Mike Pompeo, Trump's Pick for Secretary of State, Secretly Met With North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un

CIA Director Mike Pompeo had a secret meeting with North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un on Easter weekend ahead of President Donald Trump's planned meeting with the head of the rogue regime, according to multiple reports Tuesday night.

The story, first published by the Washington Post, came on the heels of Trump himself seeming to say that he had been directly talking to Kim, which would have been an extraordinary development in American diplomacy. The White House quickly clarified that Trump had not spoken directly with the leader, but that talks were being held at a "very high level."

Pompeo — who is Trump's pick to be the next secretary of state as long as the Senate approves — meeting with Kim certainly qualifies as a "high-level" talk.

Earlier in the day, two Democratic senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that they would not support Pompeo's appointment. Without their support, he's unlikely to get the panel's endorsement, which would be a major embarrassment before he sits for a vote of the full Senate. 

Ned Price, a former spokesman for the CIA, speculated that news of the meeting with Kim was an orchestrated leak meant to bolster Pompeo's credentials ahead of the Senate vote.

"This is clearly a sanctioned leak, as other outlets have been able to confirm it quickly," he tweeted. "Another indication this was a deliberate and overtly political leak of Top Secret information."