Pompeo Mum On Report That Trump Asked Him To Get Comey To Back Off Russia Probe

US Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his conformation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 12, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON ... US Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his conformation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 12, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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During his Thursday confirmation hearing to be secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo refused to speak about a reported conversation he had with President Donald Trump and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats about the Russia investigation in March 2017.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) asked Pompeo about a Washington Post report on a briefing at the White House, after which Trump asked Coats and Pompeo to stay behind. Coats told associates that Trump complained about then-FBI Director James Comey’s work overseeing the Russia probe and asked if him if he could get Comey to back off the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to the Washington Post.

“I’m not going to talk about the conversations the President and I had,” Pompeo told Menendez on Thursday. “But I will tell you this: The article’s suggestion that he asked me to do anything that was improper is false.”

Pressed on whether Trump asked him anything related to the Russia probe, Pompeo said, “I don’t recall what he asked me that day precisely, but, I have to tell you, I’m with the president an awful lot. He’s never asked me to do anything that I considered remotely improper.”

Pompeo also confirmed that he has spoken to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, and investigators on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. But he wouldn’t offer details about what his testimony covered.

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