Pompeo confirms he was on call that triggered Trump impeachment drive

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Wednesday that he listened in on the phone call that is at the heart of the impeachment probe against President Donald Trump.

"I was on the call," Pompeo told a news conference in Rome.

It was Pompeo's first public comment on whether he had heard Trump ask the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter in the July 25 call.

Pompeo did not say what was discussed in Trump's half-hour conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky.

He also again lambasted Democratic congressional leaders pressing for quick testimony from five State Department diplomats as part of their probe of the Ukraine scandal now threatening the Trump presidency.