U.S. House Foreign Affairs chairman subpoenas Pompeo for Biden-related documents

[August 01, 2020]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday demanding documents he provided to Republicans investigating presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) arrives to vote at a polling place in the Bronx borough of New York City, New York, U.S., June 23, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

A Republican-led U.S. Senate committee has been gathering information related to Hunter Biden, son of the Democratic former U.S. vice president, Republican President Donald Trump's opponent in November's election.

Hunter Biden is a former board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The company was thrust into the global spotlight last year in the impeachment inquiry into whether Trump improperly pressured the government in Kiev into opening a case involving his election rival.

"I want to see the full record of what the department has sent to the Senate and I want the American people to see it too," the House committee's chairman, Representative Eliot Engel, said in a statement.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Engel had been considering subpoenaing Pompeo for the documents for months, as the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee has pursued its investigation of the Bidens.

Trump was impeached on abuse-of-power and obstruction charges in the Democratic-led House of Representatives after he asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. He was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Tom Brown)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.