Trending
ROME (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that he was on the phone call in which President Donald Trump pressed Ukraine's president to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden.
In Italy on the first stop of a long-planned four-nation tour of southern Europe, Pompeo forged ahead with his mission to show support for current and soon-to-be NATO allies. But he was unable to escape the growing furor over Trump's possible impeachment that has rocked Washington and now embroiled the secretary himself and the State Department.
"I was on the phone call," Pompeo said in response to a question a joint news conference in Rome with his Italian counterpart. The disclosure highlighted his earlier deflection of similar questions about the call, which is at the center of the impeachment inquiry by House Democrats. Democrats have called on Pompeo to recuse himself from any involvement in Ukraine-related elements of the inquiry because they say his participation in the call represents a conflict of interest.
Pompeo would not say whether he thought Trump's comments in the July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were inappropriate or whether he believed they warranted the complaint of an intelligence community whistleblower that triggered the impeachment probe. Yet his acknowledgment of participating in the call raised new questions about whether Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani had State Department backing to press Ukraine to investigate Biden's son, Hunter, for corruption.
"The phone call was in the context of … what the American policy is with respect to Ukraine," he said. "It's been remarkably consistent, and we will continue to try to drive those set of outcomes."
Pompeo said he was proud to work with the State Department's Ukraine team -- including former special envoy Kurt Volker, who connected Giuliani to a top Zelenskiy aid -- to help the country fight corruption and combat Russian aggression. Volker resigned last Friday and is expected to be interviewed by House committee staffers this week.
"It was about helping the Ukrainians get graft out and corruption outside of their government and to help now this new government in the Ukraine build a successful, thriving economy," he said.
In a Sept. 22 interview with ABC News, Pompeo evaded questions about the call. Asked then "what do you know" about a report of the conversation between Trump and the president of Ukraine, Pompeo said he hadn't seen either the report or the whistleblower complaint.