Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that he could not discuss President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who has admitted having a role in talks with Ukraine.
"And we do know that so much — and this is by his own admission — that so much of this activity was being carried out by the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani," ABC host George Stephanopoulos told Pompeo in a Sunday interview. "Was he acting with your blessing and supervision?"
"George, I’ve had one consistent policy as the Secretary of State to not talk about internal deliberations inside the administration," Pompeo replied. "I’m not going to change that policy this morning."
Stephanopoulos pointed out that Giuliani is 'not a member of the administration."
"This is the president’s personal lawyer who was pursuing this at the president’s direction and going around the normal State Department procedures," the ABC host pressed.
"George, private citizens often are part of executing American foreign policy," Pompeo fired back. "You know that. You lived that. You want to talk about Sydney Blumenthal for a while, George? I can go all day."
"They generally have formal appointments," Stephanopoulos observed. "They generally go through reviews for conflicts of interest. We now know that Rudy Giuliani, Mayor Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, was pursuing business interests in the Ukraine at the time he was acting as the president’s special envoy.
"I missed Sydney Blumenthal's conflict of interest," Pompeo said, ignoring the question. "You must have seen that."
"Did you know what Rudy Giuliani was doing?" Stephanopoulos demanded to know.
"George, I don’t talk about internal deliberations inside the administration," Pompeo repeated.
