President Trump removed the ambassador to Ukraine from her role after complaints from Rudy Giuliani that she was was obstructing his efforts to convince the country to open a probe into the Bidens, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Giuliani admitted to the Journal that he advocated for the removal of Ambassador Maria Yovanovitch from her post, in part because he thought she was blocking his smear endeavor, which is now the focus of a House impeachment inquiry. Giuliani also alleged that told Trump that Yovanovitch had made comments critical of the President in private conversation, according to the Journal.
At the time that she was recalled from Ukraine in May, the State Department described the move as “planned.” She is still a State Department employee and the House is planning to interview her behind closed doors next week.
The effort to oust her is one of several episodes described in a whistleblower complaint alleging presidential misconduct that have since been confirmed.The Journal report describes months of pleas to Trump by Giuliani and other Trump allies asking that Yovanovitch, who was appointed during the end of the Obama administration after serving as diplomat in the George W. Bush administration, be removed.
Among them was then-Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who wrote a May 2018 letter alleging Yovanovitch had an “anti-Trump bias.” Sessions would not tell the Journal the source of the claim, but said he didn’t follow up on the request and didn’t hear until much later that Trump was interested in her ouster.
According to the Journal, Giuliani began his push to remove her after he met in early 2019 with Yuriy Lutsenko, then Ukraine’s top prosecutor.
Joe diGenova — a lawyer close to Trump said to be involved in the Ukraine smear gambit — bashed Yovanovitch on Fox News in March 2019, in an interview where he claimed the President “has ordered her dismissal from her post.”
Giuliani recalled to the Journal mentioning Yovanovitch to the President that spring and Trump believing that she had already been removed.
A month later, when Ukraine was ushering in a new administration, State Department officials were telling the country’s officials that Yovanovitch would be staying in her post, the Journal reported.
But before her recall in May, a packet of what Democrats have described as “propaganda” materials made its way to the State Department; the inspect general turned over the materials — which were packaged in Trump Hotel stationary and with a coversheet claiming it was from the White House — to Congress this week.
Among the documents, the Journal reported, was research Giuliani had put together alleging that Yovanovitch was close to Vice President Joe Biden — a claim the Biden campaign denied.d.
amorousCephalopod on October 3rd, 2019 at 23:31 UTC »
First, we hear that the fired prosecutor that Trump said would have investigated Biden's son's employer was ousted because he wasn't prosecuting enough. Now we find out that him and Giuliani conspired to frame people and other corruption. Wow.
These corrupt Trump administration scum really like digging their own political career's graves, don't they?
kalel1980 on October 3rd, 2019 at 22:34 UTC »
Jesus, the Trump administration is just a fucking fire hose of corruption.
slakmehl on October 3rd, 2019 at 21:57 UTC »
The ambassador he fired was Maria Yovanovitch, whom you might remember as the woman whom Trump said "was going to go through some things" in his July call with Zelenskyy. This story reveals that Trump personally executed the central element of the original quid pro quo conspiracy that Giuliani arranged in March with Ukraine's top prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, and which continues to this day. Here is the run down:
In March of 2019, Yovanovitch gives a speech blasting the failure of Ukraine's anticorruption prosecutors, and advocated for the removal of Lutsenko.
Two weeks later, Lutsenko fabricated dirt on Yovanovitch and laundered it through a conspiracy theorist/pretend journalist at the Hill named John Solomon.
At the same time Giuliani forges a deal with Lutsenko: we will get Yovanovitch terminated (which we now learn Trump personally ordered), and in exchange Lutsenko fabricates investigations into Biden and the Black Ledger payments to Manafort.
In April, The deal falls apart when Zelenskyy wins a landslide election on an anti-corruption platform and fires Lutsenko.
In May, Giuliani blasts the Lutsenko firing, praising him as "a much more honest guy" than his predecessor Victor Shokin, who hilariously is the guy Biden helped get fired. Giuliani travels to Ukraine for the expressed purpose of preserving the quid pro quo with Lutsenko's successor:
But it doesn't work, and in July they decide that Trump himself needs to pressure Zelensky directly. In the July phone call, Trump personally admonishes Zelenskyy for screwing up the Lutsenko deal:The rest is history. Zelenskyy asks about military aid, Trump says "I would like you do us a favor, though", and then directly asks Zelenskyy for the same investigations into Biden and the Black Ledger that they had originally extracted from Lutsenko in exchange for Yovanovitch's termination.