TESTIFY

Ousted Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch Says Trump Pressured State Department to Remove Her

Told Congress that she was forced to leave Kyiv on “the next plane.”

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine, testified before Congress on Friday that President Trump directly pressured the State Department to remove her in May. The Washington Post obtained a copy of Yovanovitch’s prepared remarks, in which she said she was told to leave Kyiv on “the next plane” and that a top State Department official said she had done nothing wrong but that Trump had lost confidence in her. She had reportedly suffered months of criticism by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, who accused her of protecting former Vice President Joe Biden’s interests and of speaking ill of Trump. In her opening statement, Yovanovitch said her removal was “based, as far as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”