President Donald Trump's lawyers agreed that the president could supersede Congress and take over the role of allocating funds when he decided to hold back aid to Ukraine until the country's new president agreed to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden's son. It was only after President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to do a public interview with CNN and a whistleblower outed Trump for the scandal that the aid was ultimately released.
Pompeo was expected to resign from the State Department and run for U.S. Senate in Kansas, where he served in Congress from 2011 to 2017. Trump already endorsed him for the position, saying he would "win in a landslide."
However, a White House aide said over the weekend that Pompeo was probably not running for the open seat vacated by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS). Currently, far-right Republican Kris Kobach is seen as the lead Republican in the race. He recently lost his statewide race for governor to Democrat Laura Kelly in 2018.
“I spoke with him about this two nights ago,” National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said in an ABC interview. “He said he's not running for Senate. He said he's staying as secretary of state.”
The news came as a shock as it was less than a month ago that Pompeo was meeting with top donors to get them to support his campaign. If Ukraine wasn't a factor, it's entirely possible that Pompeo didn't get a warm enough reception from the funders of the GOP.
Former state and federal prosecutor Elie Honig pointed out, the new information places Secretary of State Mike Pompeo squarely in the Ukraine scandal.
Pompeo joined with former DNI John Bolton and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in a meeting to plead with Trump in late August to release the military aid to Ukraine. Trump refused.
"Other than Trump’s conversation with Zelensky, this is the most important piece of evidence in the case. Pompeo and Bolton know what happened - and yet they remain in hiding. They need to testify about what happened in that room, whoever it may help or hurt," tweeted Honig.
Perhaps one of the greatest indictments against Pompeo's candidacy is that Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani doing Pompeo's job in at least two countries known so far.
