There she sits, straight. All eyes are fixed on her in the large boardroom in the US Congress: Maria Yovanovitch, the former American ambassador to Ukraine, who was recalled from office by President Donald Trump last April under dubious circumstances. She wears a brooch in the shape of a US flag on the lapel and looks highly concentrated.
"Do they swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help God help them?" She asks committee chairman Adam Schiff. "Yes," she says curtly and nods.
What follows is probably the most spectacular survey yet in the investigation into a possible impeachment trial of Donald Trump. In between, the US President will vilify the witness from the White House in person and live in a tweet, the spectators in the hall, however, they celebrate with a loud applause.
For more than six hours, Maria Yovanovitch tells her story of the Ukraine affair. It highlights the methods by which Donald Trump and his collaborators pursue their goals, how they distort realities, and how they try to slander, intimidate, or even threaten anyone who gets in their way.
It's a story about human baseness and about the courage it generally needs, but especially in the Trump era, to testify as a loyal public servant against your own president.
Yovanovitch is the perfect witness against Trump for the Democrats in Congress: she always stays calm, serious and speaks in a calm voice. A graduate of Princeton's premier university, she has served in the State Department for 33 years, working for her country in high-risk, low-glamor countries like Somalia; she was appointed to three different ambassador posts by Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama. Several times she has received awards for her service in foreign affairs.
"Why did our system fail?"
With her biography, Maria Yovanovitch seems almost like the prototype of the incorruptible, impartial official. She has always believed that the prime responsibility of US Department of State employees is to serve US national interests and the common good, regardless of which party leads the country, she says. To this day, it is inexplicable to her how it could be that an American ambassador could be forced out of office as she had done in her case. "Why did our system fail?" ask her.
Yovanovitch impressively describes her time in Kiev. She tells how, as a US ambassador, she tried to fight corruption in the country, and she had to watch how the then Attorney-General of the country, Yuriy Lutsenko, did nothing against bribery, but was himself involved in corruption affairs.
However, her sincerity and her correctness then became her fate. She tells how Trump's lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and Trump's son Donald Junior, in association with the same Lutsenko and Ukrainian business partners, systematically tried to fool them with false accusations. Obviously, the diplomat was a thorn in the side of them all.
Later, she realized what it was all about: The old, corrupt elites in Ukraine wanted to get rid of them because they were bothering their business. And Trump and Giuliani wanted to get the Ukrainian government to investigate Trump's political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Obviously, they regarded the US top diplomat in Kiev as an obstacle.
Mike Segar / REUTERS
US President Donald Trump, attorney Rudolph Giuliani, "Why did our system fail?"
She was the victim of a veritable "smear campaign," says Yovanovitch. In Trump-related media such as Fox News Yovanovitch was tackled hard. Donald Trump Junior referred to her on Twitter indirectly as a "joke". She was accused of having spoken badly about the President. Yes, it is even said that she herself has obstructed investigations into corruption in Ukraine. It is alleged to have given Ukrainian investigators a list of people who could not be investigated.
"None of this is true," says Yovanovitch.
In fact, all allegations were also rejected by the US State Department in an official statement. Nevertheless, Yovanovitch had to vacate her post as ambassador to Kiev in April. The president wanted it this way: She received a call from the US State Department asking her to take the next plane back to the States, Yovanovitch reports. She was told that her "safety" was in danger. What she meant was not explained to her.
The absolute low point
After returning to Washington, Assistant Secretary of State John Sullivan then told her that a campaign was under way. She said she did not get any debt from the ministry's point of view, but the president lost "confidence" in her, Sullivan said. A real reason why the president no longer wanted to see her in Kiev had not been delivered to her.
In between, Yovanovitch had probably hoped that her direct boss, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, would at least protect her. But nothing was heard of Pompeo. An inquiry in the ministerial office, whether the foreign minister could stand behind them with a declaration of honor, ran in the sand.
She realized that a president has the right to recall an ambassador at any time, says Yovanovitch. "But why did a slanderous campaign have to be fought against me for that?"
The worst for Yovanovitch came months after her recall, when the White House released a memorandum on the telephone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj in late September. In the conversation Trump Selenskyj urged to investigate Biden. He also talked about her, Maria Yovanovitch. So she learned that her own president had blackened her to another head of state.
Trump called her "bad news" and predicted she would "go through some things". That sounded like a "vague threat" to her, Yovanovitch said - and she actually felt threatened by it. "I could not believe it, I was shocked and shaken."
A good day for the Democrats
The Democrats are satisfied faces. They realize that here they get exactly what they wanted to achieve. Yovanovitch turns out to be a credible witness against Trump and his informers. This may help the opposition persuade more Americans than before to support an impeachment trial against Trump. So far, the country and the US Congress are split on the question of whether Trump should be removed from office.
Especially nice for the Democrats: Even the Republican members of parliament in the hall at the Yovanovitch hearing hardly anything, as they could attack the witness. Many behave almost handily, thanking Yovanovitch for her long, faithful service to America.
That's why Trump has to take care of the scandal of the day: Even while Yovanovitch speaks, he insults her via Twitter: Everything she "touched" had become "bad". "She started in Somalia, how did that end?"
Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a US President's absolute right to appoint ambassadors.
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2019Whether the tweet was such a good idea will become apparent. The Democratic committee chairman Schiff, accuses Trump promptly attempted coercion of the witness. By law, this would be punishable - and could be brought forward in the impeachment proceedings as a further charge against Trump. "Some of us here take the coercion of witnesses very, very seriously," warns ship.
Maria Yovanovitch for her part reacts to the Trump tweet during the hearing with a mixture of astonishment and some bitterness. What she feels at such tweets of the President, the committee chairman ship wants to know from her.
Yovanovitch swallows. Then she says, "That's very intimidating."
