WASHINGTON — House Democrats are moving against holding a formal impeachment vote as another official testified Tuesday in the deepening probe of President Donald Trump’s efforts to have Ukraine investigate Joe Biden.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met privately with Democratic lawmakers to survey attitudes about a possible vote, according to people granted anonymity to discuss the planning. But Democrats don’t expect to vote soon on formalizing the inquiry, according to those people familiar with Pelosi’s message.

Trump, who calls the impeachment inquiry an “illegitimate process,” has pressured Pelosi to take a formal vote. Republicans want to test vulnerable Democrats with a roll call that could be difficult in areas where Trump remains popular. But Pelosi has resisted, saying Congress is within its power to conduct oversight of the executive branch as part of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances, and no vote is needed.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., opened the chamber Tuesday suggesting Democrats were trying to “cancel out” Trump’s election with impeachment.

The inquiry is moving quickly as a stream of officials, largely from the State Department, are appearing behind closed doors this week, some providing details about the events surrounding the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate a firm tied to political rival Joe Biden’s family and Ukraine’s own involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

In 10 hours of testimony Monday, a former White House aide, Fiona Hill, recounted that national security adviser John Bolton was so alarmed by Rudy Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine that he described Trump’s personal lawyer as a “hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up.”

Hill detailed Bolton’s concerns to lawmakers and told them that she had at least two meetings with National Security Council lawyer John Eisenberg about the matter at Bolton’s request, according to a person familiar with the testimony who requested anonymity to discuss the confidential interview.

Hill, a top adviser on Russia, also discussed U.S. ambassador Gordon Sondland and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, the person said, telling the three committees leading the investigation that Bolton also told her he was not part of “whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” an apparent reference to talks over Ukraine.

Giuliani was heavily involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine on the investigations. He said Tuesday he was “very disappointed” in Bolton’s comment. Bolton, Giuliani said, “has been called much worse.”

Giuliani also acknowledged he had received payments totaling $500,000 related to the work for a company operated by Lev Parnas who, along with associate Igor Fruman, played a key role in Giuliani’s efforts to launch a Ukrainian corruption investigation against Biden and his son Hunter.

The two men were arrested last week on campaign finance charges as they tried to board an international flight.

Giuliani’s attorney, Jon Sale, has notified lawmakers that Giuliani will not comply with a subpoena issued to appear before House investigators in the impeachment inquiry. Democrats set a Wednesday deadline for Giuliani to provide documents and it is unclear how they will respond to his refusal to comply.

On Tuesday, House investigators heard from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, who was concerned about the “fake news smear” against the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, whom Trump recalled in May, according to emails.

Hill also told the investigators that she had strongly and repeatedly objected to Yovanovitch’s ouster, according to the person familiar with the testimony. Yovanovitch testified to the impeachment investigators Friday that Trump pressured the State Department to fire her.

Hill quoted Bolton, whom Trump forced out last month, as saying in one conversation that Giuliani was “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”

Michael McKinley, a former top aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who resigned last week, is scheduled to testify Wednesday.

Top Democrats say testimony and evidence coming in from other witnesses, and even the Republican president himself, are backing up the whistleblower’s account of Trump’s July 25 phone with Zelenskiy.

Meanwhile, former GOP Rep. Pete Sessions has received a federal grand jury subpoena for information about his interactions with Rudy Giuliani and several associates who were indicted last week. A spokesman for the former Texas lawmaker said Sessions is cooperating with investigators and will turn over documents in the coming weeks.