Trump-Zelensky phone call

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The move by the CIA's general counsel, Trump appointee Courtney Simmons Elwood, meant she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed, raising more questions about why the Justice Department later declined to open an investigation.

CIA's top lawyer made 'criminal referral' on complaint about Trump Ukraine call

Experts are raising questions about why the Justice Department did not open an investigation.

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The chairmen of the House committees — Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Adam Schiff, D-Calf., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. — who are leading the investigation wrote in a letter to Mulvaney that they regretted that Trump "has put us — and the nation — in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena."

"The White House has refused to engage with — or even respond to — multiple requests for documents from our Committees on a voluntary basis," the chairman said. "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up."

The letter to Mulvaney also includes a warning should the White House not comply with the request: "Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena, including at the direction or behest of the President or others at the White House, shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House's impeachment inquiry and may be used as an adverse inference against you and the President."