Use of the State Department for Personal and Political Purposes: Pompeo's RNC Speech from Jerusalem, Giuliani's Shadow Diplomacy, and the Recall of Ambassador Yovanovitch
Tier 3Documented2018-05-01 to 2020-08-25
Factual Summary
During the Trump administration, the U.S. State Department was used in ways that blurred the line between official diplomacy and personal political activity. Three interconnected episodes illustrate this pattern: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's partisan speech at the Republican National Convention delivered from Jerusalem during an official diplomatic trip, Rudy Giuliani's unauthorized shadow diplomacy in Ukraine, and the recall of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch at Giuliani's urging.
On August 25, 2020, Secretary of State Pompeo delivered a pre-recorded speech endorsing President Trump's re-election from the rooftop of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, while on an official taxpayer-funded diplomatic trip to the Middle East. No sitting secretary of state had previously addressed a political party convention, a norm rooted in the principle that American diplomacy should be nonpartisan. Pompeo's own State Department guidance, issued in a cable to all U.S. diplomatic missions in July 2020, had reminded employees that the Hatch Act prohibited them from engaging in political activity while on duty or in a federal building. State Department ethics officials had not cleared the speech, and a senior department official told reporters that Pompeo was speaking in his "personal capacity." The Government Accountability Office and multiple legal scholars noted that delivering a partisan political address from a diplomatic trip raised serious Hatch Act and ethics concerns, as the diplomatic mission, security, and travel were funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Beginning in late 2018 and continuing through 2019, Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney with no official government role, conducted a parallel diplomatic campaign in Ukraine aimed at pressuring Ukrainian officials to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden's involvement with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Giuliani met with current and former Ukrainian officials, including Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, and communicated directly with senior State Department officials about his activities. Text messages and documents released during the first impeachment inquiry showed that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, and other State Department officials were aware of and, to varying degrees, coordinating with Giuliani's efforts. Sondland testified before Congress that "everyone was in the loop" regarding the pressure campaign on Ukraine, and that the State Department knew about the conditions being placed on Ukrainian engagement.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a career foreign service officer with a reputation for combating corruption, was abruptly recalled from her post in May 2019. Yovanovitch testified during the first impeachment inquiry that she was told by senior State Department officials that she had "done nothing wrong" but that Trump had lost confidence in her. Evidence presented during the impeachment inquiry showed that Giuliani and his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman had conducted a campaign to remove Yovanovitch, partly because her anti-corruption work conflicted with their interests in Ukraine. In a July 25, 2019, phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the transcript of which was released by the White House, Trump referred to Yovanovitch and stated: "She's going to go through some things." Yovanovitch testified that the State Department leadership failed to defend her against the smear campaign, and that she was told by the U.S. Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, to publicly express support for Trump on Twitter, advice she declined to follow.
Primary Sources
1. Mike Pompeo, speech to the Republican National Convention, recorded at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, August 25, 2020 (C-SPAN)
2. State Department cable on Hatch Act compliance, July 2020
3. White House transcript of the July 25, 2019, phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky
4. Marie Yovanovitch, opening statement and testimony, House Intelligence Committee, November 15, 2019
5. Gordon Sondland, testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, November 20, 2019
6. Text messages between Kurt Volker, Gordon Sondland, and Bill Taylor, released by the House Intelligence Committee
Corroborating Sources
1. Washington Post: "Pompeo stirs up outrage among some diplomats over speech to RNC," August 25, 2020
2. CNBC: "RNC 2020: Pompeo under fire for making speech from diplomatic trip to Israel," August 25, 2020
3. PBS NewsHour: "WATCH: Mike Pompeo defies precedent, backs Trump in RNC speech," August 25, 2020
4. Al Jazeera: "Outrage as Pompeo's Jerusalem speech to RNC breaks years of norms," August 24, 2020
5. Roll Call: "Democrats say Pompeo's speech to RNC is unethical, hypocritical, and possibly illegal," August 25, 2020
Counterarguments and Context
Pompeo's office stated that he delivered the RNC speech in his personal capacity and that no State Department resources were used for the recording beyond what was already allocated for the official trip. His supporters argued that there was no explicit law barring a cabinet secretary from speaking at a political convention and that the Hatch Act does not apply to the president or the secretary of state in the same way it applies to rank-and-file employees. Regarding Giuliani's Ukraine activities, the Trump administration argued that the president has the authority to use personal envoys and that Giuliani was acting in a private capacity to investigate potential corruption. On Yovanovitch's recall, the administration maintained that the president has the absolute right to remove ambassadors at will and that her recall was a routine personnel decision. Critics responded that Pompeo's own department had issued guidance warning employees against exactly the kind of political activity he engaged in, that Giuliani's shadow diplomacy undermined the official diplomatic channel and served Trump's personal political interests rather than U.S. foreign policy, and that Yovanovitch's removal was driven by a desire to clear the path for a pressure campaign on Ukraine that led to Trump's first impeachment. The House impeached Trump on December 18, 2019, in part based on the Ukraine pressure campaign, though the Senate acquitted him on February 5, 2020.
Author's Note
This entry is classified as Tier 3 because the events are documented through primary evidence, including official transcripts, sworn congressional testimony, released text messages, and video recordings. Pompeo's RNC speech was broadcast publicly, Yovanovitch's testimony was delivered under oath, and the Giuliani communications were released through the impeachment inquiry process. The entry consolidates three distinct but related episodes that collectively demonstrate the use of the State Department for personal and political purposes.