Pompeo Says State Department Responded to Congress on Ukraine

(Bloomberg) -- The State Department has given Congress an “initial response” to a request for documents related to the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said.

“We’ll obviously do all the things we’re required to do by law,” Pompeo said at a press conference in Athens, where he met with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.

Pompeo missed a deadline Friday to turn over Ukraine-related documents to congressional investigators, CNN reported.

Pompeo acknowledged this week that he was on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that’s at the center of the impeachment probe being lead by House Democrats.

In the conversation, Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to help investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to a rough transcript of the call released by the White House.

Pompeo didn’t address Trump’s bid for help gathering dirt on Biden, front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but indicated that the U.S. was seeking Ukraine’s support to investigate possible foreign interference in the 2016 election that brought Trump to power. It’s “not only appropriate, but it is our duty to investigate,” he said.

“If we need any assistance from any other government, it is very reasonable to ask that government or state: ‘Do you have any help that you can provide so we can protect the American people,’ “ Pompeo said.

The top U.S. diplomat also slammed Congressional Democrats for what he said was harassment of State Department employees in seeking their cooperation with the impeachment inquiry.

“Sadly there have been congressional inquiries that harass and abuse State Department employees by contacting them directly, and seeking to have them provide documents, which belong to the State Department -- official U.S. government records -- and saying ‘Hey, don’t bother calling State Department lawyers. Just send them to us directly.’ That’s harassment.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Davis in London at abdavis@bloomberg.net;Eleni Chrepa in Athens at echrepa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny

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