‘Very intimidating’
Trump tweets live attacks on ousted US Ukraine ambassador — as she testifies
In chilling detail, ousted US Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch described to Trump impeachment investigators yesterday how she felt threatened upon learning President Donald Trump had promised Ukraine’s leader she was “going to go through some things”.
Unwilling to stay silent during Yovanovitch’s testimony, Trump focused even greater national attention on the House hearing by becoming a participant. He tweeted fresh criticism of her, saying things “turned bad” everywhere she served before he fired her — a comment quickly displayed on a video screen in the hearing room.
Trump’s interference could provide more evidence against him in the probe. Democrat Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Trump’s attacks were “part of a patter to obstruct justice” and could be part of an article of impeachment.
Asked about the potential effect of a presidential threat on other officials or witnesses, Yovanovitch replied: “Well, it’s very intimidating.”
Schiff read the president’s comments aloud, saying “as we sit here testifying, the president is attacking you on Twitter,” and asked if that was a tactic to intimidate.
“I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidated,” she said.
Schiff said: “Well, I want to let you know, Ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously.”
Unabashed, Trump said when asked about it later: “I have the right to speak. I have freedom of speech.”
The former ambassador was testifying on the second day of public impeachment hearings. The investigation centres on whether Trump’s push for Ukrainian officials to investigate his political rivals amounted to an abuse of power, a charge he and Republicans deny.
Yovanovitch, a career diplomat who served for decades under Republican and Democratic presidents, was pushed from her post in Kiev earlier this year amid intense criticism from Trump allies.
During a long day of testimony, she relayed her story of being “kneecapped”, recalled from Kiev by Trump, and a “smear campaign”
against her by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and others, including the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
She described Giuliani as leading what William Taylor, now the top diplomat in Ukraine who testified earlier, called an “irregular channel” outside the diplomatic mainstream of US-Ukraine relations.
“These events should concern everyone in this room,” Yovanovitch testified.
Later yesterday, the panel in
closed-door session heard from David Holmes, a political adviser in Kiev, who overheard Trump loudly asking about investigations on a phone call to Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union.
In Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy, he asked for a “favour”, according to an account provided by the White House. He wanted an investigation of Democrats and 2020 rival Joe Biden. Later it was revealed the administration was withholding military aid from Ukraine at the time.