‘I felt threatened by Trump’

President’s call made her uneasy, says envoy in impeachment transcripts

Witness transcripts in the impeachment probe into Donald Trump were made public for the first time, with the former US ambassador to Kiev telling investigators she felt threatened by the president in his call to Ukraine’s leader.

Democrats are entering an open phase of a congressional probe into potential abuse of power by Trump that has divided Washington as Republicans seek to defend him and his opponents pursue his removal from office.

The release of Marie Yovanovitch’s

(pic) deposition came as the White House hardened its opposition to the inquiry, with Trump’s top national security lawyer defying a subpoena to testify early Monday.

The probe is examining how

Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden, including by withholding US$391mil (RM1.6bil) in military aid that had been approved by Congress to help the US ally defend itself against Russian aggression.

Yovanovitch, who had urged Ukraine to do more to fight corruption, testified last month that she was ousted in May over “false claims” spread by questionable actors allied to Trump.

According to the former ambassador’s deposition, she was alarmed by the deepening involvement of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in Ukrainian affairs, and in particular his efforts to get Kiev to investigate Biden.

She said she was “shocked” when she read the summary of Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump said the ambassador was “going to go through some things.”

“I was very concerned. I still am,” Yovanovitch says.

“Did you feel threatened?” an investigator asks Yovanovitch in the transcript.

“Yes,” she replies.

“I really don’t know her,” Trump told reporters of Yovanovitch on Monday, adding that he was “sure she’s a very fine woman.”

In fact, Yovanovitch came up repeatedly in Trump’s phone call with Zelensky, with the US president describing her as “bad news,” according to a White House summary of the conversation.

The release is the first of what House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said would be several key depositions.

He also released testimony from Michael McKinley, a former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who resigned in September after concluding that the department was not defending top diplomats.

He said he asked Pompeo three times to defend Yovanovitch, eventually telling him that “this situation isn’t acceptable.”

But the secretary was essentially non-responsive. — AFP