Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed for the first time that he was on President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump urged the foreign leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and to look into a conspiracy theory about the 2016 presidential election.
“As for was I on the phone call? I was on the phone call,” he told reporters Wednesday during a joint press conference with the Italian prime minister. “It was the context of I’d been a secretary of state for coming on a year and a half. I know what the American policy is with respect to Ukraine. It’s been remarkably consistent, and we will continue to try to drive those set of outcomes. It’s what our team was focused on taking down the threat there.”
He also mentioned former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker as being part of that unified effort. Volker, who resigned from his position last week amid the fallout from the phone call, is set to testify to Congress on Thursday.
Pompeo continued by elaborating on the purpose of the call in the context of American policy toward Ukraine, “It was about helping Ukrainians to get graft out and corruption outside of their government and to help now this new government in the Ukraine build a successful thriving economy. It’s what the State Department officials that I had the privilege to lead had been engaged in. And it’s what we will continue to do. Even while all this noise was going on.”
The transcript of the Trump-Zelensky call was released last Wednesday and showed Trump asked for a “favor” from Ukraine in investigating a conspiracy theory related to the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which determined the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee’s email systems, an assessment agreed to by special counsel Robert Mueller and the U.S. intelligence community. Trump also urged the Ukrainian leader to look into whether there was any Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election. Trump brought up his request related to CrowdStrike immediately after Zelensky asked about purchasing anti-tank weaponry, known as Javelins, from the United States.
Trump also talked about “the other thing,” suggesting that the Ukrainians investigate allegations of corruption related to 2020 Democrat Biden and his son, Hunter. Trump urged Zelensky to speak with Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney, and Attorney General William Barr. Giuliani has spent months urging Ukraine to investigate possible Ukrainian election interference and the Bidens, though the Justice Department says Barr has not been involved.
Pompeo did not mention the Bidens or Crowdstrike by name on Wednesday.
As House Democrats ramp up their impeachment inquiry into Trump, Pompeo called the notion that he objected to the demand for deposition from several House committees “fundamentally not true.”
“What we objected to was the demands that were put that are — deeply violate fundamental principles of separation of powers,” he said. “They contacted State Department employees directly. Told them not to contact legal counsel at the State Department. That’s been reported to us. They said that the State Department wouldn’t be able to be present. There are important constitutional prerogatives that the executive branch asked to be present so we could protect the important information. So our partners, countries like Italy, can have confidence that the information that they provide the State Department will continue to be protected.”
He then reiterated his claim that Democrats are “bullying” State Department employees, saying, “And so the response that I provided to them was one that acknowledged that we will, of course, do our constitutional duty to cooperate with this co-equal branch. But we are going to do so in a way that is consistent with the fundamental values of the American system. And we won’t tolerate folks on Capitol Hill bullying, intimidating State Department employees. It’s not permissible. It’s not something I’m going to permit to happen.”
House Democrats launched a formal impeachment inquiry into the president following a whistleblower complaint over the phone call, which alleged that Trump set up a quid pro quo deal with the president of Ukraine to investigate his potential 2020 opponent. Zelensky, however, has said he did not feel “pressured” by Trump. Hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, which had been delayed for weeks, were released earlier in September.
After reports that Pompeo listened in on the call, Democrats subpoenaed him for related documents. On Tuesday, he blasted the subpoena, accusing Democrats of trying to “intimidate, bully, and treat improperly” State Department employees. His admission that he was on the call comes just days after he dodged a question about the details of the conversation, telling ABC at the time that he had not yet seen a report on the call.
The whistleblower complaint also alleged that many U.S. officials were “deeply concerned” about Giuliani’s “circumvention of national security decision-making,” but the former New York City mayor says he has over a dozen texts from State Department officials giving him the green light in his foray into Ukraine.
