Pompeo willing to testify in impeachment trial if ‘legally required’

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that he would testify in the Senate impeachment trial against President Trump if compelled by law.

“If I am legally required to testify, as I’ve said before, I’d be happy to do it,” the secretary said when asked during a press conference alongside Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness during a visit to Kingston.

Pompeo also said he hasn’t been following the impeachment trial when asked by a reporter.

Pompeo has avoided the opening proceedings of the impeachment trial. He embarked on a cross-global trip Saturday that included an international conference on Libya in Berlin and diplomatic stops in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

The question of whether to call witnesses and which ones will be left to the end of the first phase of the impeachment trial and will require a simple majority for consensus.

House managers arguing for the removal of the president want to ask Pompeo what he knew of Trump’s alleged pressure campaign on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that is at the center of the impeachment charges.

Pompeo on Wednesday also said he intends to reschedule a trip to meet with Zelensky in Kyiv, having canceled a trip at the end of December following rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

“I’m going to get there. I’m going to get there before too long,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg news. “I had a trip planned, and then we had an issue arise in the Middle East that I had to attend to. While that issue is not behind us and there’s still a lot of work to do there, I’ll get to Ukraine before too long.”

Pompeo was in Jamaica following trips to Colombia and Costa Rica, where he highlighted the U.S. commitment to counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts.

His travels have prevented him from answering key questions by lawmakers on Capitol Hill following crises in the Middle East and revelations around the safety of U.S. diplomats in Ukraine central to the impeachment trial.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has requested that Pompeo answer for the administration’s strategy with Iran, following the killing of a top Iranian general on Jan. 3 that nearly pushed Washington and Tehran to war.

Pompeo had failed to appear the first time the committee requested his presence and has yet to respond to a second request by the panel.

The secretary has also failed to fully address concerns that the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was under surveillance by two U.S. citizens intent on causing her harm, suggested in text message conversation released by House Democrats as part of evidence in the impeachment trial.

Pompeo has said in media interviews that the State Department is obligated to launch an investigation surrounding the allegations but has provided no details of any inquiries.

He will conclude his nearly weeklong journey in Florida on Thursday, giving a speech on foreign policy in the small city of Bushnell before returning to Washington.