FORMER ENVOY DEFIES PRESIDENT, TESTIFIES HE PUSHED TO OUST HER
WASHINGTON — Testifying in defiance of President Donald Trump’s ban, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House impeachment investigators Friday that Trump himself had pressured the State Department to oust her from her post and get her out of the country.
Yovanovitch told lawmakers investigating Trump’s dealings with Ukraine that there was a “concerted campaign” against her based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”
The diplomat was recalled from Kiev as Rudy Giuliani — who is Trump’s personal attorney and has no official role in the U.S. government — pressed Ukrainian officials to investigate baseless corruption allegations against Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was involved with a gas company there.
Yovanovitch testified behind closed doors Friday for more than nine hours as part of the House Democrats’ impeachment investigation. Her prepared remarks were obtained by The Associated Press. She left without answering questions.
New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat, said Yovanovitch occasionally had to leave the room because she was overcome with emotion as she was “recounting how she was thrown to the wolves” in Ukraine.
“It is clear to me that she was fired because she was a thorn in the side of those who sought to use the Ukrainian government for their own political and financial gain — and that includes President Trump,” Maloney said.
Lawmakers leaving the meeting would not provide specifics from the confidential
deposition. But they indicated that Yovanovitch was providing information that would help with the impeachment inquiry.
“It was compelling, it was impactful, it was powerful, and I just feel grateful for the opportunity to have received that information,” said Democratic Rep. Denny Heck, who flew in from Washington state for the interview.
Yovanovitch “set a very powerful, courageous example,” said Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey.
Republicans leaving the meeting focused their criticism on Democrats, arguing that the president’s lawyers should be able to attend the hearings and cross examine witnesses. “This process is a joke, and the consequences
are huge,” said New York Rep. Lee Zeldin.
The former ambassador said she was fired from her post after insisting that Giuliani’s requests to Ukrainian officials for investigations be relayed through official channels, according to a former diplomat who has spoken with her. That former diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the private conversation.
In her statement to lawmakers, Yovanovitch said that “false narratives” had resulted from “an unfortunate alliance between Ukrainians who continue to operate within a corrupt system, and Americans who either did not understand that corrupt system, or who may have chosen, for their own purposes, to ignore it.”