Sean Hannity says he never spoke with Pompeo about Ukraine

Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday said State Department officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, never reached out to him about President Trump’s dealings in Ukraine.

Hannity offered the remarks after the release of a transcript of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump.

{mosads}Yovanovitch in her testimony said she was told by another official that Pompeo or someone around him “was going to place a call to Mr. Hannity on Fox News to say, you know, what is going on? I mean, do you have proof of these kinds of allegations or not? And if you have proof, you know, tell me, and if not, stop.”

Hannity called the testimony, and CNN’s reporting of it, “fake news.”

He said in a tweet that he “never ever talked to Secy Pompeo about Ukraine PERIOD” and accused CNN of writing the piece to bolster its ratings. He also took a shot at the network’s president, Jeff Zucker, saying the CNN executive should pay him.

“Breaking fake news! Never ever talked to Secy Pompeo about Ukraine PERIOD! Fake News CNN trying to boost their ratings by showing me. Biased Zucker needs to start paying me. pic.twitter.com/PwYsXZNYnZ

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 4, 2019

Hannity reiterated on his show Monday that the call “never happened.”

“Apparently I’m being accused of making some kind of allegations against the ambassador and that Secretary Pompeo or someone from the State Department called me about it,” the Fox host said. “No, that never happened. That’d be fake news.”

“The ambassador was barely ever mentioned on our show,” he added. “I don’t know anything about this woman to be honest. Her name came up a few times on the show. She was an Obama holdover. I did ask one question about a news report. If she was involved in something, it was a question.”

“I never talked to Secretary Pompeo about Ukraine,” Hannity continued. “I never talked to anyone at the State Department about this ambassador. Sorry to burst your fake news bubble.” 

Yovanovitch testified last month before three House panels as part of the impeachment inquiry into Trump over his dealings with Ukraine. The transcript of her testimony was made public on Monday. 

The ambassador said she was recalled to the United States after a whisper campaign against her by allies of the president, including Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. 

Her firing earlier this year was mentioned in the whistleblower complaint that sparked the impeachment inquiry.

Yovanovitch served as an ambassador during both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.