October 4th 2019

By Mark Sumner

Daily Kos

In his call to the Ukrainian president, Donald Trump took time to attack former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. "The former ambassador from the United States, the woman,” said Trump. “Was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news, so I just want to let you know that.” It’s now clear that the career diplomat was removed at the direct order of Trump, who made her removal “a priority.” And the reason behind her removal is also clear: the lies being spread by Rudy Giuliani.

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump directly instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to get rid of Yovanovitch after Trump received complaints from Giuliani and other “allies outside the administration.” Pompeo, in turn, “supported the move” and other State Department officials were unable to shield the longtime ambassador from attack.

The reason that ditching an experienced diplomat was such a high priority for Trump appears to be entirely because Giuliani viewed her as “an obstacle to efforts to push Ukraine to investigate Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter.” In other words … she would not lie for him, or surrender the United States’ foreign policy to an extortion scheme. And to seal the deal, Giuliani told Trump that Yovanovitch “displayed an anti-Trump bias in private conversations.”

During his phone call to Ukraine, Trump made it clear he wasn’t through punishing the former ambassador for not going along. "She is going to go through some things,” said Trump. And even as Trump was inviting China to get in on the 2020 election interference fun, Trump took another shot at Yovanovitch: "I heard very, very bad things about her for a long time. Not good."

Marie Yovanovitch was dismissed from a career spanning decades for the crime of refusing to engage in a phony scam being pushed by Trump and Giuliani. And that really is a crime—a crime that Mike Pompeo didn’t just fail to halt, but actively supported.

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