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Ex US Ambassador to Ukraine Felt 'Threatened' After Being Ousted

Wayne Lee

   The ousted former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch,
   testified Friday at the congressional impeachment inquiry into U.S.
   President Donald Trump that she was "shocked and devastated" over
   remarks Trump made about her during a call with Ukrainian President
   Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

   "I didn't know what to think, but I was very concerned," she told the
   House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. "It felt
   like a threat."

   Her testimony was consistent with her closed-door testimony last month
   when she said she felt "threatened" and worried about her safety after
   Trump said "she's going to go through some things."

   A career diplomat, Yovanovitch was unceremoniously recalled to
   Washington after Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, and his allies
   waged what her colleagues and Democrats have described as a smear
   campaign against her. Two Giuliani associates recently arrested for
   campaign finance violations are accused of lobbying former Republican
   House member Pete Sessions of Texas for her ouster.

   Yovanovitch was mentioned in Trump's July 25 call with Zelenskiy that
   triggered the impeachment probe after a whistleblower filed a
   complaint. According to the White House summary of the call, Trump said
   Yovanovitch was "bad news."

   As Yovanovitch was testifying, President Trump disparaged her on
   Twitter.

     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 unfavorably about her in my second
     phone call with him. It is a U.S. President's absolute right to
     appoint ambassadors.
     -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) [1]November 15, 2019

     ....They call it "serving at the pleasure of the President." The
     U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much
     different than proceeding administrations. It is called, quite
     simply, America First! With all of that, however, I have done FAR
     more for Ukraine than O.
     -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) [2]November 15, 2019

   Yovanovitch, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from July 2016 to
   May 2019, also testified last month that U.S. Ambassador to the E.U.
   Gordon [3]Sondland had recommended she praise Trump on Twitter if she
   wanted to save her job.

References

   1. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1195356198347956224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   2. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1195356211937468417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   3. https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/20191104_-_yovanovitch_transcript_excerpts_final.pdf

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