'GOTCHA GAME'
Pompeo, who has acknowledged he listened to the July 25 call between Trump and Zelenskiy, objected last week to efforts by Democrats to obtain depositions from current and former department officials.
Asked at another event on Saturday if there were any red flags in the Ukraine saga that required further investigation, Pompeo said he did not think the audience was interested in hearing about the issue.
"This is what's wrong, when the world doesn't focus on the things that are right, the things that matter, the things that impact real people's lives and instead you get caught up in silly gotcha game?" he said.
He also addressed a notion Trump has long held that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a theory that runs counter to the U.S. intelligence community's findings that it was Russia that meddled in the campaign.
Pompeo said "governments have an obligation and indeed a duty to make sure that elections happen with integrity, without interference from any government, whether that's the Ukrainian government or any other."
Lawmakers are looking at whether Trump jeopardized national security and the integrity of U.S. elections for personal political gain. Trump has called the impeachment investigation a "hoax" and accused the media and Democrats of corruption.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, told Reuters in a phone interview on Saturday that the president in the July 25 call had not offered his Ukrainian counterpart any "quid pro quo" for his cooperation in probing Biden and his son.
"One thing clear about the conversation is, there's no quid pro quo," said the former New York mayor, who has emerged as a central figure in the scandal. The House Intelligence Committee has issued a subpoena to Giuliani, setting an Oct. 15 deadline for him to turn over documents related to his work with Ukrainians on Trump's behalf.
House Democrats subpoenaed the White House for documents on Friday. White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said the subpoena "changes nothing" and that it would be ultimately shown that Trump did nothing wrong.
The probe could lead to approval of articles of impeachment - or formal charges - against Trump in the House. A trial on whether to remove Trump from office would then be held in the Republican-controlled Senate.
A two-thirds majority of the senators present would be needed to oust Trump, which means 20 Republicans would have to jump ship if all the Democrats and the two independents who caucus with Democrats form a united front.
Although Trump's Senate firewall has no visible cracks so far, Romney's willingness to step out of formation and criticize Trump over his calls for foreign investigations of a political opponent could act as a catalyst for others.
Romney savaged Trump during the 2016 campaign, calling him a "con man" who was unfit for the presidency, but the two men later set aside their differences. Trump endorsed Romney's political comeback last year.
