Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday pushed back against a request by House Democrats to depose five current and former State Department officials in the Ukraine probe, saying it could be seen as an intimidation attempt.
"I'm concerned with aspects of the committee's request that can be understood only as an attempt to intimidate, bully, & treat improperly the distinguished professionals of the Department of State," Pompeo wrote in a tweet accompanying a fiery letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel.
He said he would "use all means at my disposal to prevent and expose any attempts to intimidate the dedicated professionals" of the State Department.
Three House committees have scheduled depositions with five current and former State Department officials over the next two weeks, including former ambassador to Ukraine Marie "Masha" Yovanovitch and Kurt Volker, the Ukrainian envoy who resigned last week.
Engel, along with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wrote that they sought a slew of records as part of their probe into “the extent to which President Trump jeopardized national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere with our 2020 election and by withholding security assistance provided by Congress to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression.”
The chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees set an Oct. 4 deadline for Pompeo to produce documents related to their investigation of President Donald Trump's interactions with Ukraine, specifically Trump's conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky. The probes are part of an impeachment inquiry.
Pompeo, who is currently traveling in Italy, will face considerable congressional scrutiny now that it’s known he heard the Trump-Zelenskiy exchange on July 25. Pompeo brushed off the whistle-blower’s complaint at a news briefing on Friday in New York, saying he hadn’t read the document.
Pompeo is the first Cabinet official known to have heard Trump press the Ukrainian leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son for corruption.
Pompeo's arrival in Rome also came as the Justice Department disclosed that Trump asked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other foreign leaders to help Attorney General William Barr probe the origins of the Russia investigation that has shadowed his administration for two years.
Barr traveled to Italy last week with U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is investigating the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Barr and Durham met with government officials as part of the investigation, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Pompeo is set to meet Italy's president and prime minister on Tuesday but is not due to speak publicly until Wednesday when he addresses a conference on faith-based organizations at the Vatican and later is scheduled to hold a news conference with Italy's foreign minister.
From Italy, Pompeo will travel to Montenegro and North Macedonia before wrapping up his European trip in Greece.
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