White House Signals Trump Won’t Mount House Impeachment Defense

Three powerful Senate Republicans seemed to have similar targets in mind on Friday. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee; Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee; and Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Finance Committee, jointly requested testimony and documents from the former Democratic National Committee aide, Alexandra Chalupa, and a former Ukrainian Embassy official.

“Contrary to the popular narrative in the ‘mainstream media’ that Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election has been debunked, or ‘no evidence exists,’ there are many unanswered questions that have festered for years,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement. “Those who are curious have a legitimate and understandable desire to know if wrongdoing occurred.”

Mr. Nadler had also given Republicans until Friday evening to say whether they intended to request witnesses. Democrats are almost certain to vote down the requests from Mr. Collins.

The missives came the day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she was directing senior Democrats to begin drafting impeachment articles against Mr. Trump.

The Judiciary Committee held its first impeachment hearing this week, convening a panel of constitutional scholars to discuss the history and meaning of impeachment. Democrats on the committee plan to spend the weekend preparing for another marathon session on Monday where they are scheduled to receive and debate the findings from the House Intelligence Committee’s two-month investigation of Mr. Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

Though those findings have been public in the form of a lengthy report since Tuesday, the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform Committees formally transmitted them to the Judiciary Committee late Friday, according to an official working on the impeachment inquiry. Along with the report, and minority views written by Republicans, the committees included transcripts of depositions, interviews and hearings they had conducted as well as evidence cited in the report.

Even as staff prepared to present the case it has compiled, the intelligence panel was still taking steps to try to present more evidence. Mr. Schiff wrote to Vice President Mike Pence on Friday requesting that he or another authority declassify additional testimony provided to the committee by one of his national security aides so it could inform the debate over impeachment articles.

Jennifer Williams, the vice president’s special adviser on Europe and Russia, testified publicly last month before the Intelligence Committee, but Mr. Schiff wrote that she also provided additional written testimony about a September phone call between Mr. Pence and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. That testimony was “relevant” and “should not be classified,” Mr. Schiff said.

Nicholas Fandos reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Catie Edmondson contributed reporting from Washington.