Washington—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today announced that the Committee has obtained more than 16,000 pages of State Department records that had previously been produced to Senate Republicans to aid their smear of the President’s political rival and boost the Trump reelection effort. In an accommodation dealing with the Committee’s investigation into Secretary Pompeo’s politicized misuse of Department resources, the Department has turned over all documents that it rushed to the Senate immediately after the President’s impeachment. In exchange, Chairman Engel has agreed to withdraw the Committee’s July 2020 subpoena on the matter and halt the current contempt proceedings against Secretary Pompeo.

“It shouldn’t have taken a subpoena, let alone the threat of contempt, for Secretary Pompeo to comply with the Committee’s oversight request. Nevertheless, I’m gratified that we’ve received these materials and can review them before Senate Republicans issue their report. This ‘investigation’ is obviously designed to boost the President’s campaign and tear down his opponent, while our own Intelligence Community warns it is likely to amplify Russian disinformation. We’re going to make sure the American people see the whole picture, not just cherrypicked information aimed at breathing new life into debunked conspiracy theories,” said Chairman Engel.

Beginning in November 2019, the Senate Committees, which do not have primary jurisdiction over the Department of State, began requesting documents related to Burisma Holdings and Hunter Biden. On the same day Senate Republicans acquitted President Trump in his impeachment trial, the Department began producing records to the Senate Committees. In May, Chairman Engel launched a probe to determine if State Department resources were being misused by aiding this scheme. On July 31, after the Department refused to voluntarily produce the records that had been sent to the Senate, Chairman Engel issued a subpoena for those records and in late August launched contempt proceedings against Secretary Pompeo for, in part, refusing to comply with that subpoena.

Chairman Johnson is reportedly set to release his report from this “investigation” next week.

The September 2019 subpoena Chairman Engel issued to Secretary Pompeo during the impeachment inquiry remains in effect.

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