The House Committees that oversee the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, formally agreed by this chamber of the Congress last week (House Votes For Impeachment: How Will The GOP React?), released the transcript of former Ukraine ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch. Is this a problem for Trump?
WHAT DO WE KNOW?
1 – Regarding conversations with Ukraine’s Minister of Interior about Giuliani and Hunter Biden’s role:
Q: Did the issue also come up in that conversation or others about the (sic) Giuliani and his associates’ interests in the Biden and Burisma?
A: Yeah. I mean, looking back to what happened in the past, with a view to finding things that could be possibly damaging to a Presidential run.
Q: By Joe Biden?
A: Yes
WAS GIULIANI MANAGING US POLICY?
2 – How the President reacted to Yovanovitch when he learned what Giuliani reported.
A: Again, I hate to be repetitive, but I was shocked. I mean, I was very surprised that President Trump would – first of all, that I would feature repeatedly in a Presidential phone call, but secondly, that the President would speak about me or any ambassador in that way to a foreign counterpart.
Q: At the bottom of that same page, President Trump says, “Well, she’s going to through some things”. What did you understand that to mean?
A: I didn’t know what it meant. I was very concerned. I still am.
Q: Did you feel threatened?
A: Yes.
YOVANOVITCH SHOWS HOW TRUMP MANAGED A VERY OBSCURE FOREIGN POLICY IN UKRAINE BUT AT THE SAME TIME, THIS MIGHT NOT AFFECT DIRECTLY PUBLIC OPINION UNLESS IT IS PROVEN TO BE AN ILLEGAL MOVE. WHICH US LAWS APPLY TO THIS?
3 – Regarding Pompeo and Reeker telling her that she might have to leave.
Q: What did Mr. Reeker say to you at that point?
A: Mr. Reeker said that I, you know, I would need to leave. I needed to lease as soon as possible. That apparently, as I stated in my statement, the President had been-had wanted me to leave since July 2018 and -or the summer, I should say, the middle of the summer of 2018-and that the Secretary had tried to protect me but was no longer able to do that.
Q: Who had concerns as of July 2018?
A: President Trump.
FIRST CONCLUSION
1 – Yovanovitch makes clear that foreign policy over Ukraine mas managed by Giuliani and Pompeo was aware of this.
2 – Trump and Giuliani were trying to “dismantle” the established operation there so a “new” policy could be worked.
3 – At the same time, the GOP stands with the same flag: Is this illegal? Are there crimes? How can Democrats prove that the US President was violating his oath?
Time will tell.
