Trump attacks ex-envoy during testimony
State Dept. didn’t defend Yovanovitch during smear campaign, she says
WASHINGTON— During the testimony Friday morning of former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in the impeachment hearings, she outlined her impression that her firing — after what she characterized as a false smear campaign instigated by corrupt interests in Ukraine and spread by U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani — sent a message.
“Shady interests the world over have learned how little it takes to remove an American ambassador who does not give them what they want,” Yovanovitch said. Responding to a question later, she said U.S. diplomats have probably learned the same lesson.
But perhaps the most riveting and potentially consequential moments of her testimony addressed the message sent by the social media pronouncements of the president, and the effect they have on the U.S. apparatus of government, and were having on her, even in real time as the hearing went on. Democrat lawyer Daniel Goldman showed and read her tweets from mid-March, before her firing. One, from Trump, shared a story smearing her that she said was false and was later recanted by its source. Another, from the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., said the U.S. needs “less of these joker ambassadors” in reference to her.
“Were you aware of these tweets at the time?” Goldman asked.
“Yes,” Yovanovitch responded.
“What was your reaction to seeing this?” he said.
“Well, I was worried,” she responded. “These attacks were being repeated by the president himself. And his son.” After repeating that all the allegations being repeated were false, she elaborated on her worry. “It seemed to me that if the president’s son is saying things like this, that it would be very hard to continue in my position and have authority in Ukraine, unless the State Department came out pretty strongly behind me.”
However, she testified, a defence from the State Department did not come. “I was told that there was a concern on the seventh floor. And if a statement of support was issued, whether by the State Department or by the secretary personally, that it could be undermined,” Yovanovitch said. “How could it be undermined?” Goldman asked.
“That the president may issue a tweet contradicting that, or something to that effect,” she said.
“So let me see if I get this right. You are one of the most senior diplomats in the State Department. You’ve been there for 33 years. You won numerous awards. You’ve been appointed as an ambassador three times by both Republican and Democratic presidents. And the State Department would not issue a statement in support of you against false allegations. Because they were concerned about a tweet from the president of the United States,” Goldman said.
“That’s my understanding,” she said.
The questioning was then taken over by committee chair Adam Schiff. “It seems like an appropriate time,” Schiff said. “Ambassador Yovanovitch, as we sit here testifying, the president is attacking you on Twitter. And I’d like to give you a chance to respond.”
He read her a tweet Trump’s Twitter account had sent while she had been speaking. “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian president spoke unfavourably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. president’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors,” it read.
“Would you like to respond to the president’s attack that everywhere you went turned bad?” Schiff asked.
“I mean, I don’t, I don’t think I have such powers. Not in Mogadishu, Somalia, not in other places. I actually think that where I’ve served over the years, I and others have demonstrably made things better, you know, for the U.S., as well as for the countries that I’ve served. In Ukraine, for example, where there are huge challenges, including, you know, on the issue that we’re discussing today of corruption, huge challenges. They’ve made a lot of progress since 2014, including in the years that I was there, and I think in part, the Ukrainian people get the most credit for that. But a part of that credit goes to the work of the United States. And to me as the ambassador in Ukraine.”
“Ambassador, you’ve shown the courage to come forward today to testify. Notwithstanding the fact you were urged by the White House or State Department not to. Notwithstanding the fact that, as you testified earlier, the president implicitly threatened you in that call record. And now the president in real time is attacking you. What effect do you think that has on other witnesses willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing?” Schiff asked.
“It’s very intimidating,” Yovanovitch said.
“It’s designed to intimidate, is it not?” Schiff said.
“I mean, I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do. But I think the effect is to be intimidating,” Yovanovitch said.
“Well, I want to let you know, ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously.”
“I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do. But I think the effect is to be intimidating.”
MARIE YOVANOVITCH
FORMER AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE