HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.
![handle is hein.presidents/usgvtwht0307 and id is 1 raw text is:
(Slip Opinion)
House Committees' Authority to
Investigate for Impeachment
The House of Representatives must expressly authorize a committee to conduct an
impeachment investigation and to use compulsory process in that investigation before
the committee may compel the production of documents or testimony in support of the
House's power of impeachment.
The House had not authorized an impeachment investigation in connection with
impeachment-related subpoenas issued by House committees before October 31, 2019,
and the subpoenas therefore had no compulsory effect.
The House's adoption of Resolution 660 on October 31, 2019, did not alter the legal
status of those subpoenas, because the resolution did not ratify or otherwise address
their terms.
January 19, 2020
MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT
On September 24, 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi an-
nounc[ed] at a press conference that the House of Representatives is
moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry into the Presi-
dent's actions and that she was directing .. . six Committees to proceed
with several previously pending investigations under that umbrella of
impeachment inquiry.' Shortly thereafter, the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs issued a subpoena directing the Secretary of State to
produce a series of documents related to the recent conduct of diplomacy
between the United States and Ukraine. See Subpoena of the Committee
on Foreign Affairs (Sept. 27, 2019). In an accompanying letter, three
committee chairmen stated that their committees jointly sought these
documents, not in connection with legislative oversight, but [p]ursuant to
the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry.2 In the following
days, the committees issued subpoenas to the Acting White House Chief
I Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, Press Release: Pelosi Remarks Announcing
Impeachment Inquiry (Sept. 24, 2019), www.speaker.gov/newsroom/92419-0 (Pelosi
Press Release).
2 Letter for Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State, from Eliot L. Engel, Chairman,
Commrittee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, Adam Schiff, Chairman,
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, U.S. House of Representatives, and Elijah
E. Cummings, Chairman, Committee on Oversight & Reform, U.S. House of Representa-
tives at 1 (Sept. 27, 2019) (Three Chairmen's Letter).
1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.presidents/usgvtwht0307&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)