Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified Friday in front of the House Intelligence Committee as part of the Democrat-led effort to impeach President Trump.
Yovanovitch was mentioned in the intelligence community whistleblower’s complaint that alleged abuse of power related to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine that sparked the impeachment effort. She was the ambassador to Kyrgyzstan under President George W. Bush and the ambassador to Ukraine under President Barack Obama, continuing into the Trump administration, and became a target of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others.
Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, who was in contact with Giuliani, claimed earlier this year that Yovanovitch had worked to help Hillary Clinton and hurt Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. Lutsenko also claimed Yovanovitch gave him a list of people he could not prosecute, which the State Department called a total fabrication. Lutsenko backed away from this claim in April.
These criticisms and others made their way to Trump, who recalled Yovanovitch in May and mentioned her to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their July 25 phone call.
âThe former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news, and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news, so I just want to let you know that,â he said.
Yovanovitch testified behind closed doors on Oct. 11 that she felt threatened after the call was made public.
Speaking to a packed congressional committee room on Friday, Yovanovitch condemned the âsmear campaignâ against her, saying that allegations that she put together a âDo Not Prosecuteâ list were a âfabricationâ and denied claims that she had told anyone at the embassy or in Ukraine that Trumpâs orders should be ignored.
Yovanovitch also testified that âthe Obama administration did not ask me to help the Clinton campaign or harm the Trump campaign, nor would I have taken any such steps if they had.â
âI do not understand Mr. Giulianiâs motives for attacking me, nor can I offer an opinion on whether he believed the allegations he spread about me,â Yovanovitch said. âClearly, no one at the State Department did. What I can say is that Mr. Giuliani should have known those claims were suspect, coming as they reportedly did from individuals with questionable motives and with reason to believe that their political and financial ambitions would be stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine.â
