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Pompeo’s Silence Creates a ‘Crisis of Morale’ at State Department

“The rank and file are very disturbed by the inability, the refusal, of the secretary of state to defend his own people,” says former diplomat Nicholas Burns.

By , a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy.
Former U.S. diplomat Nicholas Burns testifies before the Senate.
Former U.S. diplomat Nicholas Burns testifies before the Senate.
Nicholas Burns, a professor at Harvard University and a former diplomat, testifies before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in Washington on June 28, 2017. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Lawmakers released documents and messages this week that appear to show associates of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer surveilling the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch, amid a campaign to oust her from her job. They are the latest documents at the center of the impeachment investigation into Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential rival.

Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @RobbieGramer

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