, including possible obstruction of justice outlined in special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.



Much of the work this week is being led by the House Intelligence Committee, which plans to return to Washington on Friday for a hearing while the full House remains on recess until Oct. 15. The Intelligence panel will be briefed behind closed doors by the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who first alerted Congress to the anonymous whistleblower complaint.

Top Democrats have also worked to shore up their own messaging as they battle with the White House over impeachment, with Pelosi and her deputies urging their caucus to focus on what they see as presidential abuse of power when laying out the House's argument for an impeachment inquiry.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.

