U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Louise Yovanovitch is seen during a ceremony to mark World AIDS Day in Kiev, Ukraine December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
In the released transcript of her testimony, Marie Yovanovitch testified that she was told that she had to tweet support for Trump to save her job.
Here is the exchange in the transcript:
Q: And what did Mr. Sondland say when you talked to him about this topic?
A He hadn’t been aware of it, that the story had shifted, and he said, you know, you need to go big or go home. You need to, you know, tweet out there that you support the President, and that all these are lies and everything else. And, you know, so, you know, I mean, obviously, that was advice. It was advice that I did not see how I could implement in my role as an Ambassador, and as a Foreign Service officer.
Q: Why not?
A: Well, for one thing, the State Department was silent. I just didn’t see that there would be any advantage to publicly taking on a fight with those who were criticizing me in the United States.
Yovanovitch also confirmed that Trump directly pressured the State Department for her removal and that she was removed from her position as the ambassador to Ukraine because she would not a part of Rudy Giuliani’s operation, which was directed by Trump, to extort Ukraine into investigating the Bidens.
The testimony of the former Ukraine ambassador is highly credible and provides a look at the lengths that any government employee has to go to if they want to keep their job during the Trump administration.
Yovanovitch’s testimony is reminiscent of the loyalty pledges that Trump demanded from employees who were supposed to be working for the American people. Trump is behaving like a king and demanding that people who are supposed to work for you only serve him.
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