hearings. This ability is often critical to conducting an effective and thorough investigation."[1]
All Members of the Investigating Committees were permitted to attend these depositions and interviews, along with Majority and Minority staff. Members and counsel for both the Majority and Minority were permitted equal time for questioning witnesses. Transcripts of all depositions and interviews were publicly released and made available through HPSCI's website on a rolling basis, subject to minimal redactions to protect classified or sensitive information.
On October 31, 2019, the House voted to approve H. Res. 660, which directed the Judiciary Committee as well as HPSCI and the Committees on Oversight and Reform, Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, and Ways and Means to "continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing . . . inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump."[2] As the accompanying report by the Committee on Rules explained, HPSCI, in coordination with the Committees on Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs, was conducting an investigation that focused on three interrelated questions:
1. Did the President request that a foreign leader and government initiate investigations to benefit the President's personal political interests in the United States, including an investigation related to the President's political rival and potential opponent in the 2020 U.S. presidential election?
2. Did the President—directly or through agents—seek to use the power of the Office of the President and other instruments of the federal government in other ways to apply pressure on the head of state and government of Ukraine to advance the President's personal political interests, including by leveraging an Oval Office meeting desired by the President of Ukraine or by withholding U.S. military assistance to Ukraine?
3. Did the President and his Administration seek to obstruct, suppress or cover up information to conceal from the Congress and the American people evidence about the President's actions and conduct?[3]
The report explained that although a full House vote was by no means legally necessary, H. Res. 660 "provides a further framework for the House's ongoing impeachment inquiry."[4] That framework would be "commensurate with the inquiry process followed in the cases of President Nixon and President Clinton"—during which the House undertook various investigatory steps before voting to
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