NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today appeared on MSNBC and blasted Secretary Pompeo for failing to protect U.S. Ambassador Yovanovitch following revelations about her apparent surveillance by Rudy Giuliani’s associates. This week, Menendez wrote a letter to the State Department demanding a briefing on the matter.

“It shouldn’t take the Secretary to be on some conservative talk show to finally say he’s going to look at [the allegations],” Sen. Menendez said. “That’s the responsibility of the Secretary of State to protect all of our diplomats, to review and investigate any challenges or threats that may have come against them. I expect a full briefing on it to understand what the Department knew, what did they do, and what is it doing now.”

Sen. Menendez also called for Senate hearings on the ongoing Iran crisis and for top Trump Administration officials to answer key outstanding questions and provide transparency to the Congress and American people.

On impeachment, the Senator said he plans to spend his weekend preparing by reading trial briefs and the House report on the articles of impeachment, and also renewed his call for a fair impeachment trial that must include relevant witnesses and documents.

###