House Oversight GOP Fights Elijah Cummings’ Impeachment Inquiry

House Oversight and Reform Committee Republicans sent a letter to Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), objecting to his “partisan” impeachment inquiry.”

All of the Oversight Republicans sent a letter to chairman Cummings late Wednesday night after the Maryland Democrat sent a subpoena to the White House without allowing Republicans to debate the merits and terms of the subpoena.

The Republicans said that Cummings’ memorandum rationalized his subpoena to the White House by misstating information to “propagate a misleading narrative” about the president’s actions. They wrote to Cummings:

You decided to issue this subpoena without consulting Republicans and without allowing Members to debate the terms of the subpoena. Your memorandum cherry-picks and misstates information to propagate a misleading narrative about the President’s actions. We object strongly to the issuance of this subpoena and your stated reasons for issuing it. If you proceed with this subpoena over our objections, you will be violating our bipartisan agreement about subpoenas, trampling on long-held minority rights in the House of Representatives, and proving the partisan nature of your inquiry.

House Oversight Republicans noted that in January, Cummings promised to consult ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH) before issuing subpoenas.

Cummings said, “Members deserve the opportunity to go on the record for some of the most important work they will do, and the public deserves the opportunity to see them do that work in the open.”

The Republicans contended that by issuing this subpoena unilaterally and without a business meeting, Cummings continues to deny the American people transparency and accountability about the committee’s oversight actions.

“Here, on the Committee’s most important work-Democrats’ self-described ‘impeachment inquiry’-you have chosen to deny Members a meaningful opportunity to debate and amend your proposed subpoena,” they added in the letter.

“Likewise, you have not articulated why, if Democrats intend to conduct an objective and even-handed inquiry, you cannot wait for Members to fully consider and vote on your subpoena when the House returns on October 15th,” the Republicans added.

Read the Oversight Republicans’ letter to chairman Cummings here.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.