Pence's office denies Schiff request to declassify call with Ukrainian leader

Vice President Pence's counsel refused to release further information on the vice president's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a letter obtained by The Hill.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) requested last week that Pence declassify the contents of his Sept. 18 call with Zelensky. Jennifer Williams, a career foreign service officer and Pence staffer, testified about the call last month, but later told lawmakers that the specific details of the conversation were classified.

Pence's office denied that the vice president discussed any of the investigations at the center of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump's dealings with Ukraine. House lawmakers have alleged in the impeachment inquiry that the president withheld millions in military aid to Ukraine in an effort to pressure Kyiv into launching investigations that would benefit him politically.

"While the contents of a classified call with a foreign head of state should never have been discussed in an unclassified Committee hearing or an unclassified deposition, it is clear from public testimony that the Vice President never raised the Bidens, Burisma, or Crowdstrike in his conversation with President Zelensky," Pence's office said in the letter, signed by Matthew Morgan, counsel to the vice president.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/474220-pences-office-denies-schiff-request-to-declassify-call-more