Even in Italy, Pompeo can’t escape Washington impeachment furor

It was supposed to be a day of routine diplomacy, but U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo couldn’t escape furor back in Washington surrounding House impeachment probe of President Donald Trump. Just before Pompeo visited Colosseum, he held a news conference on Wednesday with his Italian counterpart and ackwledged that he was on July telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian president at center of impeachment inquiry in Congress. He didn’t say wher he thought contents of July 25 calls were inappropriate or wher he believed y warranted complaint of an intelligence community whistleblower whose complaint triggered impeachment probe.

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Pompeo said he was proud to work with State Department’s Ukraine team 

“ phone call was in context of ... what 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 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 country fight corruption and combat Russian aggression.
“It was about helping Ukrainians get graft out and corruption outside of ir government and to help w this new government in Ukraine build a successful, thriving ecomy,” he said. After news conference and lunch with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Pompeo and his counterpart spent several minutes miring a bright red Ferrari sports car that was brought to foreign ministry to show off Italian automotive design excellence. n Pompeo’s motorce careered through streets of Rome to Coliseum, where he and his wife were given a semi-private tour in an area closed off to public but visible to throngs of tourists lining upper decks of amphiater.

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Pompeo is under increasing scrutiny from House Democrats 

Pompeo is under increasing scrutiny from House Democrats leing impeachment proceedings against Trump. On Tuesday, he pushed back on House demands for interviews with State Department officials about ministration’s dealings with Ukraine that are at center of inquiry. Pompeo defended his response to House committee chairmen, who have suggested that Pompeo’s participation in Trump-Zelenskiy call should require him to recuse himself from decisions on how to deal with Congress.

Pompeo asserted that House investigators contacted “State Department employees directly” and told m t to contact State Department lawyers for vice. He said 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 fundamental values of American system,” Pompeo said. “And we won’t tolerate folks on Capitol Hill bullying and intimidating State Department employees. That’s unacceptable, and it’s t something that I’m going to permit to happen.”

Earlier Wednesday, Pompeo criticized governments that wield absolute power as threats to religious freedom, telling a conference at Vatican on human dignity and faith that when governments hold all power, religion is a threat.“When state rules absolutely, human dignity is trampled, t cherished,” he said. “When state rules absolutely, moral rms are crushed completely. When state rules absolutely, it demands its citizens to worship government, t God.”He cited China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, and Syria in particular for repressing religious freedom.

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