Tag: Mike Pompeo

Ex-Pompeo adviser tells impeachment investigators he was ‘disturbed’ by attempts to enlist foreigners to hurt Trump’s political opponents

Washington Post logoMichael McKinley, a former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told House impeachment investigators Wednesday that he quit his job last week out of concern about the mistreatment of career U.S. diplomats and the alarming allegations related to efforts to pressure Ukraine’s president into investigating President Trump’s political rivals.

“I was disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents,” McKinley said, according to portions of his testimony obtained by The Washington Post. “I was convinced that this would also have a serious impact on Foreign Service morale and the integrity of our work overseas.”

The remarks represent a significant rebuke of Trump’s dealings in Ukraine, from a senior official who worked closely with Pompeo and served as a link between the top diplomat and the rest of the Foreign Service. Trump has denied that he withheld diplomatic engagement and military assistance to Ukraine in order to pressure the country into investigating former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian energy company.

View the complete October 16 article by Carol Morello and John Hudson on The Washington Post website here.

Pence, Pompeo, Barr and Mulvaney could be subpoenaed by House Dems — and also be impeached: Former GOP rep

AlterNet logoVice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General Bill Barr, and Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney all may be subpoenaed by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, says ex-Republican Congressman David Jolly.

“This has been methodical and is building up, I think, to subpoenaing Mike Pompeo, possibly the Vice President of the United States, Mick Mulvaney, and Bill Barr, because this touches them,” Jolly said Tuesday morning on MSNBC.

“And so all questions center on who knew what, when,” he added, speaking about Trump’s Ukraine extortion scandal, “who was in the room when these conversations took place.”

View the complete October 15 aritcle by David Badash from the New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.

Mike Pompeo’s laughable defense of Syria withdrawal inspires fierce backlash: ‘Building foreign mobster ties is not a coalition’

AlterNet logoAs President Donald Trump continues to face widespread criticism over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria and abandon the United States’ Kurdish allies, others in his administration find themselves defending the withdrawal — including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is being lambasted after posting a tweet that tried to put a positive spin on things.

The news coming out of northeastern Syria this week following the withdrawal is dismal. With an incursion of Turkish troops, the Kurdish forces who has been helping the U.S. are turning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of desperation — and there are reports of captured ISIS fighters escaping in the chaos.

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department tweeted an interview in which Pompeo told Nashville’s WZTV-TV that the U.S. was “leading from the front” to “build out coalitions that can effectively deal with some of the most difficult challenges facing the world today.” And it wasn’t long before Twitter was full of angry responses to that tweet.

View the complete October 15 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Mike Pompeo’s State Department homepage advocates ‘being a Christian leader’

AlterNet logoThe website of the U.S, Department of State currently features a photograph of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the words, “Being a Christian Leader.”

The link on the State Dept. homepage goes to a video and the text of Pompeo’s speech to the American Association of Christian Counselors in Nashville, Tennessee on October 11.

Secretary Pompeo’s speech focuses on how he leads the Dept. of State as a devout Christian. He says he keeps a Bible open on his desk and refers to it during the day.

View the complete October 14 article by David Badash from the New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.

Jake Tapper Exposes Pompeo, Graham and Giuliani’s ‘Stunning’ Hypocrisy

The CNN anchor said that anyone who remembers Benghazi “may find it stunning” to see Republican members of Congress “trash-talking the oversight responsibilities of the House.”

It’s easy to forget just how different some of President Trump’s most loyal servants felt about oversight and impeachment when there were Democrats in the White House. On Sunday morning, CNN anchor Jake Tapper made sure his viewers remembered.

In the final moments of his State of the Union broadcast this week, Tapper said that the White House’s outright refusal to “participate” in the House impeachment inquiry means that the president is “seemingly thumbing his nose at the very notion that the U.S. government was designed with three co-equal branches, specifically to offer checks and balances on each other.”

“When President Obama was in the White House, the Republican-led House of Representatives conducted lots of oversight,” Tapper continued, “on the Fast and Furious scandal, on the Benghazi tragedy and more.” He said that anyone who covered or followed the Benghazi saga “may find it stunning to see Republican members of Congress trash-talking whistleblowers and inspectors general and trash-talking the oversight responsibilities of the House.”

View the complete October 13 article by Matt Wilstein on the Daily Beast website here.

State sought to block Yovanovitch testimony, say Democrats

The Hill logoThe Trump administration sought to block the congressional deposition Friday of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, leading House Democrats to issue a subpoena for her appearance — and ultimately compelling her to testify Friday, according to Democratic committee leaders.

Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled from Ukraine to Washington in May, arrived at the Capitol Friday morning and is testifying behind closed doors before members of the three House committees — Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs — leading the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Her appearance came just three days after the White House counsel issued a letter warning House Democrats that the administration will not cooperate with requests for documents or witness testimony as part of the ongoing probe. The missive raised questions as to whether Yovanovitch had been cleared by the State Department to appear on Capitol Hill or if she’d defied the White House at risk of potential retribution.

View the complete October 11 article by Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Pompeo adviser resigning: report

The Hill logoA senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has resigned from his position as the State Department faces lowering morale amid the Ukraine scandal, according to a new report.

Michael McKinley, a career diplomat who has held posts including ambassador to Afghanistan, Colombia and Peru, has stepped down, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Pompeo was reportedly expected to announce the departure in a statement on Friday.

View the complete October 10 article by Rachel Frazin on The Hill website here.

Pompeo says he sent response to House investigators, but subpoenaed documents remain undelivered

Washington Post logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that he had responded to the House committees seeking documents in their impeachment inquiry of President Trump, but congressional investigators say they are still waiting for Pompeo to comply with their subpoena.

Also, Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union ensnared in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, has agreed to meet behind closed doors Tuesday with the three panels — Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and House Oversight — spearheading the probe, according to a committee aide. On Saturday, the official confirmed the schedule on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

NBC News first reported Sondland’s planned appearance.

View the complete October 5 article by Karen DeYoung, Karoun Demirjian and Colby Itkowitz on The Washington Post website here.

Echoes of Benghazi Criticism and Anger Confront Pompeo in Ukraine Inquiry

New York Times logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo once accused the Obama administration of obstructing a House inquiry and letting politics override national interests. He now faces similar charges.

WASHINGTON — As a member of Congress, Mike Pompeo drove the Republican inquiry into the killing of a United States ambassador in Benghazi, Libya, and made clear there was no place for politics in American diplomacy. Nor, he said, would he tolerate “dithering” by an Obama administration State Department that he called “deeply obstructive of getting the American people the facts that they needed.”

Now, as secretary of state, Mr. Pompeo is facing a political crisis that directly challenges his leadership of the department he once excoriated. He is accused by House Democrats of blocking their impeachment inquiry by resisting the release of information to Congress that may shed light on the Trump administration’s shadow foreign policy with Ukraine.

And career diplomats, some of whom blame the Trump administration for dismembering the Foreign Service and undercutting American diplomacy, are expected to be among the first witnesses telling their stories to Congress during its inquiry.

View the complete October 2 article by Lara Jakes and David E. Sanger on The New York Times website here.

‘Caught red handed’: Pompeo thought he was acting tough by releasing letter attacking House Dems. It hasn’t gone well

AlterNet logoU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is under fire after responding to a letter from the House Foreign Affairs Committee requesting State Dept. officials sit for depositions as they build an impeachment case against his boss, President Donald Trump.

Pompeo, currently in Italy with former Trump White House official, conspiracy theorist (and alleged neo-Nazi) Sebastian Gorka, working to subvert more than a dozen CIA and FBI investigations into President Trump, decided strong-arm the Democrats. Attorney General Bill Barr was there last week on the same mission, and it was not his first time doing so.

The Secretary, despite having no legal standing or basis to do so, banned his officials from being deposed. And he falsely accused Democrats of trying to “intimidate” and “bully” State Dept. officials.

View the complete October 2 article by David Badash from The New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.