This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/15/trump-impeachment-inquiry-marie-yovanovitch

The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Ukraine ambassador ousted to clear way for Trump's personal agenda – Schiff Ukraine ambassador ousted to clear way for Trump's personal agenda – Schiff
(about 2 hours later)
Recalled Ukraine ambassador, who says state department failed to support her, to testify on revenge campaignRecalled Ukraine ambassador, who says state department failed to support her, to testify on revenge campaign
In the second day of public impeachment hearings against Donald Trump, the House intelligence committee chairman, Adam Schiff, accused Donald Trump of removing a respected American ambassador to Ukraine to clear the way for his personal domestic political agenda. An American ambassador recalled by Donald Trump from Ukraine told impeachment investigators that she felt “shocked and devastated” by Trump’s personal attacks on her, and that she was “amazed” corrupt elements in Ukraine had found willing American partners to take her down.
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled by Trump after three years in Kyiv in May, became the third witness to testify in the televised hearings. Her recall , and a campaign led by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to baselessly frame her, as a personal critic and opponent of the president, sparked uproar in state department ranks. With Trump tweeting attacks on her even as she spoke, Marie Yovanovitch became the third witness in public impeachment hearings investigating whether Trump abused the powers of his office to serve his personal ends.
Yovanovitch said she was “amazed” that corrupt actors in Ukraine who considered her an enemy for anti-corruption efforts in the region had “found Americans willing to partner with them”. After a relatively hushed outing by two career foreign service officers on Wednesday, the hearing room vibrated on Friday with dramatic and personal testimony by Yovanovitch, a widely respected anti-corruption advocate who has served six US administrations including four Republican presidents.
“I still find it difficult to comprehend that foreign and private interests were able to undermine US interests in this way,” she said in her opening statement. A month and a half after the state department asked her to extend her three-year ambassadorship to Kiev for an additional year, Yovanovitch testified that she took a call from her superior at the state department that abruptly terminated her overseas careerin May.
Democrats accuse Trump of abusing the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine to announce investigations that he thought would help his re-election campaign. Trump denies wrongdoing. “Ultimately he said the words that every foreign service officer understands, ‘The president has lost confidence in you’,” Yovanovitch said, “That was a terrible thing to hear. After 33 years of service to our country, it was terrible.”
She was the first woman to deliver public testimony critical of the president in the impeachment hearings. As she spoke, Trump unloaded on Twitter, writing, “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad” and “It is the US president’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.”
Just as the hearing began, Trump released a short transcript, in a seeming distraction stunt, of a congratulatory phone call from April that he had with the Ukrainian president.
But intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff methodically returned the spotlight – and the microphone – to Yovanovitch, who described a smear campaign against her that began in Ukraine and was aggressively taken up by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal emissary; by Donald Trump Jr; and ultimately by the president himself.
She explained how her removal as ambassador was the top priority of a former Ukrainian prosecutor general known for corrupt practices, Yuri Lutsenko, who happened to be in position to do a political favor for Trump.
“The question before us is not whether Donald Trump could recall an American ambassador with a stellar reputation for fighting corruption in Ukraine, but why would he want to?” Schiff said.“The question before us is not whether Donald Trump could recall an American ambassador with a stellar reputation for fighting corruption in Ukraine, but why would he want to?” Schiff said.
“Getting rid of Ambassador Yovanovitch helped set stage for an irregular channel that could pursue the two investigations that mattered so much to the president, the 2016 conspiracy theory, and most important, an investigation into the 2020 political opponent he apparently feared most, Joe Biden.”“Getting rid of Ambassador Yovanovitch helped set stage for an irregular channel that could pursue the two investigations that mattered so much to the president, the 2016 conspiracy theory, and most important, an investigation into the 2020 political opponent he apparently feared most, Joe Biden.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing.
Lutsenko played a key role, in Ukraine and in the American media, in advancing damaging and baseless narratives about Biden, while promoting a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukrainians colluded against Trump in the 2016 election.
Yovanovitch said that the United States had helped Ukraine make headway against corruption in recent years, but under Trump, the corrupt elements in Ukraine suddenly were empowered to the extent that they succeeded in removing a most inconvenient figure: her.
“When our anti-corruption efforts got in the way of a desire for profit or power, Ukrainians who preferred to play by the old, corrupt rules sought to remove me,” she said. “What continues to amaze me is that they found Americans willing to partner with them and, working together, they apparently succeeded in orchestrating the removal of a US Ambassador.
“How could our system fail like this? How is it that foreign corrupt interests could manipulate our government?”
Yovanovitch was “absolutely shocked, and devastated frankly” to discover that Trump had singled her out in a July phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, calling her “bad news’”.
Yovanovitch briefly told the committee about her family’s refugee experience, fleeing both the Soviet Union and then Nazi Germany to land in Canada, where Yovanovitch was born and lived till the age of three.Yovanovitch briefly told the committee about her family’s refugee experience, fleeing both the Soviet Union and then Nazi Germany to land in Canada, where Yovanovitch was born and lived till the age of three.
“I come before you as an American citizen who has devoted the majority of my life, 33 years, in service of the country that all of us love,” Yovanovitch said. “I had no agenda other than to pursue our stated foreign policy goals.”
Trump’s defenders have pointed out that ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president and he may recall whom he pleases.Trump’s defenders have pointed out that ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president and he may recall whom he pleases.
But the circumstances of the recall of Yovanovitch have undercut Republican claims that Trump’s differences with state department officials could be put down to policy.But the circumstances of the recall of Yovanovitch have undercut Republican claims that Trump’s differences with state department officials could be put down to policy.
Schiff drew a direct line between the recall of Yovanovitch and Trump’s alleged project in Ukraine. Schiff suggested Giuliani attacked Yovanovitch to please a former Ukrainian prosecutor general, Yuri Lutsenko, who wanted “revenge” on Yovanovitch for past conflicts. On Twitter, Trump accused Yovanovitch of incompetence. “She started off in Somalia, how did that go?” he wrote.
Lutsenko was a major voice in Ukraine advancing the story, including in the American media, that an investigation into a gas company that employed Joe Biden’s son had been improperly shelved, and promoting a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukrainians colluded against Trump in the 2016 election. In an astonishing moment of political theater Schiff read the tweets to Yovanovitch in real time and asked her to reply.
Yovanovitch pushed back sharply on an allegation by Lutsenko, later retracted, that she had given him a “no-prosecute list”, an allegation later picked up by Giuliani. “I don’t think I have such powers,” she said. “Not in Mogadishu, Somalia, and other places.”
“Mr Giuliani should have known those claims were suspect, coming as they did from individuals” whose commercial ambitions would be stymied by her anti-corruption campaign, Yovanovitch said. Asked how it felt to be personally attacked by the president, Yovanovitch said, “the effect is intimidating.”
In the freelance atmosphere of the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy, the purported revenge campaign quickly gained traction at the highest levels of American government, though it clashed with the official policy of supporting Ukraine against Russia, witnesses have testified. Schiff replied: “I want to let you know that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously.
The campaign championed by Giuliani was joined, by Donald Trump Jr, who called Yovanovitch a “joker” on Twitter; and ultimately by the president himself, who told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a July phone call that Yovanovitch was “bad news”. In the freelance atmosphere of the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy, the purported revenge campaign against her quickly gained traction at the highest levels of American government, though it clashed with the official policy of supporting Ukraine against Russia, witnesses have testified.
The campaign against Yovanovitch was plainly visible to state department officials abroad and in Washington. Multiple officials, including deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent and Michael McKinley, a former senior adviser to the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, urged the state department to issue a statement of support for Yovanovitch, but were rebuffed, the men have testified.The campaign against Yovanovitch was plainly visible to state department officials abroad and in Washington. Multiple officials, including deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent and Michael McKinley, a former senior adviser to the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, urged the state department to issue a statement of support for Yovanovitch, but were rebuffed, the men have testified.
Yovanovitch herself sought support from multiple state department figures, including one of the impeachment inquiry witnesses, undersecretary of state David Hale, who is schedule to testify next week.Yovanovitch herself sought support from multiple state department figures, including one of the impeachment inquiry witnesses, undersecretary of state David Hale, who is schedule to testify next week.
“What I was told was that there was concern that the rug would be pulled out from under the state department if they put out something publicly,” Yovanovitch told investigators last month.
“By whom?” she was asked.
“The president,” she replied.
The campaign against her, and the failure of the state department to issue a statement backing her, damaged her ability to carry out her work, Yovanovitch testified.The campaign against her, and the failure of the state department to issue a statement backing her, damaged her ability to carry out her work, Yovanovitch testified.
When she sought advice on how to stop the smear campaign that resulted in her ouster, she was told to tweet something nice about Trump, she said.
“You know the president,” ambassador Gordon Sondland told Yovanovitch, she testified. “Well, maybe you don’t know him personally, but you know, you know, the sorts of things that he likes. You know, go out there battling aggressively and, you know, praise him or support him.”