Pompeo acknowledges he listened in on Trump’s Ukraine call

ROME — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday he was on the July 25 phone call in which President Donald Trump pressed Ukraine’s president to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden. “I was on the phone call,” Pompeo said at a joint news conference in Rome with his Italian counterpart, a disclosure that puts a spotlight on his previous attempts to distance himself from the call at the center of the impeachment inquiry, in which the State Department prominently figures. “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 Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to an aide of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy _ to help the country fight corruption and combat Russian aggression. He said the State Department would “do our constitutional duty to cooperate” with Congress but wouldn’t tolerate “bullying and intimidation.” “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,” Pompeo said.