Impeachment hearings continue Friday with the public testimony of Marie Yovanovitch who will detail how President Trump and his associates carried out a shadow campaign to oust the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine.
Yovanovitch, a career diplomat, described to House investigators last month a “dangerous precedent” where the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, corrupt Ukrainian officials, and disreputable media figures succeeded in ousting a U.S. ambassador who they saw as standing in the way of their business and political interests.
Yovanovitch has testified that she felt “threatened,” “concerned” and uncomfortable upon learning that Trump singled her out during his summer phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
At one point, Yovanovitch got choked up and had to take a break from her deposition, according to the transcript of her interview.
That dramatic moment came when the 33-year career foreign service official was asked about how she felt the day she was told she was being removed from her post because Trump had lost confidence in her.
Democrats on the Intelligence Committee say that Yovanovitch, whose friends call her “Masha,” will be a “sympathetic” witness for their party.
And it’s possible that emotion comes across in her public testimony.
If testimony from top diplomats William Taylor and George Kent drew attention to the human cost of Trump withholding military aid — Ukrainian lives are lost every week in their war against Russia, they said — then Democrats hope that Yovanovitch will put a human face on the Trump-Ukraine saga.
“She was removed. I don’t think it was for cause,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), a member of the Intelligence Committee that is leading the impeachment hearings.
“She was a distinguished foreign service officer and the evidence is strongly pointing to her being removed for the purpose of making way for the Three Amigos [Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker and Rick Perry] and Giuliani to commandeer Ukraine policy for Giuliani’s clients’ benefits and namely Donald Trump’s benefit.”
While Democrats have sought to downplay the possibility of uncovering new bombshell developments at these hearings, Yovanovitch — one of the earliest witnesses to testify privately with House investigators — may offer new details on Friday.
She may be able to expand on information raised in now-public impeachment transcripts, or contacts may have since reminded her of additional events, as was the case Wednesday with Yovanovitch’s replacement in Ukraine, acting ambassador William Taylor.
Taylor revealed that a member of his staff overheard a conversation between Trump and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland the day after the president’s July 25 call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Zelensky.
The staffer recalled that Trump voiced interest in the news on “the investigations” into former Vice President Joe Biden and 2016 election interference, which Giuliani was pursuing. Sondland replied that the Ukrainians “were ready to move forward,” Taylor testified.
By successfully eliciting new and implicating details about Trump’s contacts with Ukraine, Democrats experienced a boost of momentum during their first opportunity to make their case to the American people that the president is unfit for office.
Doing so twice in a row would be a win for Democrats’ first week of public impeachment hearings.
Additional information also could come to light from another place.
House investigators are expecting to receive closed-door testimony from the staffer who allegedly overheard the phone call between Trump and Sondland — a call Trump on Wednesday denied taking place — on the same day as Yovanovitch’s testimony.
David Holmes, who worked at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, first worked under Yovanovitch before serving under Taylor after her ouster.