When diplomat Marie L. Yovanovitch (former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine) publicly testified as part of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, she made it clear that Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, did everything he could to get her fired from her Ukraine post. American Oversight, a liberal watchdog group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain information about Yovanovitch’s firing —and internal U.S. State Department e-mails and documents released on Friday, the New York Times reports, show that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also played a significant role in Yovanovitch being fired.
“The e-mails indicate that Mr. Pompeo spoke at least twice by telephone with Mr. Giuliani in March as Mr. Giuliani was urging Ukraine to investigate Mr. Trump’s rivals, and trying to oust a respected American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, who had been promoting anti-corruption efforts in the country,” Edward Wong and Kenneth P. Vogel report in the Times. “Mr. Pompeo ordered Ms. Yovanovitch’s removal the next month.”
Wong and Vogel go on to report that “as part of the effort to oust her, Mr. Giuliani and his associates encouraged news outlets favorable to the president to publicize unsubstantiated claims about Ms. Yovanovitch’s disloyalty to Mr. Trump.”