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(CNN) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted Wednesday that it was during the July 25 telephone call in which President Donald Trump asked President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
"I was on the phone call," Pompeo said Wednesday during a press conference in Rome with the Italian Foreign Minister, hours before the "urgent" private meeting that the inspector general of the State Department requested with senior officials of the Congress on documents related to the scandal of Ukraine.
The phone call was part of the complaint made by an informant that Trump allegedly tried to "request interference" from Ukraine in the next 2020 elections, and that the White House took steps to cover it up. Trump has denied doing anything inappropriate.
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Wednesday's Pompeo statements were the first time that the main US diplomat confirmed that he was on the July call between Trump and Zelensky, after previously evading questions about what he knew about the conversation and the news reports that revealed he was during the call
During Wednesday's press conference, Pompeo was asked if he heard anything in the call that worried him or generated a red alert, but he avoided the question.
“The phone call was in the context of… now, I have been secretary of state for a year and a half. I know exactly what US policy is regarding Ukraine. It has been remarkably consistent, and we will continue trying to boost that set of results, ”Pompeo told reporters.
“It is what our team focused on, including Ambassador (Kurt) Volker, was to eliminate the threat that Russia poses there in Ukraine. It was about helping Ukrainians get out of corruption and the government to get rid of corruption and help this new Ukrainian government build a successful and prosperous economy. That is what the State Department officials have been privileged to lead. And that is what we will continue to do. Even while all this noise continues. ”
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The Wall Street Journal reported for the first time, and CNN confirmed, that Pompeo was on the call with Trump and Zelensky, where Trump asked Zelensky for a "favor": investigate Biden, one of the candidates for the Democratic nomination of 2020, and his son Hunter Biden. There has been no evidence of irregularities by the Biden.
Pompeo was asked about the informant's complaint last week while he was in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, but said at the time that he had not yet read it in its entirety.
A similar response was given in an interview with ABC News on September 22, where he was asked what he knew about the conversation.
"You just gave me a report about a complaint from an informant (from the intelligence community) that I haven't seen," Pompeo told ABC News at the time.
An informant's complaint about irregularities led House Democrats to launch a formal political trial investigation against Trump.
At the end of last week, Pompeo was summoned by the presidents of the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees of the House for their inability to produce documents related to Ukraine.
In addition to the subpoena, the chairmen of the commissions informed Pompeo in a separate letter that they had scheduled statements for five State Department officials who have been mentioned in connection with the investigation. Pompeo had responded on Tuesday that the proposed schedule for these people to testify was too compressed, and the Democrats warned Pompeo that any effort to prevent these officials from speaking to Congress "is illegal and will constitute evidence of obstruction of the trial investigation. politician".
In Rome on Wednesday, Pompeo said he opposed the demands that "deeply violate the fundamental principles of separation of powers," saying that House Democrats had contacted the five officials directly and told them not to contact to a legal advisor of the State Department.
"Of course, we will do our constitutional duty to cooperate with this branch," said Pompeo. “But we will do it in a way that is consistent with the fundamental values of the American system. And we will not tolerate people who bully in the Capitol, who bully employees of the State Department. That is unacceptable, and it is not something that I am going to allow to happen. ”
- Zachary Cohen and Jamie Gangel of CNN contributed to this report.