Ambassador Yovanovitch Testifies on Giuliani Smear Campaign and Removal from Ukraine Post

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch delivered powerful public testimony on November 15, 2019, describing a systematic smear campaign orchestrated by Rudy Giuliani and corrupt Ukrainian prosecutors to remove her from her post because she refused to assist with investigations targeting Joe Biden. Yovanovitch, a 33-year Foreign Service veteran with bipartisan support, testified that she was told to “watch her back” by a Ukrainian official who warned that Giuliani and his associates were “looking to hurt” her. In a dramatic moment during her live testimony, Trump attacked her on Twitter, prompting Chairman Adam Schiff to read the tweet aloud and note that it constituted witness intimidation in real-time.

Background

Yovanovitch testified that she was ousted in May 2019 after a months-long campaign by Giuliani, working with indicted associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, to paint her as disloyal to Trump and an obstacle to their efforts to pressure Ukraine. The smear campaign included false allegations spread through conservative media that Yovanovitch had badmouthed Trump and was protecting Democrats from investigation. She described how Ukrainian officials warned her in early 2019 that Giuliani and his associates were “looking to hurt” her and that she should “watch her back.” Despite these warnings, State Department leadership failed to defend her, with Secretary Mike Pompeo remaining silent as she was recalled.

Yovanovitch described a March 2019 meeting where Gordon Sondland advised her to tweet out support for Trump, saying “you need to go big or go home” with a tweet praising the president. When she expressed discomfort with this advice as a career diplomat, Sondland told her the attacks were coming from the president and were “not good.” The Trump-Zelensky call memorandum later revealed Trump calling Yovanovitch “bad news” and telling Zelensky “she’s going to go through some things,” which Yovanovitch testified felt like a threat.

Significance

Yovanovitch’s testimony illustrated how Trump and Giuliani dismantled professional diplomacy to pursue personal political objectives. Her removal cleared the path for the irregular channel that would pressure Ukraine on Biden investigations. As a career diplomat with anti-corruption credentials and bipartisan respect—she was appointed to ambassador positions by both Republican and Democratic presidents—her ouster demonstrated Trump’s intolerance for officials who wouldn’t participate in corruption schemes.

Trump’s real-time attack on Yovanovitch during her testimony—tweeting “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad”—represented an extraordinary act of witness intimidation. Chairman Schiff immediately noted that the tweet could be used as evidence of witness tampering, observing “some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously.” Even some Republican officials criticized the tweet as inappropriate. Yovanovitch later testified the attack was “very intimidating” and designed to deter other potential witnesses from coming forward.

The smear campaign against Yovanovitch demonstrated the dangers of allowing personal lawyers like Giuliani to conduct shadow foreign policy for corrupt purposes. The investigation into Parnas and Fruman’s activities, which led to their federal indictment for campaign finance violations, revealed they had been funneling money from Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash to fund the anti-Yovanovitch campaign and other Giuliani operations. This established a direct connection between Ukrainian corruption, illegal campaign finance schemes, and Trump’s abuse of power—a nexus that House investigators argued warranted impeachment to prevent future foreign interference in U.S. elections.