Top State Dept. official confirms smear campaign
WASHINGTON >> John Sullivan, the deputy secretary of state, said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was involved in a smear campaign to oust the ambassador to Ukraine, publicly confirming a key part of the story behind the impeachment inquiry.
Jumping into an impeachment fight that has been waged in the House behind closed doors, Senate Democrats used Sullivan’s nomination to be Trump’s next ambassador to Russia to bring the drama into the open. Sullivan, testifying under oath and on camera before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, corroborated private testimony from one of the House Democrats’ central impeachment witnesses, Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine.
Pressed on whether he believed it was appropriate for the president to demand investigations into domestic political opponents, Sullivan said, “I don’t think that would be in accord with our values.”
How and why Yovanovitch, the former envoy to Ukraine and a longtime diplomat, was recalled from her job has become a question at the heart of the impeachment investigation into whether Trump enlisted a foreign government to target his political opponents. While Sullivan did not reveal significant new information, he testified on camera, and became the highest ranking official to publicly affirm that Yovanovitch had served “admirably and capably.” He also went on the record with his belief that Giuliani helped to coordinate an effort to denigrate her.
“My knowledge in the spring and summer of this year about any involvement of Mr. Giuliani was in connection to a campaign against our ambassador in Ukraine,” Sullivan said.
Asked by Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, whether he believed Giuliani was “seeking to smear Ambassador Yovanovitch, or have her removed,” Sullivan replied: “I believed he was, yes.”
He did not say why he suspected Giuliani’s involvement. Sullivan emerged as a player in the impeachment inquiry after Yovanovitch testified about a conversation she had with him earlier this year about her dismissal. She recounted to House investigators earlier this month that Sullivan told her “that this was not like other situations where he had recalled ambassadors for cause” and that “there had been a concerted campaign against me.”
Sullivan confirmed her account Wednesday, telling the Senate committee that he told her she had done nothing wrong, but that the president had lost confidence in her.