6:05 p.m. ET, November 4, 2019
Ex-Pompeo adviser contradicts former boss in testimony
From CNN's Zachary Cohen
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Michael McKinley, former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
directly contradicted public comments made by the top US diplomat when he
testified under oath last month as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
McKinley, who resigned amid the Ukraine controversy, raised concerns about former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch's removal, which was pushed by Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and has become a central part of the inquiry, according to a
transcript of that testimony released Monday.
While Pompeo told ABC News last month that McKinley never raised the idea of issuing a statement of support for Yovonovitch, McKinley directly contradicted that statement while under oath, telling lawmakers he mentioned it on three separate occasions.
Specifically, McKinley who testified behind closed doors on Oct. 16, said that he raised the Yovanovitch matter with Pompeo three times and proposed releasing a statement of support for the former diplomat, who was abruptly recalled from her post, but did not receive a response from the secretary of state, including when he told Pompeo he was leaving the department.
McKinley told lawmakers that he raised the issue on two other occasions, including during a phone call to discuss his resignation.
What Pompeo said: In the ABC News after McKinley's testimony, the secretary of state said: "From the time that Ambassador Yovanovitch departed Ukraine until the time that (McKinley) came to tell me that he was departing, I never heard him say a single thing about his concerns with respect to the decision that was made," Pompeo said of McKinley. "Not once ... did Ambassador McKinley say something to me during that entire time period."