Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in open session on the afternoon of July 25. | Moises Castillo/AP Photo Pompeo to testify in Senate after criticism of Trump-Putin summit

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week to discuss a pair of controversial summits held by President Donald Trump, according to Republican aides.

Pompeo will appear before the committee in open session on the afternoon of July 25 to answer questions about Trump’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.


Democrats had already been pleading with the administration to brief them on North Korea. And they quickly demanded Republicans call in Pompeo to discuss Russia after Trump’s widely criticized press conference with Putin in which he sided with the Russian strongman over his intelligence community on the question of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker personally pushed the administration for Pompeo to appear in front of the Senate, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday also called for U.S. ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to testify before lawmakers about Monday’s Trump-Putin meeting.

Even before Trump’s polarizing Putin summit, the foreign relations panel’s top Democrat, New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, said that he was hopeful Pompeo would agree to appear next week.

The Trump administration canceled an earlier scheduled Senate briefing on the president’s June 12 meeting in Singapore with the North Korean dictator, and rescheduling had proven elusive before this week.

Elana Schor contributed to this report.