Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s attempts to distance himself from Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump’s pressuring of the Ukrainian government to produce information about one of Trump’s possible 2020 election rivals have just been rendered null and void. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Pompeo was himself one of the administration officials who listened in on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky as it happened.
That means Pompeo heard Trump asking for the “favor” from the Ukrainian president and Trump’s direction to Zelensky to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr.
Giuliani has been adamant that not only did Pompeo’s State Department know about his efforts to investigate corruption supposedly linked to Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, but that he was also undertaking those efforts on the State Department’s behalf. The State Department has been equally adamant that it did not know of or approve Giuliani’s actions.
The State Department was lying.