Former Ambassador to Ukraine Tells Congress: Trump Pressured State to Remove Me – IOTW Report

Former Ambassador to Ukraine Tells Congress: Trump Pressured State to Remove Me


The president can remove, recall, and fire any employee at will, for any given reason. Or no reason at all.

Breitbart: Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch on Friday told House Democrats pursuing the impeachment inquiry that President Donald Trump pressured the State Department to remove her from her post because he had “lost confidence” in her.

In written testimony prepared for her deposition in the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, Yovanovitch declared that she was “abruptly” told to return to Washington in late April.

Yovanovitch served as the American ambassador to Ukraine from August 2016 through May 20, 2019. She now serves as a State Department fellow at Georgetown University.

In her written remarks, obtained by the Washington Post and other news outlets, the former ambassador noted that she met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan to discuss “why my posting ended so suddenly,” adding:

He said that the President had lost confidence in me and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador. He added that there had been a concerted campaign against me, and that the [State] Department had been under pressure from the President to remove me since the Summer of 2018. He also said that I had done nothing wrong and that this was not like other situations where he had recalled ambassadors for cause. I departed Ukraine for good this past May.

Yovanovitch testified before House Democrats pursuing the impeachment inquiry despite the White House indicating earlier this week it would block all officials from testifying.

In a letter to House Democrat leaders, the White House dismissed the probe as unfair and “illegitimate.” The Trump administration attempted to block her deposition, prompting House Democrats to issue a subpoena for her appearance that ultimately compelled her to testify, the chairmen of the House panels leading the impeachment probe said in a joint statement.

On Tuesday, the State Department ordered U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland not to testify, prompting House Democrats to subpoena him.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo the following day vowed that his department would fulfill its legal obligations in responding to the impeachment inquiry. Pompeo noted, however, that the State Department would take its cues from the White House

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported in early October that Trump ousted Yovanovitch “after months of complaints from allies outside the administration, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, that she was undermining him abroad and obstructing efforts to persuade Kyiv to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. ” more here

15 Comments on Former Ambassador to Ukraine Tells Congress: Trump Pressured State to Remove Me

  1. The woman was an openly hateful anti-Trumper, for crying out loud! She apparently was bashing the president at every opportunity. I’m still astonished she didn’t get recalled earlier and why she hasn’t been fired. Keeping her around in a gov’t employee status for a reason?

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  2. She held the job 2 years & nine months longer than she should have been allowed to stay.

    Plenty of time to correct early mistakes. Time that was only used to increase the number & severity of mistakes consciously decided to be carried out.

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  3. She serves at the pleasure of the President. She has bashed Trump for a couple of years, and he no longer took pleasure from her remaining an ambassador and recalled her.

    While Trump needed no reason, he actually had a better reason that most Presidents who award ambassadorships to political backers. This is the problem with the Democrat deep state – they believe they are entitled to their “at will” jobs.

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  4. Good start! Frankly, the Nation and State probably would be FAR better off if he fired at least 60% of those swamp denizens – and ALL of them appointed during the obama interregnum.

    forcibly deranged

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  5. January 2021….fire all the US attorneys and ambassadors you didn’t appoint . Then work through all the executive staff of every department that your appointed secretary didn’t hire, it’s high time to clean house of holdovers.!

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