FILE PHOTO – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., questions Ambassador Kurt Volker, former special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a former official at the National Security Council, as they testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, during a public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump’s efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Democratic lawmaker leading the impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he did not rule out more depositions or public hearings in the investigation.
Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said his team would continue working on the inquiry as it prepares its report after two weeks of public hearings with testimony from current and former U.S. officials.
The Democratic-led House is probing whether Trump abused the power of his office to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate political rival Joe Biden, as well as a discredited theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, who interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“We don’t foreclose the possibility of more depositions, more hearings. We are in the process of getting more documents all the time. So that investigative work is being done,” Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“What we’re not going to do is wait months and months while the administration plays a game of rope-a-dope in an effort to try to stall. We’re not willing to go down that road,” Schiff said.
The Trump administration has refused to submit documents requested by Democrats in their inquiry and blocked witnesses, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Other witnesses have defied White House instructions to testify under subpoena.
Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall