The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Investigators disclose testimony of diplomats
Transcript reveals what ex-ambassador knew of Giuliani’s Ukraine ploy.
WASHINGTON — House impeachment investigators on Monday released transcripts of private questioning taken last month with the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and a top diplomat who advised Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
What they said
The ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, said during her deposition last month that she believed she was the victim of a conservative smear campaign that sought to portray her as disloyal to President Donald Trump and prompted him to remove her. The transcript shows that she also detailed what she knew of attempts by Trump’s private lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his allies to work with the former Ukrainian prosecutor general to “do things, including to me.”
The diplomat, Michael McKinley, described to investigators how he pressed top State Department officials to publicly support Yovanovitch. According to the transcript, McKinley spoke directly with Pompeo and other senior officials this fall about issuing a public statement about Yovanovitch’s professionalism, but was eventually told by a department representative that they did not want to “draw undue attention” to Yovanovitch.
What’s next
The House voted on a resolution last week that directed the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees to release the transcripts with necessary redactions and begin to move other findings into public view. Democrats are expected to publicize transcripts of additional depositions, including with witnesses more central to their case, this week. They could begin public hearings with some of the witnesses as soon as next week.
“As we move towards this new public phase of the impeachment inquiry, the American public will begin to see for themselves the evidence that the committees have collected,” the three Democratic committee leaders involved in the inquiry said in a statement accompanying the transcripts. “With each new interview, we learn more about the president’s attempt to manipulate the levers of power to his personal political benefit.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the Intelligence Committee chairman leading the inquiry, told reporters Monday the committee would release two more transcripts today of interviews with two key figures in the inquiry. Those figures are Kurt Volker, who served as special envoy to Ukraine, and Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union.