Democrats want the impeachment investigation to move quickly.  The White House was subpoenaed on September 9th.  So far, the Trump administration is not cooperating, which the Democrats claim is playing right into their hands on obstruction.

At a news conference today, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff laid out two instances where Donald Trump and his administration may be committing new crimes. First, he talked about Congress will not tolerate the lack of cooperation:

“We are concerned that the White House will attempt to stonewall our investigation much as they have stonewalled other committees in the past. It’s why I say the White House needs to understand that any action like that, that forces us to litigate or have to consider litigation will be considered further evidence of obstruction of justice. And, of course, that was an article of impeachment against Nixon. The obstruction of the lawful functions of Congress that is. We will also draw the inference, though, as appropriate, that they are trying to conceal facts that would corroborate the allegations of the whistleblower complaint. So we’ll have to decide whether to litigate or how to litigate.

While Congress hasn’t taken much action yet against those who have refused to answer subpoenas, Schiff seems to infer going forward they will be escalating things.

“We’re not fooling around here, though. We don’t want this to drag on months and months and months, which appears to be the administration’s strategy.” 

“So they just need to know even as they try to undermine our ability to find the facts around the president’s effort to coerce a foreign leader to create dirt that he can use against a political opponent, that they will strengthen the case on obstruction if they behave that way.”

And Schiff also addressed Trump’s threats aimed at the whistleblower:

“Let’s not make any mistake here. The President wants to make this all about the whistleblower and suggest people that come forward with evidence of his wrong-doing are somehow treasonous and should be treated as traitors and spies. This is a blatant effort to intimidate witnesses. It’s an incitement of violence and I would hope, and we are starting to see members of both parties, speaking out against attacking this whistleblower or others that have pertinent information. So the other thing I want to underscore though, what the.. whistleblower has set out that is within our power to confirm, we see confirmed in that call record.” 

And here’s Trump’s not-so-presidential reaction just after the news conference ended.