The Trump administration released the transcript of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. USA TODAY
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was one of the Trump administration officials who was in on the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to media reports.
The call is at the center of an anonymous whistleblower complaint that alleged Trump used the powers of his office to pressure the foreign leader into investigating political rival and former Vice President Joe Biden.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Monday that Pompeo listened in on the call.
According to a summary of that call released by the White House last week, Trump asked Zelensky to look into Biden and his son, Hunter.
Pompeo’s name was not mentioned in the whistleblower complaint, which was declassified and released last week.
Read: The full declassified text of the Trump whistleblower complaint
As part of their formal impeachment inquiry, House Democrats issued a subpoena to Pompeo on Friday to obtain any documents related to the State Department’s role in arranging conversations between Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ukraine officials.
Giuliani posted a screenshot of a text message on Twitter last week that appeared to come from the now-resigned State Department special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker. That message and allegations in the whistleblower complaint suggest that the State Department had a hand in Giuliani’s role with Ukraine.
“I never talked to a Ukrainian official until the State Department called me and asked me to do it,” Giuliani told Fox News last week. “And then I reported to every conversation back to them.”
Giuliani was subpoenaed on Monday, and the House has also planned depositions with five State Department officials for the next two weeks as the impeachment probe progresses.
Whistleblowers have been at time essential and detrimental to a country’s democracy, but what makes them different than a leaker? We explain. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
The whistleblower complaint lists another top State Department official, T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, as being on the call.
“Here’s what I’ll say this morning about the engagement of the State Department,” Pompeo told reporters last week, before he says he read the full complaint. “To the best of my knowledge, so from what I’ve seen so far, each of the actions that were undertaken by State Department officials was entirely appropriate and consistent with the objective that we’ve had certainly since this new government has come into office.”
Updates on impeachment: Whistleblower to testify, lawyers’ safety concerns and Trump tweets
Contributing: Deirdre Shesgreen
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