--- title: Biden Changes Course on Potential Trump Impeachment Subpoena description: Biden had said on Friday that he would not comply with a subpoena to testify at President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial canonical: https://time.com/5756251/biden-trump-impeachment-iowa-subpoena/ author: Sanya Mansoor article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-12-28T19:42:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T20:10:02.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Joe Biden Reverses Course on Potential Trump Impeachment Subpoena og:description: “I would obey any subpoena that was sent to me.” og:url: https://time.com/5756251/biden-trump-impeachment-iowa-subpoena/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaadc111b59e1832d/698a0821096a94ca976a7847/joe-biden-impeachment-trial-subpoena.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7914 og:image:height: 4452 og:image:alt: Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Holds A Town Hall At Lander University In South Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Joe Biden Reverses Course on Potential Trump Impeachment Subpoena twitter:description: “I would obey any subpoena that was sent to me.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaadc111b59e1832d/698a0821096a94ca976a7847/joe-biden-impeachment-trial-subpoena.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Joe Biden Reverses Course on Potential Trump Impeachment Subpoena > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6cc9164e-9e0b-4a72-b325-b0c6a6712b5c&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Democrats Have Impeached Trump in the House. Now the Battle Will Intensify [Watch (HLS stream): Democrats Have Impeached Trump in the House. Now the Battle Will Intensify](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upSsRqIZ.m3u8) (0:41)  _Published 2019-12-19. In a historic rebuke, the House of Representatives formally impeached President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday evening on charges that he abused the power of his office for domestic political advantage_  by [Sanya Mansoor](https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:10 PM UTCPublished: Dec 28, 2019 7:42 PM UTC  GREENWOOD, SC - NOVEMBER 21: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks to the audience during a town hall on Nov. 21, 2019 in Greenwood, South Carolina. GREENWOOD, SC - NOVEMBER 21: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks to the audience during a town hall on Nov. 21, 2019 in Greenwood, South Carolina. Sean Rayford—Getty Images  by [Sanya Mansoor](https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:10 PM UTCPublished: Dec 28, 2019 7:42 PM UTC Former Vice President Joe Biden declared Saturday that he would comply with a subpoena to testify before the Senate during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, reversing a position he had taken in interviews earlier this month. Responding to a question at an Iowa town hall, Biden declared, “I would obey any subpoena that was sent to me.” He then added that while he would obey the subpoena, he does not feel that he could provide any evidence that would be relevant to the investigation into the President’s conduct. Just the day before, Biden had said he would not comply with a subpoena to testify during President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, should he be served with one. “The reason I wouldn’t is because it’s all designed to deal with Trump doing what he’s done his whole life: trying to take the focus off him. The issue is not what I did,” Biden said during a meeting with the editorial board of _The Des Moines Register_. “This is all about a diversion and we play his game all the time. He’s done it his whole career,” Biden added. The presidential candidate made similar remarks during an [NPR interview](https://www.npr.org/2019/12/09/785320977/biden-rejects-calls-for-impeachment-testimony-as-a-trump-ploy-to-divert-attentio) earlier this month, in which he also took issue with diverting attention away from Trump’s actions. Speaking then with NPR’s Rachel Martin about the potential of his being subpoenaed, Biden at first appeared to be discounting the topic of discussion as a whole, versus addressing its implications as they related to him specifically. “No, I will not yield to what everybody is looking for here,” he said in response to the question, continuing to explain his stance as, “because no one has a proved one scintilla of evidence that I did anything other than do my job for America as well as anybody could have done it.” But his answers were couched by multiple outlets as representing his response to a potential subpoena, which _The Register_ noted in its interview also. > [](https://twitter.com/DMRegister/status/1210731617276182528) The House of Representatives [voted to impeach President Donald Trump](https://time.com/5751699/donald-trump-impeached/) earlier this month on charges that he abused the power of his office for domestic political advantage and subsequently obstructed Congress’ abilities to hold him accountable. Key to the impeachment proceedings were accusations that Trump linked congressionally-approved foreign aid to Ukraine with an investigation into Biden — a 2020 political opponent. Trump has repeatedly denied doing so, saying on multiple occasions that there was no “quid pro quo.” Biden’s recent remarks drew sharp criticism for seemingly suggesting that he would choose not to comply with the law by defying a potential subpoena from the Senate. The White House had also been criticized for[ saying](https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/letter-from-white-house-counsel-pat-cipollone-to-house-leaders/0e1845e5-5c19-4e7a-ab4b-9d591a5fda7b/) that it would [not cooperate](https://time.com/5696071/impeachment-inquiry-congress-white-house-supreme-court/) with the “partisan” and “unconstitutional “House impeachment inquiry despite [subpoenas](https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=718&ref=hvper.com&utm%5Fsource=hvper.com&utm%5Fmedium=website). On Saturday morning, Biden took to Twitter to clarify his remarks, emphasizing again that “this impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine.” He did not explicitly reverse his stance, but said that in his four decades in public life, he has “always complied with a lawful order” and in his eight years as vice President, his office “cooperated with legitimate congressional oversight requests.” > [](https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1210946785847468033) > [](https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1210946790104666113) > [](https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1210946792369610752) Notably, his tweets also argued that there would be “no legal basis” for his being called to testify — an argument in legalese that the White House has also made in its refusal to cooperate with impeachment proceedings. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5756251/biden-trump-impeachment-iowa-subpoena/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5756251/biden-trump-impeachment-iowa-subpoena/"},"headline":"Joe Biden Reverses Course on Potential Trump Impeachment Subpoena","datePublished":"2019-12-28T19:42:40.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T20:10:02.000Z","description":"“I would obey any subpoena that was sent to me.”","url":"https://time.com/5756251/biden-trump-impeachment-iowa-subpoena/","keywords":["Impeachment","onetime","2020 Presidential Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaadc111b59e1832d/698a0821096a94ca976a7847/joe-biden-impeachment-trial-subpoena.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sanya Mansoor","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaadc111b59e1832d/698a0821096a94ca976a7847/joe-biden-impeachment-trial-subpoena.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Holds A Town Hall At Lander University In South Carolina","caption":"Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Holds A Town Hall At Lander University In South Carolina","creditText":"Sean Rayford—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/impeachment/","name":"Impeachment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5756251/biden-trump-impeachment-iowa-subpoena/","name":"Joe Biden Reverses Course on Potential Trump Impeachment Subpoena"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Democrats Have Impeached Trump in the House. 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