Trump-Ukraine scandal looms over Mike Pompeo as top diplomat returns to Kansas

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested on Thursday that the Trump administration plans to comply with a court order to release Ukraine-related documents, including communications between State Department officials and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, within 30 days.

But the former Kansas Congressman refused to say in an interview with The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star whether he approached Trump with concerns over the withholding of military aid to Ukraine that were voiced by the top American diplomat in the country.

The growing scandal over Trump’s attempt to link Ukrainian aid to an investigation of his political rivals loomed over Pompeo as he traveled to his home city of Wichita with presidential daughter and White House advisor Ivanka Trump to promote workforce development.

Pompeo has watched in recent days as senior State Department officials have traveled to the Capitol to provide damaging testimony in a quickly evolving House impeachment inquiry. And the disclosures may continue.

At a U.S. District of Columbia District Court hearing on Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers did not argue with the judge’s order and said they would review whether any of the communications should be redacted or withheld from the public because they are privileged or classified.

The communications are evidentiary material in the ongoing House impeachment inquiry.

“I haven’t seen the ruling,” Pompeo said in an interview. “But I can assure the American people that their State Department always complies with everything we’re required to do under the law. There’s no reason to think we would do any different there.”

The ruling emerged from a case brought by American Oversight, an ethics watchdog that sought the documents through the Freedom of Information Act.

The executive director of that group, Austin Evers, who was in the courtroom for the decision on Wednesday, told McClatchy that he expected the State Department to begin working with his team immediately on the release of the documents.

“The court made it very clear that the documents we asked for are of very high public value and could be released very quickly,” Evers said.

Kansas, not Ukraine

On Thursday, Pompeo and Ivanka Trump, White House advisor and daughter of the president, toured both WSU Tech and Textron Aviation. Trump made rivets at WSU Tech, and at Textron the officials walked along a lengthy assembly line as employees put together Cessna jets.

Pompeo said in an interview that “workforce development matters to my mission too. To keep America safe we have to have a strong, robust economy.”

But the secretary expressed frustration with questions surrounding the impeachment inquiry, which is examining whether Trump withheld $391 million in foreign assistance to the newly elected government in Ukraine this summer in order to compel them to investigate the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, one of his chief political rivals.

“This inquiry will proceed,” Pompeo said. “Congress will perform its oversight function. The State Department will continue to do all the things that were required to do under the law and the Constitution.”

Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, on Tuesday told House investigators that Trump linked aid to Ukraine to an investigation. Taylor’s 15-page opening statement was widely considered some of the most damning testimony so far in the impeachment inquiry.

Taylor wrote that he had sent Pompeo a cable in late August that described the ‘folly’ of withholding military aid to Ukraine. Taylor said he heard afterward that Pompeo carried the cable to a White House meeting.

On Thursday, Pompeo refused to discuss Taylor and the cable.

“Look, I came here today to talk about workforce development,” Pompeo said.

Pompeo also said during the interview that recent subpoenas and depositions of top State Department officials had not deterred him from his focus on foreign policy matters – nor had it changed his calculus on whether to launch a bid for Senate in Kansas next year to replace retiring Sen. Pat Roberts. Speculation has swirled for months about a possible candidacy, but Pompeo has batted away questions and Thursday was no exception.

But Pompeo did lament that his former colleagues in Congress were, in his words, overstepping their oversight authorities.

“I was a member of Congress – I think it’s absolutely important that they perform their function in a way that is professional. I wish that they were doing that. Unfortunately, today, they are not,” Pompeo said.

Sen. Jerry Moran and Rep. Ron Estes, who accompanied Pompeo on Thursday, echoed his comments. Estes called the inquiry a “sad thing” that is distracting Congress from working on immigration and other issues.

Estes said Trump raised a “legitimate point” in talking to the Ukrainian president about corruption. The Wichita Republican said Trump has denied a quid pro quo and added that he had read the transcript of Trump’s July call with Ukraine and hadn’t found a quid pro quo.

Moran said “some Democrats were interested in the word ‘impeachment’ almost from day one of the president’s administration.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2019 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Trump-Ukraine scandal looms over Mike Pompeo as top diplomat returns to Kansas."