WASHINGTON: The former US ambassador to Ukraine who Donald Trump has called “bad news” told a House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into the president on Friday that Trump removed her from her post based on “unfounded and false claims,” according to US media reports.

Marie Yovanovitch, who was abruptly recalled from Ukraine in May, told lawmakers in closed-door deposition that a top State Department official had told her Trump pushed for her removal for months even though the department believed she had done nothing wrong, according to a copy of her opening statement posted online by the Washington Post.

She entered the Capitol building for the deposition wearing dark glasses and walked past a crowd of journalists without responding to questions as she defied a White House policy of not cooperating with the Democratic-led inquiry into the Republican president.

She said private influence and personal gain have usurped the judgment of diplomats during the Trump administration, threatening to undermine US interests and drive talented professionals out of public service, according to the statement.

A career diplomat who also has served as US ambassador to two other countries, Yovanovitch’s stint as envoy in Kiev was cut short when she was recalled to Washington as Trump allies leveled unsubstantiated charges of disloyalty and other allegations against her.

The impeachment inquiry focuses on a July 25 phone call in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate a domestic political rival, Democrat Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

The investigation of Trump could lead to the approval of articles of impeachment — or formal charges — against the president in the House. A trial on whether to remove him from office would then be held in the US Senate, where the Republicans who control the chamber have shown little appetite for ousting the president.

Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said last week he had provided information to both Trump and the US State Department about Yovanovitch, who he suggested was biased against Trump. Giuliani accused Yovanovitch of blocking efforts to persuade Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Democrats have called her removal politically motivated.

“Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the president, I was nevertheless incredulous that the US government chose to remove an Ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives,” she said in her statement.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2019